In the French daily Le Figaro, Jarosław Kaczyński, President of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), presented arguments which, in his opinion, indicate the need for German reparations payments to Poland. He recalled that Poland had proportionally suffered the greatest human and material losses of all the countries attacked by Hitler and his allies.

The President of the Law and Justice party stressed in his article that “Poland has a full and indisputable right to seek and obtain adequate reparations. Poland should make use of this in the name of a basic sense of justice, in the name of historical truth, and in the name of true Polish-German reconciliation”.

Jarosław Kaczyński also recalled the cruelty of German crimes, mass murders and the methodical destruction of Poland’s potential.

‘Parallel to the mass murders, Germans caried out a policy of starving Polish society, with full premeditation, leading to the death of some and the deterioration of others, often in a permanent way, which had repercussions for future generations’, the Law and Justice president stated and recalled that Poland was excluded from the compensation process by Germany, while seventy other countries could benefit from some form of compensation.

According to Jarosław Kaczyński, “Poland has never given up demanding war reparations from Germany”.

The unilateral declaration of the Council of Ministers of 23 August 1953 had no legal significance by its nature, as it was never promulgated in the Official Gazette or registered in the relevant United Nations registers. What is more, some legal sources claim that it was done not in accordance with the provisions of the constitution in force at the time”, states Kaczynski in Le Figaro and recalls in this context that “the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, in a resolution of 10 September 2004, noted that until that date Poland had received neither adequate financial compensation nor reparations for the enormous destruction and material and immaterial losses caused by the aggression, occupation and genocide (committed by the Germans) and the loss of independence.”

Adrian Andrzejewski