Act on restitution for Jews not key in Poland-US relations: FM

“Poland is one of the US’s closest and most valuable allies. The question of property restitution is one of very many issues raised by the American side in bilateral relations […] and does not have a fundamental significance for Polish-American relations as a whole,” Czaputowicz said in an interview published by state news agency PAP on Friday.

“This has recently been confirmed by the US Ambassador to Warsaw, Georgette Mosbacher,” added Czaputowicz.

He was referring to the US Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act under which the US State Department is expected to report to Congress on what steps countries in Europe have taken to compensate Holocaust survivors and their heirs for property seized under Nazi German occupation and communism.

“We assess the [JUST] act negatively, even though it does not entail any legal consequences,” said Czaputowicz.

Under Polish law, property without legal heirs belongs to the State Treasury.

Poland’s government is readying a bill to protect the country against any claims for compensation over World War II, an official in Warsaw said earlier this month.

Most of Poland’s large Jewish population was murdered by the occupying Germans during World War II.

After the war, a Moscow-backed communist government took power in Poland, confiscated large amounts of property and nationalised it.

(jh/pk)

Source: PAP