German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected Poland’s demand for war reparations, arguing that the issue is already legally settled. The Polish ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party last week announced that it would be seeking compensation for $1.3 trillion for the damage caused by the German occupation of 1939 to 1945.
“Like all previous federal governments, I can point out that this issue is conclusively settled under international law,” Scholz said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
His remarks have been understood by Polish and German media to be a continuation of Germany’s longstanding position that the question of reparations was legally closed long ago and that Poland has no valid claim.
Scholz weist polnische Reparationsforderungen zurück https://t.co/dNipnmQuAA #Scholz #Polen #Reparationen
— tagesschau (@tagesschau) September 6, 2022
However, PiS MP Arkadiusz Mularczyk – who led a parliamentary committee that created the report on which Poland’s reparations claim is based – told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that Scholz “is deeply mistaken”.
“Poland and Germany have never concluded any bilateral agreement, peace treaty or liquidation agreement on the effects of World War II,” said Mularczyk. “War crimes do not expire and you can claim compensation for them regardless of the passage of time.”
The MP also noted that Poland has not yet even formally submitted its claim against Germany. “I am convinced that during this discussion, and also after the diplomatic note announced by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, this matter will be clarified and the chancellor will change his mind.”
On Monday, Morawiecki announced that “in the near future we can expect a diplomatic note” to be issued to Berlin. It would be “supported by very detailed analysis and materials that show our arguments from not only a moral and historical perspective, but also political and legal ones”.
That followed a presentation in Warsaw last Thursday – the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s 1939 invasion of Poland – at which Morawiecki and PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński declared their intention to seek reparations and unveiled the report calculating war losses amounting to $1.3 trillion.
The following day, Germany’s culture minister, Claudia Roth, said that “we owe Poland sincere recognition of the suffering experienced during the terror of the Nazis”. However, she fell short of acknowledging any need for reparations.
Main image credit: KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
