Jews and $60 billion

Krzysztof Janoś
|07.07.2015 14:51

American Jews want to return PLN 230 billion from Poland


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Jews who lost their property in our country as a consequence of the war have already received compensation twice.




Jews from the United States one more time appeal for a refund for the property lost during World War II in Poland. To make the voice more meaningful, they asked for the support of influential politicians. The consequence of these efforts is simply a letter from 46 congressmen to John Kerry. - American politicians are annoying. They treat us again "from the shoe", but it besides shows bad about Jews - says Money.pl Wiesław Kaczmarek, erstwhile Minister of Treasury, who dealt with this subject even during the SLD's rule. "The mine always has an owner or heirs, and this is absolutely basic - the erstwhile Ambassador of Israel to Poland, Szewach Weiss.



The initiator of this correspondence is the planet Organization for the Restoration of judaic Property, which has been fighting for years to recover assets seized during the war. The authors of the letter ask the State Department to intervene in this substance and request that 70 years after the end of planet War II yet settle the property matters of the judaic people persecuted as a consequence of this conflict.


It is controversial that the Jews who lost their property in our country as a consequence of the war have already received compensation. In the first case Germany was the payer. The Treaty between Germany and Israel of 1952 guaranteed the payment of 3.5 billion marks as compensation. However, this did not end due to the fact that West Germany supported Tel Aviv economically and financially for years. The final estimates say that the value of this aid has reached up to 60 billion marks.



When Poland ruled Władysław Gomulka, then I secretary of the KC PZPR, came to another agreement, this time with the US authorities. It is easy to find the comprehensive answer given by SLD Minister Wiesław Kaczmarek. In 2002, judaic organizations filed a claim akin to today's, and a associate asked for clarification.


The paper states: "In 1948-1971 the Polish government entered into a series of agreements with governments of abroad countries, under which Poland paid the governments of these countries appropriate compensation for property left or nationalized in Poland after planet War II.


The property in question became the property of the Polish state, and the compensation obligations were taken over by the governments of the countries that were working with Poland. The claim cannot so be met by Poland natural persons and legal property covered by those arrangements. 1 of them was a deal concluded with the United States government of 16 July 1960.



In the arrangement, the amount of $40 million that the Government of the Polish People's Republic agrees to pay to the United States Government in order to full settle and satisfy all claims of citizens of the United States for both natural and legal persons due to nationalisation and another types of acquisition of property and rights and interests related to property acquired before the entry into force of the Agreement."


From this reply, it is clear that this agreement exhausts demands on Polish citizens of the USA. It is besides unfounded that U.S. congressmen are making appeals, since it is with the government of this country that we have reached an agreement 55 years ago. Meanwhile, claims return, and the amount estimated by judaic organizations is mostly never little than $60 billion.


- I'm sorry. The attitude of American politicians is annoying and I think present is absolutely unnecessary. He wonders at the environment, that they are looking for a field to generate, possibly not a conflict directly, but they are doing a lot to hinder the construction of an agreement - said present Money.pl Wiesław Kaczmarek. - We know we can't afford it and we're not guilty of planet War II events. I don't think it's right for a generation of my daughters to pay for it now. Americans treat us with their shoes again, but not only do they show bad evidence, but besides about Jews - added the erstwhile minister.



He disagrees with the erstwhile Israeli ambassador to Poland, Szewach Weiss. - It's not that the Poles robbed us. The point is that they yet took over those properties that belonged to someone, says Weiss. “We remember that there were many just Poles, but property always has owners or heirs, and this is absolutely basic,” he added.


The Ambassador points out that in his talks with Minister Kaczmark at the beginning of this century he noted that no 1 wanted to expel anyone from their homes or take over buildings with tenants. "I was hoping for a compromise between the countries at the time due to the fact that we do not want to recover from private individuals," Weiss says. "However, it was not possible to settle all matters concerning the return of property but those belonging to judaic communities," he added.


Indeed, in 1997, the Sejm adopted a bill under which Poland has been returning the property of judaic communes for years. On this road, these organizations have already recovered many public buildings.



- I'm sorry. These cases have been arranged. There are rules, there is simply a system, and it works. But erstwhile young Jews come to Poland and visit their fathers' houses, they unfortunately know that they will not be able to recover it. This gives emergence to a sense of injustice - concludes Shew Weiss.


The regulation of municipal property did not origin the emphasis on the return of property of natural persons to ease. The subject keeps coming back. The planet judaic legislature is cyclically calling on our country to complete its work. Despite this agreement with the US, further governments mostly do not respond harshly to these demands and present an attitude that both parties hope to resolve.


For years, therefore, politicians have been talking about the request to rapidly pass a reprivatisation bill. Despite the fact that there is seldom a common agreement with us over divisions as to the necessity to civilize the return of property, the bill as was not so and there is not. The deficiency of it is increasingly burdensome for local governments. Last year Warsaw had to be added PLN 600 million from the state budget to support claims related to reprivatisation.


However, the chance to rapidly pass specified a bill cannot be seen. As estimated Ministry of Finance (still from 2012), it would mean a jump in public debt by PLN 18 billion, which Poland cannot afford.



It is hard to anticipate that in the election year anyone will address a subject that exposes the state budget to a akin burden. Even now, taking into account the proliferation of electoral promises, it is hard to calculate which gives the chance to implement them. Extra billions on the cost side only make this situation difficult.


For the time being, parliamentarians are only working on the alleged tiny reprivatisation bill, which is intended to offset the negative effects of Bierut's 1945 decree (nationalised all the land in the capital). Members in late June voted against returning public buildings like schools or kindergartens, which means that this property is yet lost to the heirs.


The bill is now in the legislature and will be sitting on Wednesday, although it has not yet been included on the agenda. After the President's signature becomes the applicable law, but let us remind you again: this is only a regulation concerning Warsaw, about which the Office of Sejm Opinions has serious legal doubts.



Unofficially, 1 of the senators told us that during his work on the committee, he learned from a typical of the Treasury Ministry that work on a comprehensive reprivatisation bill was underway. However, he added that akin declarations have been heard for years as a standard answer to the question of amending the law in this area.


Our question on this substance was answered by the Treasury:


"In order to start appropriate work on a law that comprehensively addresses the issue of reprivatisation, it is essential to carry out detailed analyses of the scale of the problem in terms of assets and finances, as well as the anticipation of resolving it by the state. Work is presently underway to measure possible reprivatisation claims across the country.



Data on reprivatization claims filed in the area of individual voivodships, governors and another state legal entities are collected. The assessment of reprivatisation claims, i.e. formally notified and investigated before administrative authorities and courts, as well as those admissible for notification, must besides be combined with an estimation of the value of the assets remaining in the hands of the State, which can be utilized for this purpose. These analyses will service to prepare proposals for a systemic solution to reprivatisation issues".


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