The German foreign ministry has responded to the Polish foreign ministry’s note of 3 October 2022 regarding reparations for Polish losses suffered as a result of German aggression and occupation during World War II. According to the German government, the issue of reparations and war reparations remains closed, and the German government does not intend to enter into negotiations on the matter.

The German Foreign Ministry’s one-sentence reply on reparations gives the worst possible account of German diplomacy. It says that the matter is closed.  Meanwhile, the issue of reparations has never been open in Polish-German relations”, said Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk.

In his opinion, the issue of reparations was tried to be stuffed into various international formats. “Fortunately, even the communist authorities were not crazy enough to renounce war reparations. The response of German diplomacy is absurd and illogical. You cannot close something that was not open,” added Mularczyk.

MEP Krzysztof Sobolewski, Secretary General of Law and Justice, also made no secret of his disappointment with the German response, stating that “the subject of the murder of several million Poles, the destruction of 80-85 % of housing or economic resources was treated with a two-sentence answer”. It was treated like an ordinary traffic accident,” said Krzysztof Sobolewski.

He added that the Polish government was prepared for “Germany’s persistence in its obstinacy” and expected that the Germans “would not really want to admit and make reparation for what they did to Poland in 1939-45”.

“That is why we are now continuing our diplomatic offensive within the European Union, but also more broadly within the United Nations”, the politician explained.

Adrian Andrzejewski