Bundestag MPs to receive letter about Polish WWII losses

A Polish deputy foreign minister has sent a letter to all Bundestag MPS to inform them about the losses suffered by Poland during the Second World War.

"I hope that this will start a debate in the Bundestag and will make the German government change its position on war reparations for Poland," Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a deputy foreign minister who earlier headed a government team that compiled a report on Poland's wartime losses, told PAP on Sunday.

On September 1, 2022, the Polish government presented a comprehensive report detailing the material losses suffered by Poland during the Second World War along with a pledge to demand money from Germany in reparations to the tune of EUR 1.3 trillion. 

The German Foreign Ministry has rejected Poland's claims and stated the matter is closed and that the German government would not enter into negotiations on the subject. 

Mularczyk admitted that he had decided to send the letter following recent steps taken by left-wing Bundestag MPs, which, according to Mularczyk, "are proof that the subject of Germany's responsibility for war crimes is present in the public debate in Germany, not only in the context of Poland."

In May, Left party members in the Bundestag submitted a question regarding compensation for the victims of the Distomo massacre in 1944 during the German occupation of Greece in WWII. 

According to Mularczyk, there are groups in Germany which "can be the voice of Germany's conscience."

"There are courageous parliamentarians in Germany who raise issues that are difficult for Germany," he said, adding that a perpetrator could not set standards for compensation and that there should be no discrimination of victims.

"That is why I decided to send the letter to all Bundestag members together with a report on war losses suffered by Poland during World War II," he stated and announced that the letter would soon be widely distributed in the Bundestag.