Waszczykowski was interviewed by a local radio station RMF when he said that “serious talks” were needed with Poland’s neighbour to “find a way to deal with the fact that German-Polish relations are overshadowed by the German aggression of 1939 and unresolved post-war issues”. He added that Germany was “shirking” its moral responsibility.
Polish defense minister Antoni Macierewicz similarly accused European critics of his government that they were busy “erasing” the fate that Poles suffered at Nazi hands during the war “from the historical memory of Europe”. The war killed a fifth of the Polish population.
In 1953, Poland’s former communist government said claims to reparations from Germany were no longer possible. Some six million Polish citizens were killed during the war and much of Warsaw was destroyed.
Waszczykowski did not expand his demand to include a time frame on a public formal position on repatriations from Poland, suggesting that his comments were rather a criticism of Germany’s role in the EU. The European Union launched legal action in July against a number of East European states over migrant quotas, and the PiS says Berlin wields too much influence within the EU.
Waszczykowski added that discussions on the issue “may not yield the appropriate result, but they should take place to inform the German side about the enormity of destruction it has caused,” he told public broadcaster TVP1.
The question was brought up on July 28 by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the PiS, and premier Beata Szydlo has joined in to claim that Poland “has the right” to ask for reparations.
An independent Ibris poll found that 51 per cent of Polish people objected to repatriation claims against Nazis, while only 24 per cent were in favour. The current conservative Law and Justice party has faced dire criticism due to EU fears that the government could reclaim judicial independence from Brussels over migrant quotas.
Polish parliamentary legal experts ruled on Monday this week that Warsaw has the right to demand reparations from Germany, Reuters reported. The fact that Poland’s communist authorities forced the country to relinquish all claims against Germany over damages caused by its invasion and occupation, is unconstitutional and invalid, said Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a PiS deputy.
“(The communist government) was forced into this by the Soviet Union, and Poland was not a sovereign state at the time,” Mularczyk said. “Poland has a legal basis to demand reparations.”
German parliamentarians denied that Warsaw had any right to demand reparations. German government spokesman Steffen Seibert dismissed Warsaw’s threat saying the issue had already been settled when “Poland made a binding decision in August 1953… to relinquish demands for further war reparations”.
Meeting in Malta on Thursday, the heads of state of Germany and Poland agreed that a “calm discussion” was necessary going forward, the Polish presidency said. Polish President Andrzej Duda and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier met on the sidelines of a conference of 13 EU members.
“The presidents discussed the political and legal contexts of the question of reparations,” said Duda’s chief of staff Krzysztof Szczerski, as quoted by Poland’s PAP news agency.
But Poland’s powerful Roman Catholic church warned last week against “poor decisions” that could “undermine” ties with Germany.
