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Pre-war Jewish property in Poland now worth $30b
Haaretz ^ | 29/03/2005 | By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent

Posted on 03/30/2005 11:37:59 AM PST by Grzegorz 246

The Jewish property left in Poland on the eve of World War II is today worth more than $30 billion, according to a comprehensive report drawn up at the request of the Israeli government.

The estimate does not include communal buildings and facilities held by the various Jewish communities in different parts of Poland. The report was drawn up by experts from the government, the business sector and non-profit and non-governmental organizations.

Some 10 percent of Poland's population was Jewish before the Holocaust.

The report relates not only to the value of the property but also to its legal status, and proposes to the government how to proceed. It will be discussed at the upcoming meeting of the ministerial committee on returning Jewish property.

The Foreign Ministry is opposed to explicit government intervention in returning Jewish property in eastern Europe, saying it could affect ties with these countries, particularly with Poland.

The government approved a proposal by Diaspora Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky at the end of 2003 to set up under his leadership a ministerial committee on the subject. A steering committee, headed by Sharansky's adviser on Jewish property affairs, subsequently heard historians, legal experts and representatives of Jewish organizations, and examined archival material in various places including Yad Vashem and in Poland.

Sharansky's spokesperson, Rivka Kanarik said predawn Tuesday that the experts were not finished working on the report. As a result, Kanarik said, the steering committee has yet to formulate a policy regarding how to dispense the property in question.

According to a source close to the committee, many of the Polish Jews were very wealthy.

"They controlled the oil and textile industries, and held expensive properties, many of which are now in the downtown areas of the cities," the source said.

The Hebrew daily Ma'ariv reported Monday that the Polish government had proposed a new draft law permitting heirs to receive 15 percent of the worth of their property. Sources said it was unlikely that the law would be approved, and that the sum was insufficient, but expressed satisfaction that such a precedent had been set.

Since 90 percent of Polish Jewry perished in the Holocaust, it was unlikely that there would be many heirs, they said, and therefore a joint Jewish body should be set up and recognized as representing the Jewish people, as had been done in Germany.

Foreign Ministry sources say that the issue of returning property is a very sensitive one in Polish society today, and should be handled by Jewish organizations rather than the Israeli government.

There is a great deal of tension over German demands for possible restitution for German citizens who were forced to leave Poland, they say. However, the former Israeli ambassador to Poland, Shevah Weiss, said Monday that there was a strong moral responsibility to return the property to the Jews of Poland.

"I don't believe the Poles will break off diplomatic relations over this moral issue," he said, "particularly in light of the fact that the elite in Poland certainly has an awareness of the issue and the readiness to make amends."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Israel; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: jews; notaboutterri; poland
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1 posted on 03/30/2005 11:38:00 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
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To: Grzegorz 246

Well, haven't the Germans paid reparations for this? I can't see how the current Polish government should have to pay.


2 posted on 03/30/2005 11:43:20 AM PST by conserv13
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To: Grzegorz 246

How not to win friends and influence people chapter 2.


3 posted on 03/30/2005 11:44:42 AM PST by CzarNicky (The problem with bad ideas is that they seemed like good ideas at the time.)
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To: conserv13
Well, haven't the Germans paid reparations for this? I can't see how the current Polish government should have to pay.

Germany has nothing to do with what the Polish government stole from the Jews, and yes, they should have to pay it ALL back to the Jews!

4 posted on 03/30/2005 11:46:20 AM PST by NRA2BFree (Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge ..)
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To: Grzegorz 246

Any direct heirs to property should be considered for some sort of compensation for their specific real estate, the rest should be left alone.

IMHO.


5 posted on 03/30/2005 11:49:23 AM PST by Eurotwit (WI)
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To: Grzegorz 246

This is disgusting. Vile, disgusting, unhinged greed.

It was the German State which stole from the Jews in Germany and in Poland. Poland did not profit from the Holocaust; it shared in it. Poland endured horrific suffering at the hands of the Nazis, then the Soviets, and made into a destitute, ravished, barren landscape.

Why sue Poland? In a credit to her people, she has spring alive again, and has more cash than her oppressor, the New Soviet Empire. So the snivelling sycophants of Pluto dash to her like ticks. Not to relieve the suffering of the heirs of the Holocaust; the world must mourn that they do not exist. Rather, to fatten the lawyers: "[I]t was unlikely that there would be many heirs, they said, and therefore a joint Jewish body should be set up and recognized as representing the Jewish people, as had been done in Germany."

So just as Poland staggers to her feet, the vipers return to drain her life.

Sickening, just sickening.

"Foreign Ministry sources say that the issue of returning property is a very sensitive one in Polish society today, and should be handled by Jewish organizations rather than the Israeli government."

Please note: This is the give-away. This is not the Jewish people. This is the "Non-Government Organization" crowd!


6 posted on 03/30/2005 11:53:03 AM PST by dangus
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To: NRA2BFree

>> Germany has nothing to do with what the Polish government stole from the Jews, and yes, they should have to pay it ALL back to the Jews! <<

Which Polish government stole it from the Jews? The Nazis or the Stalinists?


7 posted on 03/30/2005 11:53:57 AM PST by dangus
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To: NRA2BFree
That's ridiculous. The Nazis and the Soviets confiscated this property.

If the original owners want it back, then the governments of Germany and Russia should buy it back for them at market prices.

Otherwise it's an injustice, especially to the millions of Poles living in Poland who have never had their property returned to them.

8 posted on 03/30/2005 11:57:04 AM PST by wideawake (God bless our brave soldiers and their Commander in Chief)
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To: Grzegorz 246

will get back to this


14 posted on 03/30/2005 12:17:43 PM PST by warsaw44
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To: wideawake; dangus
Which Polish government stole it from the Jews? The Nazis or the Stalinists?

I believe the initial post-war coalition government, though compensation covers property confiscated between 1945 and 1962.

Otherwise it's an injustice, especially to the millions of Poles living in Poland who have never had their property returned to them.

They were compensated, unless they didn't file claims. Unfortunately the initial legislation required that claimants be Polish citizens, effectively elimating most Jews and their heirs.

15 posted on 03/30/2005 12:17:58 PM PST by SJackson (You simply have to accept the fact that we are all corrupt-Mahmud Abbas to senior UN official, 1996)
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To: Montrose007
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16 posted on 03/30/2005 12:18:25 PM PST by Admin Moderator
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
17 posted on 03/30/2005 12:18:34 PM PST by SJackson (You simply have to accept the fact that we are all corrupt-Mahmud Abbas to senior UN official, 1996)
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To: Grzegorz 246

Sounds like a good precedent to me. There are millions, maybe billions in dollars worth of property in Missouri and Illinois stolen by anti-mormon bigots from my mormon ancestors prior to the civil war.

The anti-mormon mobocracy, officially sponsored and supported by the state and federal governments at the time, came much closer to proportionately wiping out the mormons than the nazis did to wiping out the jews. Where's this group's outrage over that?

I want my share of the reparations--at today's fair market value of course.


18 posted on 03/30/2005 12:19:37 PM PST by Auntie Dem (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Terrorist lovers gotta go!)
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To: Grzegorz 246

Are the israelis going to give back the money to the pallies for their buildings that were conquered during the wars in 1948, 67', 73', 82'?


19 posted on 03/30/2005 12:21:45 PM PST by hoosierboy
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To: Auntie Dem

Ancestors of mine on my father's side lost a whole lot of nice property in Ireland after Cromwell's campaign. Maybe I should be compensated. O but then again, Im a UK citizen so should I pay myself?


20 posted on 03/30/2005 12:23:54 PM PST by free_european
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