Will the drama never end?
Just when things seemingly couldn't get any worse, or more embarrassing, for Jerzy Buzek (apart from a scandal involving the prime minister himself though there's still plenty of time for that before elections), he once again found himself in the uncomfortable position of having to lower the ax on another government official. Last week, however, the blade fell not on the neck of a Solidarity Election Action (AWS) minister but on Bartosz Jalowiecki, the head of the Polish-German Reconciliation Fund the man responsible for handling $840 million in payments to thousands of aging Polish survivors of Nazi slave-labor camps.
When it was revealed this spring that each survivor would receive DM 15,000 in zlotys at a previously determined exchange rate when the Polish currency was far stronger against the euro Jalowiecki and others cried foul. But the news that Poland's former slaves would receive about DM 1,000 less than their government had bargained for should not have come as a surprise to anyone. After all, these people have waited more than half a century for some kind of financial compensation albeit small compared to their suffering so how much of a shock was it to hear they might get chiseled right until the very end?
Against that backdrop, last week's news that Jalowiecki had been sacked, for accusing Germany of trying to cheat this country's elderly victims, is particularly disconcerting given that a government investigation following his remark revealed that Poland was at least partly to blame for getting stuck with the poor exchange rate. It has also come to light that Poland, of all the countries in Central and Eastern Europe negotiating settlement claims, was the only one to do so in its own currency thereby exposing itself to unnecessary financial risk when the zloty fluctuates.
Jalowiecki, it turns out, was the "brains" behind that deal, believing he could take advantage of lucrative bank exchange commissions and use the funds to cover the costs of running the foundation itself. With that plan backfiring horribly, how then could he have the audacity to point the finger at Germany?
Given that the Germans certainly knew what they were doing in calculating payments at an exchange rate advantageous to them, the entire matter is hugely embarrassing for both sides. In trying to resolve this issue and put the matter of slave-labor compensation to victims of Nazi treachery to bed at last, the event has instead been characterized by bickering over the value of euros vs. zlotys a very sad way to close this chapter in Polish-German history.
