World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder today praised outgoing Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski as a “principled statesman” and called him “a friend of the Jewish people.” Bronislaw Komorowski’s conservative successor Andrzej Duda, who was elected in May, was sworn in on Thursday as Poland’s new head of state.
Lauder declared: “Over the course of the last five years, President Komorowski has done a great deal to improve relations between Jews and Poles. His dedication ensured that the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau was marked in such an impactful and dignified way, and the clear words he found to apologize for the 1941 Jedwabne Pogrom were also much appreciated. We sincerely hope that President Duda will continue to foster closer relations with both the Polish and the international Jewish community, and with the State of Israel.”
Lauder also thanked Komorowski for taking an unequivocal stand on the issue of property restitution. A few days ago, the Polish president refused to sign a controversial bill into law that would have severely restricted Holocaust survivors, their heirs, and others to reclaim properties in the city of Warsaw that were confiscated during and after World War II. The law was passed by the Sejm, Poland’s legislature, in June.
“Instead of signing this bill, President Komorowski took a principled stand and referred it to the Constitutional Tribunal. Imposing statutes of limitations on Holocaust survivors and others who are trying to reclaim what is rightfully theirs are not appropriate and should be abandoned. Instead, we hope that Poland will make a final push to resolve the matter of private property restitution in a fair manner,” said Lauder, who also serves as chairman of the WJRO Council.
In April 2011, Komorowski had called the lack of a restitution bill “a disgrace for Poland.”
In 2010, it was reported in the media that President Komorowski was named after his uncle Bronislaw, an anti-Nazi resistance fighter who was arrested by the Nazi occupiers and executed on his 16th birthday in 1943 after a botched rescue attempt by a Jewish Underground fighter.
