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Poland is hoping to gain the support of the US Congress to pressure Germany into providing reparations for the destruction caused to Poland during the Second World War.
At the beginning of this year, the German government declared that the matter of reparations was finished and thus would not provide any money.
In September, the Polish government presented a comprehensive report detailing the material losses suffered by Poland during the Second World War along with a pledge to demand money from Germany in reparations to the tune of EUR 1.3 trillion.
A month later Poland’s foreign ministry sent a diplomatic note to Germany demanding compensation for the destruction and in November, Warsaw sent diplomatic notes to its EU and NATO allies to drum up support for its case against Germany.
On Tuesday, Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a deputy foreign minister who earlier headed the government team that compiled the report on Poland’s wartime losses, told a press conference that the Polish government’s next move aimed at making the Polish war reparation claim an international topic will be to turn to the US.
“Today we are addressing the US Congress. We believe that the US is a country that determines the global order today, a key country when it comes to respecting the international order, human rights, the rule of law and international justice,”
he said.
“Therefore, we are turning to the US Congressional Committee, first of all to the chairman of the US Helsinki Commission, Senator Benjamin Cardin, to Congressman Gregory Meeks, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Senator Robert Menendez, the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, the co-chairman of the Polish-American friendship group,”
Mularczyk went on.
He said that he counted on the US support as regards “the issue of Poland’s claiming compensation for the effects of World War II.”