Polish PM Vows ‘Never’ to Pay Property Restitution to Holocaust Victims

Mateusz Morawiecki
ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images

The Times of Israel reports:  Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has vowed that his country would never pay restitution for Jewish properties stolen during the Holocaust, saying that such a move would be a “victory for Hitler.”

At a Saturday campaign rally in Lodz, Morawiecki doubled down on his insistence that his Law & Justice party “would not consent” to claims of Holocaust restitution, telling voters “We will defend Poland.” Morawiecki said paying restitution “violates international law and would also be a posthumous victory for Hitler, which is why we will never allow it.”

Poland is the only country in the European Union that has not passed comprehensive national legislation to return, or provide compensation for, private property confiscated by the Nazis or nationalized by the communist regime. Pre-war Poland was a Jewish heartland, with a centuries-old community numbering some 3.2 million, or around 10 percent of the country’s population at the time. Most Polish Jews were murdered in massacres or concentration camps.

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