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Polish MPs to persist in push for WWII damages from Russia: deputy FM

10.11.2023 23:30
A team of Polish experts anticipates continuing its work during the next parliament on a report detailing the damage inflicted on Poland by the Soviet Union during World War II, a deputy foreign minister has said.
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk.
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk.PAP/Tomasz Gzell

Arkadiusz Mularczyk indicated that the effort could lay the groundwork for a reparations claim against Russia.

Poland's new parliament, elected on October 15, is scheduled to convene for the first time on Monday. Its term is set to extend until 2027. 

The deputy foreign minister told Polish state news agency PAP on Friday that work on a report on war losses incurred by Poland at the hands of the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1945 was "at an initial phase."

Mularczyk said in an interview that a team of historians from Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania was "conducting research both in Poland and in archives abroad."

The deputy foreign minister stated: "If the team is allowed to work, such a report will definitely be produced during the next parliament."

Mularczyk said on Thursday that he had sent "a letter to all the MPs and senators in the new parliament," urging them to "continue efforts to regulate the issue of reparations, compensation and redress that Poland is owed from Germany, due to the German aggression and occupation in the years 1939-1945," the PAP news agency reported.

Mularczyk told the media that he would issue separate letters to the main parties in the new parliament, "calling on them to enable their MPs to join the drive to secure war reparations from Germany, and later also from Russia."

Poland demands WWII damages from Germany

In April, Poland’s government adopted a resolution “on the need to regulate, in Polish-German relations, the issue of reparations, compensation and redress” for the losses caused by the German invasion and subsequent occupation of Poland during World War II.

The Polish government said the document “confirms that the issue of compensation for the damage and harm caused by Germany during World War II has not been settled in the form of an international agreement between the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany, and that such an agreement must be entered into.”

In September last year, the Polish government announced that the losses suffered by Poland at the hands of Nazi Germany during World War II totalled PLN 6.22 trillion (EUR 1.3 trillion) and that it would demand compensation from Berlin.

In October 2022, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau signed a formal note to the government in Berlin, demanding compensation for losses Poland sustained during the war.

According to the German government, "the issue of reparations and compensation for World War II losses remains closed” and Berlin "does not intend to enter into negotiations on the matter," officials have said.  

(pm/gs)

Source: IAR, PAP