Most Poles want compensation from Germany for WWII: foreign minister

Asked by the wPolityce website if he and his ministry wanted reparations to be paid to Poland, Waszczykowski said that "the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, like most Poles, would like Poland to receive compensation for losses suffered during World War II."

He added: "That is obvious. And there are no people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who would oppose such a process. The only question is how to do it and when."

But Waszczykowski said that a decision would have to be taken at a broader government level.

The foreign ministry “can conduct a legal analysis of the situation and the political context in the past,” he added.

A recent poll found that 63 percent of Poles believe Germany should pay compensation for the damage it inflicted on Poland during World War II.

Thirty-one percent of those surveyed by pollster Ipsos voiced the opposite opinion, while 6 percent were undecided.

Massive war damage

A debate on war reparations from Germany reignited after Jarosław Kaczyński, head of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which came to power in late 2015, said at a convention in July that Poland never received compensation for the massive war damage it suffered in World War II, losses which "we have really still not made up for."

An estimated six million Poles were killed during the war from 1939 to 1945, when their country was invaded by Nazi Germany.

Waszczykowski has previously said that internal opposition in Poland to raising the issue of reparations for World War II was a barrier to potential negotiations with Germany.

(pk)

Source: PAP