It is time that Poland honors the memory of all those who were murdered during the Nazi tyranny and brings a measure of justice to the survivors and their heirs.
On May 11, thousands of Polish nationalists marched to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, protesting the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today Act, passed unanimously by the Senate last year. The bipartisan legislation was signed into law by President Donald Trump, requiring the State Department report on the state of restitution of properties wrongfully seized during and in the aftermath of World War II in dozens of European countries, including Poland.
It is estimated that there are more than 170,000 private properties held in Poland, wrongfully seized from Jewish victims of the Holocaust terror and nationalized by the Polish Communist government. They have an estimated value of billions of dollars, according to a report drawn up by experts from the business sector and nongovernmental organizations at the request of the Israeli government.
After regaining its independence in 1989, joining NATO and entering the EU, Poland established itself as a model for free and democratic states in Eastern Europe. However, since taking power in October 2015, Poland’s current government has been engaged in what commentators have termed as a forced march backward toward authoritarianism by subjecting the judiciary to political control, rejecting the media’s independence and stirring nationalist sentiments against outsiders.
Poland must honor the memory of the past and safeguard the principles of democracy by passing comprehensive legislation providing for the complete restitution of assets stolen by the Nazis and the Communist governments. The advanced age of remaining Holocaust survivors makes the matter all the more urgent and the need to act all the more pressing.
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