Warsaw – Polish Nationalists Protest US Over Holocaust Claims

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    Thousands of Polish nationalists marched to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, protesting that the U.S. is putting pressure on Poland to compensate Jews whose families lost property during the Holocaust, on May 11, 2019. The protesters included far-right groups and their supporters. They said the United States has no right to interfere in Polish affairs and that the U.S. government is putting "Jewish interests" over the interests of Poland.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)Warsaw – Thousands of Polish nationalists marched to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw Saturday, protesting that the U.S. is putting pressure on Poland to compensate Jews whose families lost property during the Holocaust.

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    The protest took place amid a dramatic rise in anti-Semitic hate speech in public life in Poland and it appeared to be one of the largest anti-Jewish street demonstrations in recent times. It also comes as far-right groups are gaining in popularity, pressuring the conservative government to move further to the right.

    Protesters, including far-right groups and their supporters, say the United States has no right to interfere in Polish affairs and that the U.S. government is putting “Jewish interests” over the interests of Poland.

    Poland was a major victim of Nazi Germany during World War II and those protesting say it is not fair to ask Poland to compensate Jewish victims when Poland has never received adequate compensation from Germany.

    “Why should we have to pay money today when nobody gives us anything?” said 22-year-old Kamil Wencwel. “Americans only think about Jewish and not Polish interests.”

    The protesters shouted “no to claims!” and “This is Poland, not Polin,” using the Hebrew word for Poland.

    Rafal Pankowski, a sociologist who heads the anti-extremist group Never Again, called the march “probably the biggest openly anti-Jewish street demonstration in Europe in recent years.”
    Thousands of Polish nationalists march to the U.S. Embassy, in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, May 11, 2019.
    One couple wore matching T-shirts reading “death to the enemies of the fatherland,” while another man wore a shirt saying: “I will not apologize for Jedwabne” — a massacre of Jews by their Polish neighbors in 1941 under the German occupation.

    Among those far-right politicians who led the march were Janusz Korwin-Mikke and Grzegorz Braun, who have joined forces in a far-right coalition standing in the elections to the European Parliament later this month. Stopping Jewish restitution claims has been one of their key priorities, along with fighting what they call pro-LGBT “propaganda.” The movement is polling well with young Polish men.

    Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki echoed the feelings of the protesters at a campaign rally Saturday, saying that it is Poles who deserve compensation.

    Poland was the heartland of European Jewish life before the Holocaust, with most of the 3.3 million Polish Jews murdered by occupying Nazi German forces. Christian Poles were also targeted by the Germans, killed in massacres and in concentration camps.

    Many Poles to this day have a feeling that their suffering has not been adequately acknowledged by the world, while that of Jewish suffering in the Holocaust has, creating what has often been called a “competition of victimhood.”

    Many of the properties of both Jews and non-Jews were destroyed during the war or were looted and later nationalized by the communist regime that followed.

    The protests in Warsaw target U.S. law S. 447, also known as the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (or JUST) Act. It was signed into law by President Donald Trump last year and requires the State Department to report to Congress on the state of restitution of property stolen in the Holocaust in dozens of countries.
    Thousands of Polish nationalists march to the U.S. Embassy, in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, May 11, 2019.
    Protesters said paying compensation would ruin Poland’s economy.

    But Jewish organizations, particularly the World Jewish Restitution Organization, have been seeking compensation for Holocaust survivors and their families, considering compensation a matter of justice for a population that was subjected to genocide.

    Poland is the only European Union country that hasn’t passed laws regulating the compensation of looted or national property, and the head of the WJRO, Gideon Taylor, noted Saturday that such property “continues to benefit the Polish economy.”

    At least two U.S. Confederate flags were visible at Saturday’s protest, which began with a rally in front of the prime minister’s office before the protesters walked to the U.S. Embassy. Men in Native American headdress held a banner with a message pointing to what they see as U.S. double standards: “USA, Practice 447 at home. Return stolen lands to the descendants of native tribes.”

    With pressure building on this issue, the U.S. State Department’s new envoy on anti-Semitism, Elan Carr, was in Warsaw this past week, telling leaders and media that the U.S. is only urging Poland to fulfil a non-binding commitment it made in 2009 to act on the issue. He also said the U.S. recognizes that Poland was a victim of the war and is not dictating how Warsaw regulates compensation.
    Thousands of Polish nationalists march to the U.S. Embassy, in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, May 11, 2019.
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    13 Comments
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    PaulinSaudi
    PaulinSaudi
    4 years ago

    There can no additional monetary compensation. The time for that has passed.

    4 years ago

    To: PaulinSaudi- Are you dense, or what? There is no international statute of limitations, regarding this matter. The fact is that the Poles, as individuals, and as official government agents stole Jewish property, not only from those who were murdered, but from survivors who went back to Poland after World War Two, to claim their property. For example, in 1947, when survivors went back to Kielce, in Poland, they found Poles living in their homes. They Poles were angry that they survived the concentration camps, and refused to give them back their homes. There was a pogrom there, and hundreds of Jews were murdered. It took the Polish government over seventy years to acknowledge its complicity in that atrocity. This is similar to the situation, which was illustrated in the 1990’s, when it was found that the Swiss government, had kept billions of dollars in assets, which belonged to survivors, as well as relatives of those killed in the Shoah. The Swiss also alleged “Jewish pressure”, but in the end, they agreed to hand over billions. One can just sense the hatred on the faces of those Poles, who were marching. I can’t imagine why any Jews would want to live in Poland.

    PaulinSaudi
    PaulinSaudi
    4 years ago

    Yes, there were very great crimes. They were committed by people and groups who are now mostly gone against people and groups that are mostly gone. This is getting to be a long time ago. Any settlement now will be paid by people who did nothing wrong to people who had no harm done to them.

    Phineas
    Phineas
    4 years ago

    Poland has a moral duty to the Jews who lost property but let’s be realistic. It’s a fairly poor, backward and anti-semitic country that feels it was victimized in WWII. They don’t feel any guilt and probably dont have paperwork of who owned what. Compensation just isn’t going to happen.

    4 years ago

    To PaulinSaudi- Property which was stolen, such as homes, artwork, jewelry, commercial real estate, etc., must be returned to the heirs of the deceased. Returning of such property is not compensation, but is the law! The Poles choose to have selective historical amnesia, but it won’t work. Also, the country which you live in, has selective historical amnesia, regarding how it suppresses human rights, and has done so for decades. I doubt that you would send e-mails about what goes on in your back yard, since the Saudi religious police, would be at your door, in a heartbeat.

    PaulinSaudi
    PaulinSaudi
    4 years ago

    International settlements have already been made. The accounts are as settled as we can ever hope them to be. The present generation need not keep paying for the sins of those that came before.

    Let us focus on what we are talking about, Poland.

    4 years ago

    This just goes to show the depth of anti-semitism that still exists in Poland. I was in Europe for Pesach and on our way home I visited Kielce our home town, to go to the Bais HaChaim to be Kavar Avos. I also stopped in to the Museum dedicated to the memory of those murdered during the post war Kielce Pogrom. To say it was a shocking & moving experience would be a gross understatement. no matter how modern & developed Poland is I could still feel the Yiddish blood running in the streets. The happiest moment was when the plane lifted off from Warsaw & I was able to recite tefilah HaDerech and thank Hakodesh Borchu for his kindness. This is truly a g”shultene land. May they all burn in gehenom leyolum voed! A Kelicer Yid.

    4 years ago

    To; #9 - I agree with you,100%. Today, the Poles cry that the Red Army did nothing to help them in 1944, when they held an uprising against the Nazis in Warsaw, and the Nazis finished them off. However, one year earlier, the same farbisen, momzarim Poles, refused to help the Jews, when they held an uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, in 1943. Thus, I have no sympathy for the Poles. The 5,000 Jews who live there, should leave, now. At least, Germany has shown contrition, and admitted its crimes. Poland, in its warped thinking, was “a victim”.