Polish MP Calls For End to Jewish World War II Property Restitution
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Polish MP Slawomir Kopycinski called for the shuttering of the Regulatory Commission for Jewish Communities, a Polish body that restores property owned by Holocaust victims to its legal heirs.
Kopycinski called the commission ”the fourth partition of Poland” in a Thursday press conference, alluding to previous partitions of the country in the 1700s and again in 1939.
Slawomir Kopycinski is running with the Europa Plus party in elections for the European Parliament.
The Regulatory Commission for Jewish Communities was established in 1997 to return Jewish-owned property seized after World War II by Poland’s Communist government to its legal heirs.
“Based on the whims of several unknown men, the public buildings are returned to Jewish communities,” said Kopycinski at the press conference.
Piotr Kadlcik, president of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, called Kopycinski’s statement “disgusting.”
“All cases are investigated and verified,” Kadlcik said in a statement Sunday. “Returning this property can hardly be called ‘a partition of Poland’ because the Jewish community is not an alien invader, but rather the citizens of the Republic of Poland, who have the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else. “
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