Polish president seeks WWII reparations from Germany ahead of German-Polish summit

A Polish parliamentary inquiry found Germany liable for additional WWII reparations, according to President Andrzej Duda. Both governments are set to meet in Warsaw, where reparations could take center stage.

Germany still owes Poland World War II reparations, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said in an interview with German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

Duda told the newspaper that a parliamentary inquiry had investigated Poland's war damages and its preliminary results showed that the country's wartime losses have not been properly compensated.

"It is a question of truth and responsibility," he said.

Duda's comments directly contradict Germany, which has repeatedly said that the status of reparations was settled in the early 1950s.

The call could become a sticking point when government representatives from Germany and Poland meet for consultations in Warsaw next week.

Duda's call echoed the remarks of the previous Polish President Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who in June said that his country needed to be compensated for the murder of millions of people and the destruction of material goods that took place during Germany's invasion and occupation of Poland during the war.

Duda's interview follows the Polish president's meeting with German President Frank Walter Steinmeier in Berlin earlier this week. Both discussed a joint commemoration to mark the 80th anniversary of the beginning of World War II in September.

"The fact that, until now, no German party has questioned Germany's guilt, has made the great reconciliation process between Poland and Germany possible," he said. "We owe our good relationship to the fact that we think about the past and that it represents a warning for us."