A senior Jewish official in Poland said legislation that would rule out property restitution and severely limit compensation for confiscated property could be buried in committee when it is sent back to Poland’s lower parliamentary house.
The proposed bill is extremely sensitive and has generated opposition from Israel, the US and Jewish organizations, and some elements in the Polish parliament are now willing for the issue to disappear.
The Jewish official noted, however, that continued, high-profile international opposition to the bill could push nationalist forces in the lower house to approve the law.
In June, the lower house of the Polish parliament, the Sejm, passed a highly controversial bill that would forestall property restitution, or compensation, for people whose property was confiscated by the Polish Communist regime after World War II, including Holocaust survivors.
The bill then passed to the Senate, where it was approved on Friday, albeit with several amendments.
According to the new version of the law, after the law is passed no new claims will be able to be made for property restitution, and recovery of such properties in pending legal proceedings will also be impossible.
However, compensation for such properties will still be possible in pending proceedings, providing that the claimant can show that the confiscation was invalid.
And new requests for compensation will be possible for just three months after the final adoption of the legislation.
The new version of the law now needs to be approved once again by the lower house, and would then need the signature of the president to become law.
The senior Jewish official who spoke on condition of anonymity said “The new version of the law is better than that which was originally proposed, although it still does not do as much as it should for the rights of those who lost property.”
The official added that it is possible the law will get buried in committee in the lower house, because of the international opposition it has generated, including from the US and Israel.
“Fundamentally, Poland needs to face the fact that communist government stole property, and it needs to give compensation to all property owners. The question is what is the best possible solution in the current situation,” said the source.
Gideon Taylor, chair of operations for the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO), said, however, that the legislation was in effect putting an end to any further claims for restitution or compensation, and argued that even the claims made possible in the three-month window would be very difficult to pursue.
Taylor also noted that almost all other Eastern European countries in which Jewish, and other, property was confiscated after the war have passed legislation allowing for some form of formal process for property restitution or compensation, with Poland the biggest exception.
“There has never been a claims process. They used to say you can go to court, but now even that is going to be cut off,” said Taylor.
“It’s saying this issue is done, and it’s papering over what was a non-existent process. Every other country has taken some steps to provide for compensation, and then pressed ahead with providing legal certainty, but in Poland the issue was never addressed at all.”
Taylor continued: “A society which abides by the rule of law cannot close something off which has never been addressed. This law is saying to survivors and their families ‘You don’t matter, and the issue is closed’ but this issue will not just disappear just because legislation is passed.