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Poland, Germany to Resolve Row Over Compensation to Slave Labor
Poland and Germany have agreed to resolve a dispute about compensation to Polish Nazi-era slave laborers in the World War II before August 23, Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek said on Polish television Tuesday night after meeting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
The two sides have also agreed that both the Polish and German foundations handling the payments should hold talks immediately to find a way out of the dispute about the compensation concerning the foreign exchange rate.
Polish authorities and media have complained that Germany used an unfavorable exchange rate when transferring tranches of 1.812 billion marks (about 820 million dollars) in compensation to half a million Poles.
"The victims received smaller sums than they expected," said a Polish team in investigating the claims. Because of an unfair exchange rate, the team said, the Polish recipients suffered a total loss of about 50 million zlotys (about 12 million dollars).
Schroeder also said on the Polish television that the German and Polish foundations handling the payments "should jointly find a solution as soon as possible that will serve the interests of the victims." But Schroeder earlier said that the German government would not step in with additional funds.
According to an oral agreement reached by Germany and Poland, the compensation should be paid to former slave laborers in two installments and the first installment totaling 1 billion marks (about 460 million dollars) paid before long was in Polish zlotys instead of German marks.
Poland and Germany have reportedly decided that the second installment will be paid in euro.
Earlier in the day, Schroeder also met Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski in Szczecin, a Baltic port city in northwest Poland.
They discussed the matters related to the compensation, Poland' s accession to the European Union, and bilateral border trade. Schroeder expressed support for Poland being one of the first East European countries to join the EU.
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