WARSAW: Poland’s government on Friday defended a new law slammed as “immoral” by Israel, which experts say could block restitution claims, including Jewish property lost under Nazi Germany’s wartime occupation.
The legislation passed by Poland’s lower house of parliament on Thursday could also thwart wartime property owners and their heirs from receiving compensation after a certain cut-off date, according to experts quoted by the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.
“This immoral law will seriously impact relations between our countries,” the Israeli embassy in Warsaw said on Twitter.
It “will in effect prevent the restitution of Jewish property or compensation requests from Holocaust survivors and their descendants as well as the Jewish community that called Poland home for centuries.
It’s mind-boggling,” the embassy added on Thursday.
Poland’s foreign ministry said it “notes with concern the statements of the Israeli side …
Those comments are indicative of ignorance of the facts and the Polish law.” “Poland is by no means responsible for the Holocaust, an atrocity committed by the German occupant also on Polish citizens of Jewish origin,” it said in a statement.
The US embassy had earlier addressed a letter to the parliament speaker expressing concern over the law, which still requires a green light from the senate and the president to come into effect.
The bill’s authors say it is needed to bring the law into line with a 2015 Constitutional Court ruling, which found that there must be a deadline after which administrative decisions can no longer be contested.
The legislation sets the cut-off date at 10 to 30 years, depending on the case.
“The introduction of time limits for challenging administrative decisions will also lead to the elimination of fraud and irregularities, which occurred on a large scale in reprivatisation cases,” Poland’s foreign ministry said.
“The new regulations do not in any way restrict the possibility of bringing civil suits to seek damages, irrespective of the plaintiff’s nationality or origin,” it added.
For his part, Polish premier Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters: “As long as I’m prime minister, Poland certainly won’t pay for Germany’s crimes.
…
Not one zloty, not one euro, not one dollar.” Six million Poles, half of them Jewish, were killed during Nazi Germany’s 1939-45 occupation of Poland during World War II.
The law was passed with 309 votes in favour, zero against, and 120 abstentions.
Poland defends law that could bar Jewish restitution claims
