Poland's outgoing minister asks new legislators to seek further war reparations from Germany

WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s outgoing deputy foreign minister said Thursday that he has written to newly-elected legislators and senators urging them to continue to seek some $1.3 trillion in reparations from Germany for the Nazis’ World War II invasion and occupation of the country.

Poland’s right-wing government has prepared a report of the losses caused by Nazi Germany’s occupation in 1939-45, and last year directed a formal request to Berlin for reparations.

Berlin says the case had been settled long ago and is closed.

A government change is due in Poland following last month’s general election and the outgoing deputy foreign minister, Arkadiusz Mularczyk, who had been the driving force behind the report, said he's written to all new parliament members asking them to keep pushing for the reparations.

“These action aimed at obtaining elementary justice for Poland and for the Poles are undoubtedly a patriotic and moral element for all the new lawmakers and senators,” Mularczyk told a news conference.

A nation of some 31 million in 1939, Poland lost some 6 million of its citizens, half of them Jewish, during World War II. It also suffered enormous damage to its industry, infrastructure and cultural heritage.