The campaign to force the German government to pay billions – if not trillions – of euros to Poland in damages for the destruction caused during the Second World War has gained a new voice in the form of a British Conservative Member of Parliament.
Daniel Kawczynski, the Polish-heritage MP for Shrewsbury, made the statement in an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who he called on to “drop [your] opposition to the payment of reparations to Poland for the immense death and destruction during World War II”.
Speaking to Breitbart London about why he had chosen to write the letter now, Kawczynski said: “Germany rightly refers to our obligations to the EU financially as we exit the structure, and yet conveniently ignore their own much clearer obligations to Poland for the destruction and misery they caused.
“Germany has to be held to account as she is dictating to others whilst refusing to take responsibility herself.”
Now writing my heartfelt article on why UK must support Poland over her demands for war reparations from Germany.
— Daniel Kawczynski (@DKShrewsbury) October 4, 2017
Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany in September 1939, and then by Soviet Russia almost three weeks later as part of a pact to conquer and share the territory of Poland between them. Millions of Poles were killed and displaced by the conflict, with mass executions deployed to quell uprisings against the occupying Nazi power.
The Polish government had waived the right to be paid reparations in 1953 when it was a puppet state of the Soviet Empire, what would come to be known as a Warsaw Pact nation. Germany continues to accept this agreement as binding, whilst the Polish government argues the old Communist power in the nation was not a just and sovereign ruler of the Polish people, and the agreement is therefore invalid.
Calling for “mutual respect and understanding”, Kawczynski wrote that to do any less than pay the money would be “a travesty for the final few war veterans whose entire lives were defined by the horrors unleashed by Adolf Hitler”.
Kawczynski’s remarks come amongst renewed interest in the payment of reparations in Poland, and apparent official support from the Polish government, expressed in August.
Demands of reparations have intensified as Germany and the European Union have increasingly sought to intervene in Polish affairs, triggering anti-EU protests in the country.
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