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US law on Holocaust property unfair: Polish FM

PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki 11.05.2018 13:30
A new US law on monitoring compensation for Holocaust survivors is unfair, Poland’s foreign minister has said.
Jacek CzaputowiczJacek CzaputowiczPolish foreign ministry MSZ (CC BY-NC 2.0)

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act. Under the law, the US State Department will 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.

The law, which was previously adopted by the US Senate and Congress, "does not offer any legal instruments," Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told the wPolityce.pl website in an interview.

He also said that the JUST Act is “not just” because it divides Polish citizens into "Jews and non-Jews."

“There can be no discrimination against non-Jews, and the majority of those to whom restitution applies are people of Polish nationality," he said.

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

A Moscow-backed communist government took power in Poland after the war, confiscated large amounts of property and nationalised it. Most of the owners of nationalised property were non-Jewish Poles.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk on Thursday said that the new US law would not carry any real consequences for Poland.

(gs/pk)

Source: wPolityce.pl

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