Polish-Israeli deal will help ensure ‘historical truth’: ruling party chief

The prime ministers of Poland and Israel on Wednesday signed a joint declaration in which they condemned the historically inaccurate term “Polish concentration/death camps,” calling it “blatantly erroneous” and saying it diminished “the responsibility of Germans for establishing those camps."

In an interview for public broadcaster Polish Radio, Kaczyński said on Friday that Poland’s “fight for historical truth” about World War II would be long and difficult, but that the joint Polish-Israeli declaration was an important step on this road.

Kaczyński, who heads Poland's ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, said that the Polish-Israeli declaration was further proof in “the international debate about historical truth” that Poland was not complicit in German Nazi crimes during World War II.

He signalled that the declaration could potentially be used as an argument in a dispute with Germany over war reparations.

A group of parliamentary experts said last year that the Polish government was entitled to demand that Germany pay reparations for the massive damage it inflicted on Poland in World War II.

“… It was the Germans who invaded Poland, murdering millions of people, leaving behind huge damage, destroying material goods, and we are entitled to compensation for this," Kaczyński told Polish Radio.

The Polish parliament on Wednesday voted to soften Poland’s anti-defamation law by removing criminal provisions and the threat of prison terms for those using the term “Polish death camps” or suggesting that Poland as a nation was complicit in the Holocaust.

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Source: Polish Radio