Polish-Israeli relations: Making amends
Restitution of property lost after World War II by Polish citizens, including those of Jewish descent, dominated Prime Minister Donald Tusk's visit to Israel last week.
The Polish government wants to complete the process of reprivatization as soon as possible, Tusk announced. Poland will compensate authentic claimants for 15-20 percent of the value of their losses, in cash installments, he said.
According to Deputy Treasury Minister Jan Bury, the total value of lost property reaches around zł.80 billion, so that the 20-percent compensation would be equal to approximately zł.16 billion.
A large percentage of the private property belonging to Polish citizens, including those of Jewish descent, was destroyed during World War II, and most of the remainder underwent forced nationalization by the communist regime between 1944 and 1962.
Poland still has not drawn a framework for property compensation for that period. In 2001, Parliament passed a restitution bill, but then-President Aleksander Kwaniewski vetoed it.
This time the necessary bill is to be drawn up by the end of May, Zbigniew Chlebowski of Civic Platform told Polish Radio last week. The compensation bill would include those people who had Polish citizenship in 1944 and lost their property through nationalization in 1944-62, or their heirs, as defined by Polish law.
During his visit to Israel, Tusk also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about increasing the cultural exchange between the two countries. "I would not like Poland to be seen ... as the cemetery of the Jewish nation," Tusk said, adding that Israeli youth should learn about the several hundred years of peaceful coexistence between Poles and Jews.
