Secretary of State Arkadiusz Mularczyk addressed Chairman of the US Helsinki Commission, Senator Benjamin Louis Cardin, Chairman of the House Foreign Committee, Congressman Gregory Weldon Meek, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Robert Menendez, Co-Chair of the Congressional Poland Caucus, Marcy Carolyn Kaptur, and requested their support for our efforts to receive compensation for damage caused by German aggression and occupation in 1939-1945. He also asked that US Congress committees launch investigation into Germany’s unequal treatment of countries harmed during World War II—investigations aimed at the thorough analysis of Germany’s failure to pay reparations to Poland and the backing of our compensation claims presented in the diplomatic note of 3 October 2022. 

The evident lack of justice in this regard, which has remained undelivered since the Potsdam Conference, to the Two Plus Four Conference, to this day, encourages totalitarian regimes which hope for impunity as they destroy property and murder civilians, just like Germany did in Poland in 1939-1945. The English version of the Report on losses suffered by Poland as a result of German aggression and occupation during World War II 1939-1945 will be sent today to US parliamentarians today.

Meanwhile, Poland will run an information campaign among American members of the House and senators, among other things, through Minister Mularczyk’s visit to Washington, D.C., and New York planned for late January and early February.

This is yet another diplomatic initiative undertaken by Poland, after sending letters to UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the UN. Elevating the problem of unpaid compensation to an international level serves to strengthen our demands on Germany. Addressing the Polish request to influential US congressional committees is a step towards bringing the attention of American legislators and society to the fact that Poland has never received the due compensation from Germany. 

As the United States is a country of crucial importance for the post-war order in international political, economic and financial relations, nowadays playing a leading role in respecting the international law and ensuring a global order based on justice, rule of law, sovereignty, international agreements and the principle of unconditional liability for breaching the international law, we consider the diplomatic initiative addressed to Washington, D.C. as a very important step towards an effective enforcement of compensation from Germany.

Our arguments will be surely strengthened by raising the awareness of American society that the case of compensation is a matter of political consensus in Poland and that the idea of seeking the due amount of compensation is supported by a majority of Polish society.

The German state has failed to compensate the losses in any systemic way, and Germany has never assumed full liability for the actions of its legal predecessor in Poland’s territory during the war. Sadly, even today we can see no sign of Germany’s willingness to enter dialogue and negotiations on this matter, as evidenced by the laconic note from the Federal Foreign Office communicated to the Polish MFA on 3 January—three months after our note on the compensation. 

For the German side, the whole issue is unilaterally closed despite the fact that it had never been open until our note of 3 October 2022. To this end, Berlin invokes the legal doctrine of the immunity of states from jurisdiction, which deprives the victims of German military aggression and long-term occupation of their right to legally seek due compensation.

Other European countries are also questioning such legal interpretation presented by Germany. Engaging the US Congress on the issue of war compensation opens up new possibilities and improves the chances for our success.

In our communications with the US Congress, we recall that after WWII Poland was under Soviet domination, while West Germany received support under the Marshall Plan, something which we were deprived of. Some of the active participants in and collaborators of the Nazi machine of occupation and crime operated in Poland went on to join the political and economic life of West Germany, whereas the property looted from Poland ended up on the safe side of Europe. For a long time, the Iron Curtain prevented this matter from being settled.

We hope that an appropriate analysis of American lawmakers will facilitate the establishment of a dialogue for Poland and Germany, and will lead to Berlin’s revisiting its position on compensation for Poland. 

 

Łukasz Jasina
MFA Spokesperson

 

Photo: Sebastian Indra/MFA