Property Confiscated After War: Poland’s Law Annoys US and Israel


Status: 08/14/2021 9:50 p.m.

The anger is particularly high in Israel: Poland’s President Duda has signed a law regulating the return of property confiscated after the war. It excludes many descendants of Holocaust victims from claims.

Despite harsh criticism from Israel and the US, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has signed a controversial law against the return of property confiscated after World War II. Duda told the Polish news agency PAP that he hoped the law would end an “era of legal chaos”.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid described the law as “immoral” and “anti-Semitic”. It was also not the first Polish law of its kind. It had instructed the chargé d’affaires at the embassy in Warsaw to come to Jerusalem for an indefinite period of time. The future new ambassador to Poland will remain in Israel. On Wednesday he had already stated that the law bordered on Holocaust denial.

Limitation period of 30 years

In many cases the law affects the descendants of Jewish Holocaust victims, whose property was expropriated during communism in Poland. The law provides for a limitation period of 30 years for compensation claims. Owners whose property was confiscated in Poland in the post-war period can no longer assert any claims to confiscated property.

The government in Warsaw argues that the law creates legal certainty in the real estate market. In addition, fraudulent claims would be prevented. Duda spoke of the “privatization mafias” that had been up to now. Poland will not allow the Holocaust to be instrumentalized for current political purposes, he said of the criticism of the law. He also recalled that six million Poles died during the German occupation in World War II.

Fierce criticism after the Sejm had passed it

After the law was passed by the Polish parliament, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Israeli colleague Jair Lapid appealed to Duda not to sign the law. The law damages “both the memory of the Holocaust and the rights of its victims,” ​​said Lapid. “I will continue to oppose all attempts.” Blinken called on the government in Warsaw to pass a comprehensive law on compensation, as already existed in other Central and Eastern European countries.

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of the national-conservative PiS party rejected the demands. Poland would “not pay for the German crimes,” he argued.

Nationalized after the war

After the Second World War, the communist authorities in Poland nationalized a large part of houses and properties whose owners had been murdered by the National Socialists or who had fled Europe. The text of the law affects Jewish and non-Jewish dispossessed alike. However, critics argue that Jews are disproportionately affected because many of them did not have the opportunity to assert their claims immediately after the war.

“Illegally Acquired Property”

“Poland is of course not responsible for what Germany did during the Holocaust,” emphasized the World Jewish Restitution Organization, which is entrusted with the restitution of the property of victims of the Nazi regime. However, Poland still benefits “from illegally acquired property”. The return of confiscated property is not just about money. “For many Holocaust survivors and their families, a house is the last physical link to the lives they once led,” the organization said.

The President of the European Jewish Congress, Mosche Kantor, called the Polish law “legalized theft” some time ago. It is outrageous that Holocaust survivors are deprived of the right to justice. The EU member state is in breach of international obligations.



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