Many of our readers are offspring of Jews who once called Poland their home. They’ve heard stories of their beloved relatives, some making it to other haven-countries before and during the war. And of the many who did not make it and perished in the camps strategically situated by the Germans in that country. Before World War II, it’s estimated that 3,300,000 Jews called Poland their home. Of that number, 90% were murdered by the Nazis and their Polish supporters. Many of the Jewish survivors left their homeland after the war to begin new lives in America and other parts of the world. While fleeing persecution and certain death, very few were concerned with taking with them, their deeds to their apartments, businesses and other land they owned. They were forced to abandon everything for survival.
And now, 76 years after the war’s end, the descendants of these victims are still fighting for compensation for these properties stolen from them by the Nazis and then the Commie Polish government. Just this past week, thousands of Jew hating Poles marched through central Warsaw protesting a U.S. ruling, the Just Act of 2017, signed into law by President Trump, that requires the State Department to report to Congress on steps taken by 47 European countries in the restitution of Jewish property seized by the Nazis and post-war Communist governments. Notably, Poland is the sole state in Europe that has not passed legislation compensating Jewish former property owners. And to top it all off, Poland’s president signed legislation this Saturday that restricts the rights of former Polish property owners, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants, to regain property seized by the country’s communist regime. Outrageous!
According to the Associated Press, the process in Poland is mired in fraud corruption and, of course, the Jew-hating which appears to be a genetic disposition, going back thousands of years within the population of that nation. Polish governments through the years, have struggled without shame to willfully ignore and deny their history of intolerance, hatred and outright responsibility of their involvement in the mass murder of Jews by their Nazi occupiers. In fact, they’ve made it illegal to even mention it. Back in 2018, Poland’s Senate passed a bill that outlaws blaming that nation for any war crimes committed during the Holocaust. It calls for up to three years in prison or a fine for violating the law by stating the truth. Talk about chutzpah! Talk about silencing of free speech! Talk about evil doings!
If anyone is waiting for Poland to be forced by the international community to make good to the Jewish victims of the Nazi occupation, they’d be more likely to be hit by lightning. The only stalwart supporter of Jewish war victims, has been, is and hopefully will always be the United States. But we have our concerns that the new administration and the Jew hating tilt of our Congress will not stand up for Jewish rights, internationally and domestically. For nearly 80 years this open, non-healed wound of failed restitution for these Jewish families whose properties together with their lives were stolen from them, remains unhealed. It’s time.
