The head of ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński, commented on Second World War reparations from Germany and revealed that Poland would soon start pursuing the matter.
During the weekend, he met with inhabitants of towns in the Lower Silesia region in Poland, and during one of these meetings in the town of Oleśnica, Kaczyński announced that Poland will send a diplomatic note regarding the matter “very soon.”
On Sept. 1, Poland released a report detailing the economic and humanitarian damage Poland had suffered due to Germany’s actions during the Second World War. The report determined that Poland was owed €1.3 trillion in reparations. However, Germany has contended that the matter is already closed.
Kaczyński added that this was just the beginning of the road, but if Poland remains tough and consistent, then Germany will realize that it “has no choice” and will start negotiating with Poland.
“The fact that the payments will last for many years is obvious; they cannot pay it all at once or in a couple of installments,” Jarosław Kaczyński explained.
He stressed that if Poland showed the world how Germany acted brutally against Poles during World War II, Berlin’s reputation would be severely damaged, which Germany cannot allow to happen.
“Germany considers themselves a moral power. That is like if I considered myself a basketball player in the NBA. The center, the largest one,” said Kaczyński to which the audience reacted with laughter, as the politician is 168 centimeters (5’5″) tall.
According to Kaczyński, Germany must understand that with “this burden of atrocities on their back, they will not get far.”
“Only then, will we be able to talk to each other,” said Kaczyński. He pointed out that Poland must use every possible tool to inform the world about German responsibility for crimes committed against Poles during the Second World War.
An estimated 6 million Poles, including 3 million Polish Jews, were killed during the war, and Warsaw, the capital, was destroyed after an uprising in 1944, which resulted in the deaths of 200,000 civilians.
