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Why are Jews pestering Poland for "proper" WW2 monetary restitution/reparations? [750]
Most property taken by the Nazis and their quislings was simply retained and nationalised under Poland's postwar communist regime. Some remains in private hands. More than two decades after Poland became a democracy, the issue of restitution is still a blot on its historical record.
The total value of this expropriated property today is about $US60 billion ($56bn), including buildings, land and artworks. Many of the assets were seized from Polish Jews, some three million of whom, or 90 per cent of the prewar Jewish population, perished in the Holocaust. But of the claims for stolen property, only 17 per cent are made by Jewish survivors or their relatives - in most cases there was no one left alive to make a claim and no heirs to inherit it. An entire people was dispossessed.
This year, the Polish government declared that it could no longer consider paying compensation because of the world economic crisis. Work on drafting a law has stopped. Paying even partial compensation, it was claimed, would add significantly to the national debt and exceed debt limits imposed by the Maastricht treaty. Poland claims it cannot afford to pay its historical dues.
The greater question is whether Poland can afford not to.
Poland was a victim in the war. Invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union, it was looted and ravaged, leaving at least five million dead. It has confronted the demons of the past with extraordinary courage and greater honesty than any post-communist country. The role played by the Polish underground and Polish exiles in winning World War II is finally being acknowledged.
theaustralian.com.au/news/world/poland-must-repay-debt-from-wartime-theft/story-e6frg6ux-1226095546308
