The World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) has welcomed a decision by Poland’s President Bronislaw Komorowski not to sign a bill into law that would have severely restricted claims for the restitution of properties confiscated during and after World War II.
The outgoing president instead referred the legislation to the Constitutional Tribunal.
The new law would set a six-month deadline for the rightful pre-World War II owners of Warsaw properties or their heirs to participate in administrative proceedings and would end the practice of appointing a trustee to represent an anonymous heir and take away the right of an owner to seek the return of properties in public use.
It would result in the termination of any remaining claims filed under the 1945 Warsaw Decree, which transferred ownership of properties within the pre-war boundaries of Warsaw to the municipality, unless all the owners of the property participate in the administrative proceeding. The City of Warsaw would be required to publish an announcement, and property owners would have six months to come forward. After six months, the presiding official would dismiss the proceeding and the property would be formally registered as belonging to the state treasury.
“This legislation restricts claimants — whether Jewish or not — from recovering property which was unjustly taken from them,” Gideon Taylor, chair of operations for the World Jewish Restitution Organization, told JTA. “Instead of closing the door, we urge Poland to reopen the deadline so that there is a fair and open claims process for everyone whether the property is in Warsaw or elsewhere in Poland, and whether the claimant is Jewish or note.”
Taylor said Poland was the only country in the European Union that had failed to establish a comprehensive program to address the issue of confiscated Holocaust and Communist-era property.
