The Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau has signed a diplomatic note to Germany concerning reparations for World War Two, he said on Monday, formalising Poland's demand for compensation.
The move comes after Poland's ruling nationalists last month estimated Germany owed the country 6.2 trillion zlotys ($1.26 trillion). Germany, Poland's biggest trade partner, has said all financial claims linked to the war had been settled.
"(The note) expresses the position of the Polish minister of foreign affairs that the parties should take immediate steps to permanently and effectively... settle the issue of the consequences of aggression and German occupation," Zbigniew Rau told a news conference.
Some six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed during the war and Warsaw was razed to the ground following a 1944 uprising in which about 200,000 civilians died.
In 1953, Poland's then-communist rulers relinquished all claims to war reparations under pressure from the Soviet Union, which wanted to free East Germany, also a Soviet satellite, from any liabilities.
Poland's ruling nationalists Law and Justice (PiS) say that agreement is invalid because Poland was unable to negotiate fair compensation. It has revived calls for compensation since it took power in 2015 and has made the promotion of Poland's wartime victimhood a central plank of its appeal to nationalism.
The combative stance towards Germany, often used by PiS to mobilise its constituency, has strained relations with Berlin.
Poland's Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau will raise the issue of World War Two reparations with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock during her visit to Warsaw on Tuesday, the spokesman of Poland's foreign ministry said on Monday.
"Minister Rau will raise the all important issues in Polish-German relations, and this one is one of the most important," Łukasz Jasina told reporters, referring to the issue of reparations.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters