Polish PM: Paying Holocaust Restitution Would Be ‘Victory’ For Hitler
Mateusz Morawiecki Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that paying restitution for Jewish property stolen during the Holocaust would be a “victory” for Hitler.
“If today anyone says that Poland has to pay damages to anyone, then we disagree and will continue to do so and it will not happen as long as the country is ruled by Law and Justice,” Morawiecki said during an event Friday in Lodz. “If there were such a terrible injustice, inverting torturer and victim, it would contradict any elementary principle of international law. This would also be Hitler’s posthumous victory, which is why we will never allow it.”
Earlier this month, Morawiecki said that Poland would never pay restitution because Poles were the greatest victims of World War II.
Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and Jewish groups have protested Poland’s failure to pass restitution laws for privately owned property lost by Jews in the Holocaust.
Under the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today law, or JUST, passed a year ago, the U.S. State Department is required to prepare a progress report by this year on the situation of property left behind during the war in 46 countries, including Poland.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
