Fifty-nine US Senators on Monday sent a bipartisan letter to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki urging his government to quickly pass fair legislation regarding restitution, which in its current form, would “discriminate against virtually all American survivors and heirs.”



In the letter, authored by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), the senators wrote that draft legislation regarding restitution of property confiscated during and after the Holocaust would “adversely affect Holocaust victims and their heirs and is therefore of urgent importance to many of our constituents, millions of Americans, and Holocaust survivors around the world." In many cases, property was initially looted by the Nazis and subsequently seized by the Communists.The draft legislation requires that claimants currently be citizens of Poland, as well as having been residents in Poland at the time that their property was nationalized by the Communist regime.A position paper submitted by the WJRO to the Justice Ministry explains that these provisions would exclude the vast majority of Holocaust survivors and their families.Since the Communist authorities nationalized property between 1944 and 1962, the requirement of residency at that time bars survivors who left Poland during the Holocaust or at any point before the property was nationalized, the WJRO wrote.Furthermore, because most Holocaust survivors and their families do not currently hold Polish citizenship, even those survivors who were still residents and citizens at the time their property was nationalized are still likely to be excluded based on the requirement of having current citizenship.In addition, only spouses and direct descendants can stake a claim to assets. “It is in this spirit—coupled with the recognition of the tremendous contributions made by Polish-Americans—that we are writing to express concern about legislation regarding Holocaust Era property restitution that has been proposed by the Polish Ministry of Justice.”They objected to the legislation on the grounds that it would “eliminate the possibility of the return of actual property, provide only limited compensation, prevent compensation for ownership of companies that were destroyed, and bar claims by foreign citizens who did not benefit from eligible post-war treaties, including the one between Poland and the United States.”Gideon Taylor, WJRO Chair of Operations welcomes the letter, saying that “with fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors alive today, we call on Poland urgently to address this historic wrong. Those dispossessed included a swath of prewar Polish citizenry, among them many of the Jews who perished in the Holocaust or who fled Poland after the war.
A letter from 59 US Senators is sent to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki criticising proposed legislation on reparations to Holocaust victims. The Senators say the bill will discriminate against victims and descendants who had emigrated.