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After World War II and coming to power of the communist government in Poland, large scale nationalization occurred. Following the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, some of the formerly nationalized property have been subject to reprivatisation and restored to previous owners, their heirs or other claimants.
The issue of restitution has become contentious in Israel-Poland relations. It has also been criticized in Poland for significant fraud and corruption.
During World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union occupied Poland. They both, in their respective area of occupation, confiscated significant amounts of property. After the Polish Communist government came to power in 1944, it also adopted a policy of large scale nationalization of property in what constituted Poland after the War. The property that had previously been confiscated by Nazi Germany was now classified as "former German" or "abandoned" property. [1] [2]
A restitution law "On Abandoned Real Estates" of May 6, 1945 allowed property owners who had been dispossessed, or their relatives and heirs, whether residing in Poland or outside the country, to reclaim privately owned property under a simplified inheritance procedure. The law remained in effect until the end of 1948. An expedited court process with minimal costs was put in place to handle claims. Applications had to be examined within 21 days, and many claims were processed the day they were filed. The Communist government enacted legislation on "abandoned property", placing severe limitations on inheritance not present in pre-war inheritance law which allowed inheritance by second-degree relatives, limiting restitution to the original owners or direct heirs. The unprecedented rate of extermination of Polish Jews in conjunction with the fact that only Jewish property was officially confiscated by the Nazis suggests "abandoned property" was equivalent to "Jewish property". Communist officials did not conceal this, the formulators of the law argued that it was necessary to prevent wealth concentration in the hands of "unproductive and parasite factors". [3] The initial 1945 decrees were superseded by a 1946 law, [4] with a claims deadline of 31 December 1947 (later extended to 31 December 1948) after which property devolved to the Polish state. [5] Even if Jews regained de jure control, when it was occupied by Poles additional lengthy proceedings were required. [6] The majority of Jewish claimants could not afford the restitution process due to the filing costs, legal fees, and inheritance tax, although all claimants could apply to have these fees waived, or could receive support from state organizations established for that purpose. [7]
Vast[ citation needed ] quantities of Jewish property were unclaimed due to some Jews being murdered when they sought restitution of family property and due to Jews fleeing postwar Poland. The murders, variously estimated, intimidated Jews from filing claims. Unclaimed Jewish property devolved to the Polish state on 31 December 1948, but many Jews who had fled to the Soviet Union were only repatriated after this date. Polish legislation in 1947 severely restricted intestate succession, limiting inheritance by distant family members. [8] Jews who returned to Poland from the Soviet Union and settled in the territories Poland acquired from Germany were entitled to material compensation on equal footing with ethnic Poles who were displaced from Eastern Poland. [9]
After the fall of Communism in 1989, the issue of restitution of property that had been confiscated during the War and nationalised after the War resurfaced, with a number of parties, both domestic (such as the Roman Catholic Church in Poland) and international (such as the Jewish diaspora), claiming that they were unfairly treated in the past and insisting that the issue be revisited. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
In 1989, the Polish government passed laws setting out the restitution procedure for religious organizations. The Commission for the Catholic Church, the first such commission, began operations in 1989, [15] and was active until 2011. It received 3,063 requests, out of which over 2,000 were reviewed positively, resulting in restitution of the property to the claimants. [16] [17] [18] Property commissions for other denominations were created over the next few years. The one for the Evangelical Church was established in 1994, and the ones for the Polish Orthodox Church, and the Jewish Qahal in Poland (represented later by the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland) were created in 1997. [15] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [16] [17]
According to attorney Stephen Denburg, the Jewish communities were not treated fairly. [24] : 252 Four years later, the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) signed an agreement with the Polish government which gave that organization the right to negotiate for repatriation of Jewish property. [24] : 253 In 1997 Polish parliament passed a law on restitution of Jewish communal property, but not on property owned by private individuals. [25] : 9 [24] : 254
Poland entered into twelve Indemnity Treaties between 1948 and 1971, under which Poland paid a specific lump sum to the other states, and Poland and its citizens and legal persons were released from further liability for damages, with compensation obligations being transferred to the other states. [26] No indemnity treaty has been entered into with Israel.
One of those treaties was with the United States, signed on 16 July 1960, that allowed all compensation claims of US citizens to be directed to and dealt with by the US government. Under the treaty, Poland paid to US authorities $40 million (in 1960 values) over 20 years, in full settlement of the claims of US nationals for claims covered by the agreement. In total, 10,169 claims were lodged in the US, with over 5,022 awards made. The awards amounted to $100,737,681.63 principal, and $51,051,825.01 interest. [27] [28] [29]
Property restitution continues to be contentious. The Communist regime in Poland entered into some settlements with international parties, but little compensation has been given to the Polish citizens who remained in Poland. [30] Restoration of property to the Roman Catholic Church, argued to the be the biggest beneficiary, has been criticized as unduly favoring that institution. [13] Efforts to restore Jewish property in Eastern Europe, including Poland (where estimates of the value of seized Jewish private property [25] : 51 range up to at least $2–3 billion according to some estimates. [25] : 57 ), often caused a resurgence of antisemitism. [25] : 9–10 [31] [32] A number of restitution cases has been plagued by corruption and fraud (see reprivatisation fraud in Warsaw), as well as controversial treatment of low-income tenants, many of whom were suddenly evicted once properties changed hands. [11] [10] [33] In 2011 a Polish tenant right activist, Jolanta Brzeska , died in suspicious circumstances, sparking another controversy. [10] [34]
In 2015, the U.S. State Department Special Envoy on Holocaust Issues described the legal situation in Poland, regarding the restitution of private property, as "especially cumbersome, challenging, time consuming and expensive for claimants outside of Poland." [35] : 279 As of 2018, Poland was the last of the European Union and Eastern European post-communist states not to enact a comprehensive restitution bill. [35] : 277
In 2021, Poland enacted a law setting a 30-year time limit on appealing administrative decisions made by special administrative bodies, effectively meaning that owners of property seized in the communist era can no longer receive compensation. The law sparked a diplomatic incident with Israel. [36] [12] [37] Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid described it as “immoral and a disgrace.” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said “I can only say that as long as I am the prime minister, Poland will not pay for German crimes: Neither zloty, nor euro, nor dollar.” [38] After Poland’s President Andrzej Duda signed the law on 14 August, Israel recalled its envoy from Poland and told the Polish ambassador not to return. [39] [40] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had also spoken out against the law, and urged Poland “to develop a clear, efficient and effective legal procedure to resolve confiscated property claims and provide some measure of justice for victims. In the absence of such a procedure, this legislation will harm all Polish citizens whose property was unjustly taken, including that of Polish Jews who were victims of the Holocaust.” [41]
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy which ended after the Partitions of Poland in the 18th century. During World War II there was a nearly complete genocidal destruction of the Polish Jewish community by Nazi Germany and its collaborators of various nationalities, during the German occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945, called the Holocaust. Since the fall of communism in Poland, there has been a renewed interest in Jewish culture, featuring an annual Jewish Culture Festival, new study programs at Polish secondary schools and universities, and the opening of Warsaw's Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Wiedergutmachung after World War II refers to the reparations that the German government agreed to pay in 1953 to the direct survivors of the Holocaust, and to those who were made to work at forced labour camps or who otherwise became victims of the Nazis. The sum would amount, through the years, to over 100 billion Deutsche Mark. Historian Tony Judt writes about Wiedergutmachung:
In making this agreement Konrad Adenauer ran some domestic political risk: in December 1951, just 5 percent of West Germans surveyed admitted feeling ‘guilty’ towards Jews. A further 29 percent acknowledged that Germany owed some restitution to the Jewish people. The rest were divided between those who thought that only people ‘who really committed something’ were responsible and should pay, and those who thought ‘that the Jews themselves were partly responsible for what happened to them during the Third Reich.’ When the restitution agreement was debated in the Bundestag on March 18th 1953, the Communists voted against, the Free Democrats abstained and both the Christian Social Union and Adenauer’s own CDU were divided, with many voting against any Wiedergutmachung (reparations).
After the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989, Jewish cultural, social, and religious life has experienced a revival. Many historical issues related to the Holocaust and the period of Soviet domination (1945–1989) in the country – suppressed by Communist censorship – have been reevaluated and publicly discussed leading to better understanding and visible improvement in Polish-Jewish relations. In 1990, there were 3,800 Jews in Poland, 0.01% of Poland’s population, compared to 3,250,000 before 1939. The number had dropped to 3,200 in 2010.
The Polish 1968 political crisis, also known in Poland as March 1968, Students' March, or March events, was a series of major student, intellectual and other protests against the ruling Polish United Workers' Party of the Polish People's Republic. The crisis led to the suppression of student strikes by security forces in all major academic centres across the country and the subsequent repression of the Polish dissident movement. It was also accompanied by mass emigration following an antisemitic campaign waged by the minister of internal affairs, General Mieczysław Moczar, with the approval of First Secretary Władysław Gomułka of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). The protests overlapped with the events of the Prague Spring in neighboring Czechoslovakia – raising new hopes of democratic reforms among the intelligentsia. The Czechoslovak unrest culminated in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia on 20 August 1968.
Henryk Iwański (1902-1978), nom de guerre Bystry, was a member of the Polish resistance during World War II. He is known for leading one of the most daring actions of the Armia Krajowa in support of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, however later research cast doubts on the veracity of his claims. For his assistance to the Polish Jews Iwański was bestowed the title of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in 1964.
Zew Wawa Morejno was a Polish and American rabbi. He was the last rabbi of the communist People's Republic of Poland, in 1973 emigrating from Poland to the United States without naming a successor.
The World Jewish Congress lawsuit against Swiss banks was launched in 1995 to retrieve deposits made into the three largest Swiss banks by victims of Nazi persecution during and prior to World War II. WJC negotiations were initiated with the Government of Switzerland and Swiss banks, and later expanded to cover Swiss insurance companies, over burdensome proof-of-ownership requirements for accounts and insurance policies. Strong support from both federal and state United States politicians and officials, threats of sanctions against the three Swiss banks, as well as leaked documents from a bank guard pressured a settlement of the suit in 1998 in a U.S. court for multiple classes of people affected by government and banking practices. The Swiss government itself was not a signatory to the deal. As of 2015, US$1.28 billion has been disbursed for 457,100 claimants.
The Holocaust had a deep effect on society both in Europe and the rest of the world, and today its consequences are still being felt, both by children and adults whose ancestors were victims of this genocide.
Anti-Jewish violence in Poland from 1944 to 1946 preceded and followed the end of World War II in Europe and influenced the postwar history of the Jews as well as Polish-Jewish relations. It occurred amid a period of violence and anarchy across the country, caused by lawlessness and anti-communist resistance against the Soviet-backed communist takeover of Poland. The estimated number of Jewish victims varies and ranges up to 2,000. In 2021, Julian Kwiek published the first scientific register of incidents and victims of anti-Jewish violence in Poland in 1944-1947, according to his calculations, the number of victims was at least 1,074 to 1,121. Jews constituted between 2% and 3% of the total number of victims of postwar violence in the country, including the Polish Jews who managed to escape the Holocaust on territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union, and returned after the border changes imposed by the Allies at the Yalta Conference. The incidents ranged from individual attacks to pogroms.
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion.
Israel–Poland relations comprise diplomatic relations between Israel and Poland. Israel has an embassy in Warsaw, while Poland has an embassy in Tel Aviv. The Polish ambassador to Israel is Marek Magierowski, while the newly appointed Israeli ambassador to Poland is Yacov Livne, and the charge d'affaires is Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon. Both countries are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Union for the Mediterranean and United Nations.
The Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce or Project HEART (2011-2014) was a Holocaust restitution project that was created by a decision of the Israeli Government to locate Holocaust victims and their heirs and the property that was taken from them during the Holocaust and to assist in obtaining restitution for that property. Restitution would have been sought using databases containing the data submitted by Holocaust victims and their heirs and information about the property that was taken from them. Those who were interested in participating were directed to fill out a questionnaire to determine their eligibility and may also have accessed a website and call center for assistance. Questionnaires had been collected and processed by an administrator and then forwarded to the Israeli Government, which had planned to negotiate with the relevant Governments, companies and others who hold Holocaust assets. This project used innovations, such as the Internet, not used in previous restitution attempts and marked the most serious attempt at obtaining restitution for aged Holocaust victims and their heirs. By April 2014 the project lost 95% of its funding, is accepting no requests, and it has eventually been absorbed into the Israeli Ministry of Senior Citizens, from which the funding into the project were coming.
The Bug River property refers to property which was within the territory of interbellum Poland and was forcibly vacated by Polish landowners after 1945 when the territory ceased to be inside Poland. The name refers to the Bug River because the Bug forms a major part of the new eastern boundary of Poland largely based on the Curzon Line, separating the so-called Eastern Borderlands from the rest of the current Polish territory. The Bug River land is today distributed between the states of Belarus, Lithuania, and Ukraine. The claims for compensation for this sequestered land are known as the Bug River claims.
The General Government was the German zone of occupation in Poland after the invasion by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, at the start of World War II. The General Government represented the middle portion of occupied Poland, with originally the West being under German control and the East under Soviet control. The basis for this split was to eliminate the Polish state and to turn all Polish nationals as stateless subjects, disregarding international law.
Bierut Decree or Warsaw Land Decree is a common name of the Decree on Ownership and Usufruct of Land in the Area of the Capital of Warsaw also translated as the Decree on Ownership and Use of Land in Warsaw issued in Poland on 26 October 1945 by the State National Council. The Decree, named after the council's leader, Bolesław Bierut, nationalized most of the land properties in Warsaw.
After the end of World War II, the Communist government in Poland instituted large scale nationalizations in Poland starting in 1944.
The Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act of 2017 is US legislation that requires the State Department to report to Congress on steps that 47 countries in Europe have taken to compensate Holocaust survivors and their heirs for assets seized by Nazi Germany and post-war communist governments.
The Terezin Declaration is a non-binding declaration that issued by 47 countries in June 2009, agreeing on measures to right economic wrongs that accompanied the Holocaust against the Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution in Europe. It is neither a treaty nor legally binding international agreement The Holocaust Era Assets Conference took place in Terezín, Czech Republic, the site of the Theresienstadt Ghetto. A year later 43 of the signatories endorsed a companion document, the 2010 Guidelines and Best Practices for the Restitution and Compensation of Immovable (Real) Property, which set best practices for immovable property. According to the guidelines restitution of the property itself is preferred, however when that is not possible payment or substitute property that is "genuinely fair and adequate" is possible. The declaration has no legal power and doesn't define how countries involved should act to fulfill it.
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Postwar anti-Jewish violence in Slovakia resulted in at least 36 deaths of Jews and more than 100 injuries between 1945 and 1948, according to research by the Polish historian Anna Cichopek. Overall, it was significantly less severe than in Poland. The causes of the violence included antisemitism and conflict over the restitution of property stolen from Jews during the Holocaust in Slovakia.
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