Poland Enrages Israel; What Are the Details of the New ‘Nazi Holocaust’ Law?

Two Russian newspapers reported on the conflict between “Israel” and Poland after the European country passed a “property law” regarding Holocaust survivors.

On August 16, 2021, Poland announced that its ambassador to “Israel,” Marek Magierowski, would remain in Warsaw “until further notice,” against the background of the escalating diplomatic crisis.

The Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it will take a decision in the next few days on the level of its representation in “Israel.”

A day before, the official in charge of the Israeli embassy in Warsaw, Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon, returned to Tel Aviv after being summoned by her country’s foreign ministry for consultations.

On August 14, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said he had directed Ben-Ari to “immediately return to Israel for indefinite consultations.”

Lapid said on his Twitter account that the new Israeli ambassador, who was scheduled to travel to Poland, would not do so at the present time, adding that his ministry would “recommend the Polish ambassador in Israel to continue his vacation in his country.”

 

Lapid’s comments came hours after Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a law that Tel Aviv says restricts the access of Holocaust survivors of extermination camps in Poland to compensation for their property stolen during World War II (1939-1945).

With Duda’s signature, the law became effective, after Parliament had previously approved it.

This is not the first time that relations between the two countries have been tense due to the Nazi Holocaust, which Warsaw denies any connection with, and strongly rejects the term “Polish death camps.”

In February 2018, the parliament in Warsaw voted on a law criminalizing Poland’s accusation of responsibility for crimes committed by the Nazis on its soil after its 1939 invasion.

The decision sparked an outcry in “Israel,” its then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as an “attempt to deny the Holocaust and rewrite history.”

The Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta says: “The Polish Senate [the highest in Parliament], insists on settling the disputes of property owners in the pre-World War II period, and demanding their return [restitution].”

From now on, any lawsuits will be limited to the Property Restitution Act to hold accountable property manipulators in the previous 30 years.

After its expiry date, it is impossible to return what was confiscated or obtain compensation, according to the council.

The newspaper says: “Israel is confident that the law is directed primarily against the Jews [descendants of Holocaust victims], who were deprived of land and housing by the Nazis on occupied Poland.”

The Polish president confirmed to the Polish Press Agency (PAP) earlier that the initiative had nothing to do with desecrating the memory of the tragedy of the Holocaust survivors.

 

In general, we are not talking about a specific class of landlords, as the President of the Republic insists that the purpose of the amendments is to put an end to the era of legal chaos and mafia revenge, says the newspaper.

According to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish state will not pay for the crimes of the Nazis.

As previously reported by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, it is not only the descendants of Jews, who were taken by the Nazis to concentration camps and sent to the ghetto, who are dissatisfied with the law.

There are even many among the Poles themselves who seek to reclaim their war-earned property.

For example, in Warsaw, the President of the People’s Republic of Poland, Boleslaw Bierut, signed a decree nationalizing lands within Polish borders in the pre-war period for their subsequent restoration in 1945.

The original homeowners were often not found at the time, as the new law eliminates the possibility of any sudden litigation in past ownership cases.

Meanwhile, the United States took the side of the Israelis, and Foreign Minister Antony Blinken urged the Polish president not to sign the document.

“Although Poland is a main ally of NATO, the new law goes against the principles and values ​​that modern democratic countries represent,” Blinken continued, according to The Times of Israel.

According to the Russian newspaper Gazeta.Ru, Warsaw intends to take steps as well in response to the actions and statements of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

In June 2009, on the territory of the former concentration camp in the Czech city of Terezin, Poland and 46 other countries signed the Terezin Declaration, according to which all signatories are obligated to return Jewish property seized during the Holocaust in the form of material restitution or possible compensation.

In 1939, about 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland (out of a total population of 33 million). According to information from open sources, only 300,000 Polish Jews survived the Holocaust.