Photo. PAP/Radek Pietruszka
“I think President Andrzej Duda doesn’t think the matter ended this way; it requires additional diplomatic work,” Paweł Szrot, head of the president’s office, told PAP when asked about the response of the Germany to Foreign Office note on reparations. The German Ministry of Diplomacy wrote that the case remains closed.
On Tuesday, the Foreign Office announced that the German Foreign Office had responded to the Polish Foreign Ministry’s note of October 3, 2022 regarding compensation for Polish losses suffered as a result of the aggression and the German occupation during World War II. . According to the German government, the question of reparations and compensation for war losses remains closed and the German government does not intend to enter into negotiations on this subject.
Asked by PAP about the president’s connection to Germany’s response, Szrot said that “First of all, the President in his diplomatic and international activity, also in his talks with President Steinmeier, raised this topic.”
According to him, “it is hardly surprising that the Germans present this position and not another”.
“We don’t think, and I don’t think the president thinks either, that the matter ended up this way. It requires additional diplomatic work.” Szrot pointed out. When asked what further steps Poland should take in this matter, he replied that “it is a question for the government”.
requested ads Arkadiusz Mularczyk, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, concerning, among other things, conducting an information policy in Western Europe and the USA in order to convince partners, companies and politicians that “Germany has not settled accounts with the war and erased its past”, the presidential minister replied that he would not review the government’s intentions. “I repeat, this subject is on the political agenda of the President, who is also talking to representatives of our German neighbours” he underlined.
Mularczyk: We do not recognize and completely reject Germany’s position on war reparations for Poland
Referring to the German side’s response to the Polish Foreign Ministry’s memo at a press conference on Wednesday, Mularczyk said a written response would be sent soon. “We do not recognize and reject Germany’s position on war reparations for Poland in its entirety, it is absolutely unjustified and wrong,” Mularczyk stressed. “From this position, the German Federal Government recognizes that the question of war reparations is a closed question and that the question is not negotiable. This statement is astonishing for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for the Polish State, because the German state cannot close a case that has never been opened,” Mularczyk said at the time.
On Thursday, he stressed on Polish Radio 24 that we must carry out an information campaign, including in Western Europe and the USA, to convince our partners, companies and politicians that “Germany has not settled its accounts with the war and erased its past”. He also said that a report on the losses suffered by Poland as a result of German aggression and occupation during World War II had been sent to UN representatives “asking them to consider the matter “.
The report was presented on September 1, 2023. On October 3, Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau signed a diplomatic note to the German side regarding war reparations. In this document, Poland demands, among other things, compensation for material and immaterial losses in the amount of 6 billion 220 billion 609 million PLN and compensation for damages. (PORRIDGE)
Author: Sylwia Dąbkowska-Loan
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