The issue of reparations that Germany should pay to Poland for the destruction in the Second World War is again and again on the agenda in the ranks of the Polish ruling party Law and Justice (PiS).
For Germany, the matter is clear: all the agreements - the last one was concluded during the unification of Germany - were concluded with the victorious countries in the Second World War: USA, USSR, Great Britain and France. And in the previous agreements, those powers undertook to be responsible for the states in their zone of interest, so - in the case of Poland, it was the USSR.
But the parliament in Warsaw last September adopted the conclusion that Poland "never received compensation for wartime destruction, nor did it ever give up its demands." Likewise, on September 1 last year - on the 73rd anniversary of Germany's attack on Poland, the parliamentary committee also calculated that Germany should pay Poland 6,2 trillion zlotys - about 1,3 trillion euros.
The head of that committee was Arkadiusz Mularczyk, who in the meantime is the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, so the discussion is becoming more and more intense.
Forever responsible, but not obligated
German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock was in Warsaw last October and was clear when it came to compensation:
"Germany fully stands behind its historical responsibility. Our eternal duty is to preserve the memory of the millions of suffering that Germany inflicted on Poland, with a brutality that caused a very different kind of pain in Poland than elsewhere. At the same time, the issue of payment of compensation from the point of view of the German government, as you know, has been closed," said the minister in a conversation with her Polish colleague Zbigniew Rau on German Unification Day.
But, for Mularcik, it is not like that. And after that conversation, a written request was sent to Berlin regarding the issue, and Germany's recent brief response infuriated the Polish side:
"According to the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the issue of reparations and payment of compensation for war losses is over and it has no intention of accepting negotiations on this issue."
Mularczyk: Disrespecting Poland and Poles
Mularczyk replies: "That answer is astonishing for us, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the state of Poland, because the German state cannot conclude a question that was never even asked. There was no negotiation, no mediation," he said on Wednesday (4.1 .) in Warsaw.
"We do not accept the German position, we reject it completely as absolutely unfounded and wrong. We will act on the international stage, but also in Germany, in order to encourage the world and German public to change their minds", is the answer of the Polish Ministry.
Because for Mularczyk, such a response from Berlin is "disrespect for Poland and the Poles" and proof that "the Germans do not pursue a friendly policy towards Poland, they want to expand their zone of influence here and treat Poland as a vassal", quoted Mularczyk by the Polish news agency PAP.
Mularcik announced that he will address the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azule, will also be invited to Warsaw. He is also preparing to go to the United States of America, in order to get the support of members of the US Senate and Congress.
Germans and Poles are also divided on this issue
"We hope that over time we will also convince the Germans that this issue must be resolved," Mularčik said.
But even among the citizens, Poles and Germans, there are big differences when it comes to this topic: according to a survey by the Ipsos agency, in Poland 66 percent of those questioned believe that Germany should pay compensation for wartime destruction.
At the behest of the Polish media, the same agency also conducted a survey among German citizens at the beginning of this year, where 75 percent of the respondents reject such requests from Poland.
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