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Polish-Jewish survivor of the Holocaust celebrates her 100th birthday [29]
I have some serious issues with this whole idea of Poland owing money to Jewish families who were forced out during the war.
First off, any of those Jewish organisations that try to squeeze out money for themselves because their fellow Jews suffered in Poland - a categorical no. It doesn't work like that. 'Jews suffered here and lost their property. We're also Jewish, so compensate us.' No chance.
As for Jewish survivors of the holocaust who are still alive, or their families, this is a bit more of a complex subject, however I still don't think Poland ought to be compensating them.
It's a bit like if a woman loses her husband. He goes missing and after some time she thinks he's dead. She grieves for him, but some time later remarries and has a family of her own. It later turns out her husband didn't die. He's still alive and visits her. What is she to do? She loved him, but thought he was dead, so moved on. Should she leave her current family for him? That wouldn't be a nice thing to do.
The survivor situation is similar. Jews had to leave Poland, as they feared for their lives. In doing so they left property behind. Later on, other people moved in to these properties and have lived their with their families for many decades since. Now the survivors or their relatives want the property returned. Surely it would be very harsh to kick out the families who live there?
So the other option is then for the government to compensate them financially. That in turns means the people of Poland will compensate them, because the government operates with taxpayer money. The question is, why should it be Poland that compensates them? Why did Jews leave in such a hurry? Easy, because the Germans invaded and the Nazis wanted to kill them. Millions of [non Jewish] Polish people were also murdered and Polish infrastructure also suffered greatly because of this invasion. So much damage was caused, but so far Poland has not received a dime of compensation from the Germans.
So again, why should Poland pay the Jews that fled the country, when the reason they fled was because of the Germans? Even if some people will claim there was some antisemitism in Poland anyway - no Jew in Poland left all their stuff behind and fled, because of antisemitism. They fled because they feared being murdered by the German Nazis.
So since it was Germans that were the cause of them leaving their possessions behind, why not go to them for the compensation?
