Restitution and the "Gold train"

[4thskorpion]

Racially based preferential treatment:

TEREZIN DECLARATION
June 30, 2009

Acknowledging the immeasurable damage sustained by individuals and Jewish communities as a result of wrongful property seizures during the Holocaust (Shoah).

We consider it important, where it has not yet been effectively achieved, to address the private property claims of Holocaust (Shoah) victims concerning immovable (real) property of former owners, heirs or successors, by either in rem restitution or compensation, as may be appropriate, in a fair, comprehensive and nondiscriminatory manner consistent with relevant national law and regulations, as well as international agreements. The process of such restitution or compensation should be expeditious, simple, accessible, transparent, and neither burdensome nor costly to the individual claimant; and we note other positive legislation in this area.

We note that in some states heirless property could serve as a basis for addressing the material necessities of needy Holocaust (Shoah) survivors and to ensure ongoing education about the Holocaust (Shoah), its causes and consequences.

wm, is English a second language for you? I ask because I see no specific mention of anything that could be construed as "Racially based preferential treatment" in the highlighted text or that anyone could understand that the highlighted text means that?[/quote]

However given that only 7-10% of restitution claimants are Jewish that obviously means 90-93% of claims are from non-Jews so the your statement about the "racially based prefential treatment" recieved by the Jews is clearly absurd.

[wm]

Well, every paragraph concerns itself with Shoah.
The definition of Shoah is a genocide in which approximately six million Jews were killed. So it is all about the Jews killed in Shoah.
The declaration didn't mention the communist era at all. Most of the non-Jewish claims are from that era.

Even more because Poland can't afford to restitute everyone - after all the communist confiscated the entire wealth of the country, the end result will be that Poland under pressure of the US, Great Britain and even heads pension funds:

he heads of three of the largest government pension funds in the United States called upon Poland today to make restitution to the owners and heirs of property confiscated by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

will surrender and start paying but only the Jewish claims.

Although it's not known how much. I wrote it is 10% or 20% and it's nonsense. This information is nowhere to be found.
Sometimes it is some kind of percentage paid in bulk (Hungary).
Some demand everything with interest.
The Polish law that didn't make it promised 15%.

Today, the official Polish position is:

Restitution and compensation are regulated in Poland by the provisions of the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure and other laws, and thus individual cases can be pursued in the law courts.

[4thskorpion]

Well, every paragraph concerns itself with Shoah.
The definition of Shoah is a genocide in which approximately six million Jews were killed. So it is all about the Jews killed in Shoah.
The declaration didn't mention the communist era at all. Most of the non-Jewish claims are from that era.

wm, the clue to the specific Terezin declaration is in the title: Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues.


The very first paragraph of the declaration is:

- Aware that Holocaust (Shoah) survivors and other victims of Nazi persecution have reached an advanced age and that it is imperative to respect their personal dignity and to deal with their social welfare needs, as an issue of utmost urgency.

Also worth noting:

Over 40 countries endorsed the Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues during the Prague Conference in July 2009, as well as the follow-up “Guidelines and Best Practices for the Restitution and Compensation of Immovable (Real) Property Confiscated or Otherwise Wrongfully Seized by the Nazis, Fascists and Their Collaborators during the Holocaust (Shoah) Era between 1933 – 1945.” Poland chose to withdraw its support for the Guidelines and Best Practices.

Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues.

Even more because Poland can't afford to restitute everyone - after all the communist confiscated the entire wealth of the country

Not quite:

The Economy of Poland is the largest economy in Central Europe, sixth-largest in the EU and the largest among the ex-communist members of the European Union.Before the late-2000s recession its economy grew a yearly growth rate of over 6.0% . According to the Central Statistical Office of Poland, in 2010 the Polish economic growth rate was 3.9%, which was one of the best results in Europe. In Q1 2014 its economy grew by 3.4% and is expected to grow by 3.4% in 2014, 3.7% in 2015 and 3.9% in 2016.

Economy of Poland

However as authors and historians such as Gross and others have written, the restitution issue in Poland appears less to do with economics and more to do the admission by Poland that many Poles materially gained from the Jewish victims of the Holocaust era and are unwilling to face up to and come to terms with that inconvenient fact.

Below, Anna Bikont writing about her experiences researching her book about the Jedwabne massacre. It is clear what local attitudes about Jews and property restitution in Jedwabne are:

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the story is that there is a new generation guarding the forged memory and defending the fathers who took part in the murder. Whenever they saw me in Jedwabne, those forty-year olds would shout angrily: “You hate the Poles. That’s because Michnik is a Jew, everybody knows that.”

Here are a few samples of what my interlocutors have said:

The Jews are taking over all the offices, in the government and in the Church. Why are you trying to uncover all this in Jedwabne? It’s a gold mine. The Jews want to squeeze money out of us. It was a mistake of the town authorities to let the Jews in and let them dig up the Jewish truth. That’s not our truth. The journalists coming here are Jewish citizens. Gross looks like a madman. When I go abroad, I’m not allowed to do anything I want, and those Jews act as if they were at home.

That book by Gross is one great lie. Some of the houses here used to be Jewish, but mine belongs to me. I never profited on the whole thing. I know how vengeful the kikes are.

Corruption of Polish state officials also seems to figure in the general restitution issue:

It is a great paradox that the state cannot afford to maintain seized property but is
reluctant to return it to its original owners. For example, practically all large state farms are
unprofitable, with hordes of idle employees and decaying assets. These farms are bleeding
money from the public coffers, but there is no official predisposition to return them to their
original owners. Still, at least in theory, former owners have the legal right to be the first ones to
offer a bid for their property in a state auction, and some have reclaimed their property this way.
To salvage the budget, oftentimes local authorities eagerly give up municipal and parochial
properties for a penny. Unfortunately, all too frequently it is the local party kleptocrats who
acquire, and often resell, manor houses and other properties.

Source: RESTYTUCJA: The Problems of Property Restitution in Poland (1939–2001)
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz and Dan Currell

[wm]

Those people of Jedwabne were just expressing their strong opinions and strong feelings - nothing wrong with that, they live in a free country.

As to restitution, Gross is a publicists, one of the huge number of publicists all around the world.
And the Terezin Declaration is just a non-binding declaration.

The Jews are not a foreign entity that dwelt in Poland for some time and now sues for bad customer service. They are Polish citizens or former Polish citizens. For them only the Polish law matters nothing else - it is an internal matter of Poland.
Opinions of outsiders are just opinions.

It's not about thatched cottages in Jedwabne, it is about an entire private economy confiscated and destroyed. From small shops to huge modern plants, tenements, land estates, palaces.
Someone has to absorb all the costs generated by those confiscations and all the inane actions, ineptitude and mismanagement of the communists.
It's not a bad idea to spread the costs over the entire population especially including former owners. Maybe it would be even better the former Polish haves pay most of them, not today's Polish have-nots.

[4thskorpion]

In her book "The Crime and the Silence" Anna Bikont interviews Kazimierz Mocarski a retired school master who was 14 years-old at the time of the Jedwabne atrocity (see page 12-13):

...one wonders if that Polish family still occupy the house "vacated" by the murdered Jews of Jedwabne? I also wonder if they would support restitution for any legal heirs of the dispossessed and murdered former owners?

[wm]

Who cares if they would support or not, this is something for the courts to decide, their opinions are immaterial.
Unfortunately the houses are theirs now thanks to the rule of acquisitive prescription (or more likely adverse possession). The state should pay a compensation in such a case I suppose but I'm not a lawyer.

Reading the Claims Conference web page on Restitution in Eastern Europe it seems the statement " the only major country in the former Soviet bloc without a law to restore or compensate for private property taken by the Nazis or nationalized by Communist governments from Jews and non-Jews alike" is not quite true.
The others are doing something but usually more like nothing than something.
As shown here:

The Czech Republic's highest court has confirmed the rejection of a restitution claim by the descendants of a Jewish man who owned a snap button factory that was taken over by the Nazis and then nationalized.
The Constitutional Court confirmed its 2010 verdict, which overturned a 2009 Supreme Court ruling and all previous rulings of lower courts that found in favor of three relatives of Zikmund Waldes, who owned the Koh-i-noor factory in Prague when the Nazis seized it in 1939 during their occupation of what was then Czechoslovakia. The heirs will also not get back a collection of some 20 paintings that were housed in the plant.

Koh-i-noor was a truly cult brand in Eastern Europe, even today it's one of the world's largest producers of art supplies, and they really say "since 1790" on their web site.
People frequently forget that the nationalizations done by the communists were and are legal, as confirmed by the Czech Republic's highest court.