The Polish Foreign Minister signed an official note on Monday that asks Germany to pay 1.3 billion euros in compensation damage caused by the Nazi German occupation during World War II.
The note will be delivered to the German Foreign Ministry and was signed by Zbigniew Rau on the eve of the meeting with his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, who is participating in a security conference in Warsaw.
According to Rau, the note expresses his view that the two sides must act “without delay” regarding the effects of the 1939-45 German occupation in a “durable and complex manner, as well as legally and materially binding.”
This includes German reparations, in addition to resolving the issue of looted works of art, archives and bank deposits, according to the Polish minister, who considered that Berlin should make an effort to inform German society about the “true” image of the war. and its disastrous effects in Poland.
Warsaw affirms that the payment of compensation would strengthen bilateral relations through truth and justice, as well as ending painful chapters of the past.
The Polish government argues that the country was the first casualty of the war and was never fully compensated by neighboring Germany, which is now one of its main partners in the European Union.
On September 1, on the 83rd anniversary of the start of the war, the Polish government presented an extensive report on the damage caused to the country by the conflict, estimating it at 1.3 billion euros.
The publication of the report was the center of national celebrations of the anniversary of the war that began on September 1, 1939, with the bombing and invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed by five years of occupation, which resulted in the death of six million people, including three million Jews.
Berlin dismisses the matter, arguing that compensation was paid to Eastern bloc nations in the years after the war, while the territories Poland lost in the east when the borders were redrawn were compensated with some of the territories that belonged to Germany before the war. .
But the Polish government rejects a 1953 declaration made by the country’s then communist leaders, under pressure from the Soviet Union, agreeing not to make any further demands on Germany.
Source: Observadora
