Polish Restitution Law Would Exclude Most Holocaust Survivors And Heirs
Image by getty images
(JTA) — The Polish government has published draft legislation on the return of confiscated property that would exclude most Holocaust survivors and their families.
The bill, which was announced Friday, would require claimants to be citizens living in Poland and exclude all heirs except “first-line heirs,” meaning spouses, children or grandchildren. Most Jews who survived the Holocaust left Poland and neither they nor their children and grandchildren currently live in Poland. Other survivors or their offspring who may want to claim family property are not first-line heirs.
Some 90 percent of Polish Jewry was killed during the Holocaust.
The bill bars claims by foreign citizens if they were eligible for compensation under postwar bilateral treaties between their country and Poland, even if they did not file claims. Most survivors were not eligible to file claims under these treaties, but even those who were often did not know that such a possibility existed.
Also, the legislation eliminates the possibility of return of the actual property, or of substitute property, and limits compensation to 20 percent of the value of the property in cash or vouchers, or 25 percent in Polish government bonds.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
