Opposition criticises minister for giving WW II damage report to German president

Opposition MP and former defence minister Tomasz Siemoniak criticised Culture and National Heritage Minister Piotr Gliński for handing German President Frank Walter Steinmeier a report on war damages Germany caused during World War II.

Steinmeier visited Warsaw Wednesday to participate in the remembrance of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

“I would not like anyone to hand (Polish President) Andrzej Duda anything likewise only to make a show of that,” he said about the report that refers to the demand by the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party for German war reparations.

In Warsaw, Steinmeier delivered a moving speech in which he asked for forgiveness of his country’s crimes for what he called the “cruel and inhumane” treatment of European and Polish Jews by SS soldiers during World War Two, as reported by EURACTIV.

According to Siemoniak, the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was not the best time to bring up war reparations.

It is not how things are done in international relations, he stressed, adding that he did not think the issue was agreed upon beforehand between Warsaw and Berlin.

As a guest of Poland, Steinmeier had a right to expect the government’s visit schedule that the two countries must have discussed before the German president came to Warsaw.

The Gliński report stated that Germany owes Poland €1.3 trillion in war damages caused. Following the report’s publication, Poland sent a diplomatic note to Germany asking for payment, and the government adopted a resolution on Monday.

Berlin continuously rejected Poland’s claims for reparation, maintaining that all financial claims related to World War II were settled by the Two-plus-Four Treaty of 1990.

In 1953, Poland’s communist government, under pressure from the Soviet Union, relinquished all claims to war reparations. Moscow wanted to free East Germany, another Soviet satellite, from liabilities.

Polish authorities claim the agreement is invalid since Poland could not negotiate fair compensation then.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)