Letters with an abridged version of the report on losses suffered by Poland as a result of German aggression and occupation during Second World War will be also addressed to senior officials of the EU institutions. We expect that dialogue with MEPs and EU officials will make our due compensation one of the topics of European debate. The European Parliament campaign is also aimed at calling the politicians’ attention to the fact that the unresolved issue of reparations after Second World War casts a shadow over the current international relations. It is a matter of exceptional moral and legal importance in the face of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

We would like to remind that the basis for the post-war global order is the supremacy of international law over military power. Lack of reaction to the evil committed by Germany against Poland and its citizens will backfire in the form of injustice spread by countries breaching the international order, the foundations for which were laid in the Declaration by the United Nations. In this context, it is worth recalling that Poland has been the 51st founding member of the UN since 1945 and attaches great importance to the supremacy of international law over military power. The position of Berlin refusing to discuss compensation to Poland should be interpreted as an expression of ill will. 

The final declaration after the summit of heads of state and government of the Council of Europe of 16 May 2023 signed in Reykjavík by Chancellor Scholz, among others, states that “only by respecting the right to [...] reparation [...] will it be possible to overcome the past”. Poland did not receive reparations from Germany which we were awarded at the Potsdam Conference. The issue of reparations, compensation for material and non-material damage or other forms of redress for losses suffered by Poland and Poles during the Second World War was never closed in any way, neither during the communist period, nor after regaining sovereignty.

It was confirmed by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 51 of 18 April 2023 on the need to settle Polish-German relations regarding the issue of reparations and compensation for pecuniary and non-pecuniary losses suffered by Poland and Poles as a result of Germany’s illegal attack on Poland in 1939 and the subsequent German occupation (Monitor Polski [Official Gazette of the Republic of Poland], item 423/2023), which finally dispelled doubts concerning the supposed waiving the right to reparations by Poland in 1953.

Dialogue between Germany, which aspires to the role of a political and moral leader of the European Union, and Poland on the issue of reparations is necessary, all the more considering that the German government recently made several gestures towards the countries of the Global South, such as Nigeria or Namibia, with regard to restitution of property and redress for the colonial past. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s signature under the final declaration from the Reykjavík Summit of the Council of Europe proves that Berlin treats seriously the universal principle stating that genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are not subject to a limitation period. In Poland’s view, the final document of the Council of Europe of 16 May 2023 is a good starting point for Polish-German talks on compensation.

 

MFA Press Office