Deputy Arkadiusz Mularczyk led the team’s work on estimating the losses that Poland suffered as a result of the invasion and occupation of Nazi Germany. The politician said he disagreed with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who rejected Poland’s demands for damages and said the matter had been resolved.
Arkadiusz Mularczyk: War crimes can be prosecuted until the end of the world
– I would say that on the contrary, war crimes do not end and can be prosecuted until the end of the world – he said in pap Mularczyk.
Deputies are of the opinion that the receipt of reparations by Poland is real. – I gave 5 years to solve this problem, I think Germany has no arguments, neither political nor legal, to avoid it – he said. – We will definitely speak out loud about this issue in the coming year, we will demand it on the national and international scene. We will launch diplomatic activities on many levels, on many levels – he said.
“The record will affect this year”
In an interview with Radio Poland 24, Mularczyk stressed that only after Germany had received the note would it be possible to discuss the legitimacy of the German position. – The Chancellor said that he rejected Poland’s claim, so please note that you cannot reject something that has not been accepted. We just prepared a diplomatic note to the German government. Notes will be received this year – said MP. As he added, it is important that the report is correct and that there is a public discussion in Poland and abroad. – When the diplomatic note with the report reaches the German government, I think only then can we start discussions at the place used by the German chancellor – he said.
On September 1 this year, at the Royal Palace in Warsaw, Arkadiusz Mularczyk presented a three-volume report on human and territorial losses in Poland during World War II. During the presentation of the report, the president of PiS, Jarosław Kaczyński, announced the decision on Poland’s request for war reparations and damages from Germany.
About compensation. What do the lawyers say?
Several lawyers commenting on reparations emphasized that it was nearly impossible to obtain them.
– First, Poland unilaterally refused reparations in 1953, which was later confirmed by the successive Polish and German governments. Second, the Potsdam Treaty established a reparations system which stipulated that benefits to Poland were paid out of reparations collected by the Soviet Union. So we have no claim to Germany, but to Russia. If Germany says: we paid and Poland says: we got nothing, where is the money? Why don’t we ask Russia about them, but Germany, who will send us back diplomatically, despite remembering the deep guilt over the events of the Second World War. A third argument arises from the 1990 2 plus 4 agreement, which concerns the final rules in relation to Germany. If we have claims, they must be reported prior to entry into force of this agreement. Today, these alleged claims are practically time-limited – he said in an interview with “Republic“Prof. Władysław Czapliński of the Institute of Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
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– Even if the communist authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland made such a declaration, it would not close the way for negotiations between the two countries: it would be diplomacy and Germany’s desire to make a gesture in this matter or something more to decide. But legal arguments do not close the case. The reaction of public opinion in both countries will also be important. Moreover some German politicians pointed out that there is some room for conversation – notes prof. Ireneusz Kamiński, also PAN POLRI.
In turn, historian and political scientist Dr. Kazimierz Wóycicki commented on Gazeta.pl that PiS took the issue of war reparations from Germany for internal policy purposes. – The whole German reparation problem doesn’t make any sense. There is no way – neither legal, nor international, nor political – to get this money. We’re in the seventh year of the PiS rule, and it’s only now that the reports are out. If the ruling party had serious intentions, it would have been made long ago. It would be the same regardless of reality, but it wouldn’t raise any obvious suspicions today – that it was just a crowd for internal politics organized at a time when the PiS polls were so downhill – he said.
“Reader. Future teen idol. Falls down a lot. Amateur communicator. Incurable student.”
