Poland lost PLN 62 billion (USD 18 billion) in cultural wealth during WWII, a Polish team calculating the value of potential German reparations owed to Poland said on Friday.

According to historian Mirosława Kłuska, Germany destroyed Poland's cultural history, output and potential.

Kłuska said that artworks and buildings were destroyed, theatres and schools were closed, and intellectuals and artists were killed during the war.

Kłuska added that the effects of that destruction could still be felt in Poland today.

Last year, an analysis by Polish parliamentary experts said that the Polish government was entitled to demand that Germany pay reparations for the massive damage it inflicted on Poland between 1939 and 1945.

German officials have said that the matter was definitively settled with Poland in 1953.

In a resolution adopted in 1953, Poland's communist government of the time recognised that Germany had fulfilled its obligations with regard to Poland and decided against seeking compensation payments.

But Poland's ruling conservatives have said that decisions made by the country's communist-era authorities are not necessarily still valid because they were made under pressure from the Soviet Union.

(vb/pk)

Source: PAP