Warsaw will hand over the diplomatic list of World War II reparations to Germany, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau announced at a press conference on Monday, stating that he had already signed the document.
The list expresses the conviction of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the two sides must take immediate steps in order to settle the matter of the consequences of the German aggression and occupation of 1939-1945 in a lasting, comprehensive and final manner, in a legal and material sense, said Rau.
The settlement must also include compensation for material and non-material damage caused to the Polish state by German aggression and occupation, compensation to be paid to the victims and their family members, and a systemic solution to the issue of stolen Polish cultural property and archival materials, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs listed.
According to him, the settlement must include the return of the property stolen from Polish state banks between 1939 and 1945, the settlement of debts resulting from the "robbery activities" of German credit cooperatives, as well as the full rehabilitation of the murdered activists of the Polish minority in Germany before the war and compensation for the losses of Polish minority organizations in Germany. .
Appropriate cooperation aimed at nurturing the memory of the Polish victims of World War II should also be part of the settlement, as well as the fact that the German authorities effectively present their society with a true picture of the war and its consequences, especially the damage caused to Poland and the Poles, emphasized Rau.
According to him, such an arrangement will allow Polish-German relations to be based on justice and truth, and lead to the closing of painful chapters of the past, as well as ensure the further development of bilateral relations in the spirit of "good neighborly relations and friendly cooperation."
The diplomatic list is another step on the part of the Polish government in the process, after the competent Polish parliamentary committee presented its report on Polish losses during the war, equivalent to more than HUF 527.8 billion, at the beginning of September.
Based on this, the Polish Sejm, in its almost unanimous decision in mid-September, called on Germany to assume political, historical, legal and financial responsibility.
The German government responded in early September by considering the case closed, as Poland renounced war reparations in 1953.
Following the 1953 agreement between the former German Democratic Republic and the former Soviet Union, the government of the then communist Polish People's Republic renounced its share of the German reparations awarded to the Soviet bloc in a statement.
According to the Polish government, the declaration made under Soviet pressure - which was published in the form of a list in the communist daily Trybuna Ludu in August 1953 - is not a binding source of international law.
According to reports, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will arrive in Warsaw on Monday evening for a two-day visit.
MTI
Photo: EPA/SALVATORE DI NOLFI / POOL / Source: PAP/EPA
