WWII reparations from Germany a ‘difficult’ issue: Polish FM

"The issue is a difficult one,” Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told Polish state broadcaster TVP.

His comments came after an MP from the country’s ruling conservatives last week said he had asked parliamentary experts for a report on whether Warsaw can claim reparations from Germany for invading Poland during WWII.

"Today we have powerful... opposition against raising this issue at all in talks with Germany,” Waszczykowski said.

"It will be very difficult to undertake talks with the Germans with this type of opposition in our own country, because the Germans will be able to take advantage of this opposition for certain political gameplay against those who will want to undertake substantive legal-political negotiations on possible reparations," said Waszczykowski.

Jarosław Kaczyński, head of the 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 damages it suffered in World War II, losses which "we have really still not made up for".

PiS deputy Arkadiusz Mularczyk said a report from parliamentary experts on whether Poland can claim reparations from Germany should be ready by the middle of August and would then be handed to the government.

Mularczyk said that nearly six million Poles were killed during the war from 1939 to 1945, when their country was invaded by Nazi Germany.

He added that seeking war reparations from Germany was a "moral duty".

(pk)

Source: PAP