Polish President Andrzej Duda has signed legislation imposing a 30-year limit on claims for the restoration of property seized from its owners.
This has been a fraught issue since Poland’s democratisation. Many Poles lost properties during the Second World War, or after Communist-era nationalisation. A legal route to reclaim them was available, and has now been significantly truncated.
President Duda said that the process had been abused by criminal groups who made false claims and inflicted hardship on property owners who acquired their properties in good faith.
‘I am convinced that with my signature the era of legal chaos ends: the era of re-privatization mafias, the uncertainty of millions of Poles and the lack of respect for the basic rights of citizens of our country’, he said.
Although passed with significant support across the country’s political spectrum – and establishing deadlines limiting the seeking of compensation, as required by a 2015 constitutional court ruling – it has triggered concerns that it will have a disproportionate impact on Jewish claimants who lost property in the Holocaust.
Israel recalled its chargé d’affaires from Warsaw for consultations and has delayed the dispatch of a new ambassador to Poland. Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid commented: ‘Tonight, Poland has become an anti-democratic and illiberal country that does not honour the greatest tragedy in human history. We must never remain silent. Israel and the Jewish people will certainly not remain silent.’
The United States has also voiced concern about the measure.
Poland suffered enormously during the Second World War; its Jewish community – once one of the world’s largest – was largely wiped out. This is a complicated legacy for Poland; legislation introduced in 2018 criminalised the attribution of responsibility to ‘the Polish nation’, a move seen by some as intended to restrict discussion of Polish collaboration in the Holocaust.
[Photo:Lāsma Artmane@lasmaa from unsplash]