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No decision yet on seeking WWII reparations: Polish PM

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 29.08.2017 15:45
Poland’s prime minister has said the government has not yet decided whether to seek reparations from Germany for World War II, but added that Warsaw “has a duty” to raise the issue.
PM Beata Szydło. Photo: PAP/Andrzej GrygielPM Beata Szydło. Photo: PAP/Andrzej Grygiel

In an interview with the Gazeta Polska weekly, Beata Szydło was asked about the risk of a political conflict with Germany if Poland presses for war damages.

She said six million Poles were killed during the war from 1939 to 1945, when their country was invaded by Nazi Germany, while Poland "was totally destroyed".

Szydło said that redress for Poland was "a question of elementary justice.”

'Victims of totalitarian German policy'

“We were victims of totalitarian German policy during World War II and for decades Poland never received any compensation, while many countries did,” she told the weekly.

But she added that "there is not yet a final government decision" on reparations.

"For now there is a political discussion. The next step will be diplomatic talks. In my opinion, the Polish state has a duty” to raise the issue of compensation, Szydło said.

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."

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.

(pk)

Source: PAP

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