The US Congress has passed resolutions urging Eastern European nations including Poland to make progress on legislation regarding the restitution of private property. Though the US resolutions are nonbinding, observers argue that this is a clear signal that such legislation in Poland is long overdue.
Bogdan Żaryn reports
In 1997 Poland passed a law on the restitution of Jewish communal property but there is still no legislation on the restitution of private property. In 2001 Polish President Alexsander Kwasniewski vetoed a bill on the restitution of private property arguing that such legislation may lead Poland into bankruptcy.
For the first time ever the US Congress has passed resolutions citing the lack of Holocaust –era restitution legislation in Poland saying that it is the only country in the European Union without such laws. But can resolutions from the US Congress accelerate the process?
Jim Yrkowski from TGC Corporate lawyers doesn’t think so: ‘Well I don’t think that this particular document is going to have any concrete influence on resolving this issue within Poland. However there is no question that this has some significance on the political level. In the past I’ve seen state legislators sending letters to the Polish government on this but, when it goes to the US Congress it has more national significance, it results in more politicians being aware of this issue on a higher level.’
While on an official visit to the US Polish Premier Donald Tusk said that the government is working on a new bill. Maciej Wewior press attaché at the Ministry of the State Treasury says that the government should make their plans on restitution public in a matter of days: ‘Now we are waiting for “directional decisions” by the council of ministers and the prime minister so, in my opinion it should be any day and then we are going to start working on the bill itself and we are hoping to have the bill passed in the fall so actually the bill might start working by next year.’
The World Jewish Restitution Organization –WJRO has been keeping close tabs on this issue. Retired Vice Chair of the WJRO Naphtalie Lawie thinks that such an appeal from the US Congress will not fall on deaf ears: ‘If this American Congress comes out with a statement supporting a certain position of part of the Polish population, this part I mean Jewish population in this case, I think it has an effect, it must have an effect. Prime Minister Tusk as well as the Polish establishment realize that you can not all the time go away with nothing. There’s a legitimate claim by the Polish citizens until recently when all their property was taken away not rightly and they may have a claim, a legitimate and moral claim.’
Poland is the only country in Central and Eastern Europe that has not passed any legislation dealing with private property lost during and after World War II. This issue continues to be a complicated matter: ‘Unfortunately after 18 years of ownership changes , legal changes some buildings don’t exists anymore , on some lands new buildings were constructed. It would be really, really difficult, really complicated to have the properties returned “in nature”, so returned as they are. So right now and I would like to underline we are thinking about it of giving people something instead of the buildings, not restitution in property. Right now it is really hard to say how many people can be counted as people who actually claim the right for restitution. Some people who owned the buildings the properties are just simply dead. So our plan right now is to have in the first stage : people actually coming to us and giving us the papers proving that they have the right and then we are going to move to the second stage which will be division of the money amongst the people who passed the first stage’.
The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland has filed over 3,500 communal claims , while various local Jewish communities lodged 2,200 claims. Reports estimate that less than 20% of the claims filed have been resolved.