Trumpet Restitution. Who in Europe can take away Jewish property and whether it will affect Ukraine

This month, US President Donald Trump signed the JUST law on the restitution or transfer of property taken from them to the descendants of Holocaust victims.

Photo: A. Kharchenko

As writes edition CountryAccording to the law, the US State Department must support Jewish organizations that are seeking the return of houses that killed Jews during World War II or the payment of compensation for lost property.

The property must be returned to the heirs of the victims of the genocide, and if they are not left, then the Jewish organizations that are engaged in preserving the memory of the Holocaust (this moment causes the most controversy, because the property will fall into the hands of those who have no direct connection with the victims of the genocide, but see this as support for survivors and assistance in educational activities on the subject of genocide).

Hardest of all is the Trump initiative hitting Eastern European countries, where the Nazis and their local henchmen killed the most Jews in the war years.

Experts call Poland the target of the law; in the pre-war years it was the most “Jewish” state in Europe, more than 3 million Jews lived there. Most of them, about 90%, died in Nazi concentration camps and mass pogroms.

Experts estimate their property taken away from them at about $ 300 billion. These are houses, plots of land, factories and plants that the Nazis first took away and then the communists who came to power nationalized.

“After the fall of communism in 1989, relatives of the former owners tried through the courts to return the property taken from their families or seek compensation, but to no avail. The housing has already been privatized by the new owners, and the state has invested in the renovation of former Jewish enterprises,” Polish journalist Marcin Kowalczyk told Strana.

The case of the return of Jewish property may concern Lviv, which before the war was part of Poland.

Before the Nazi occupation in the capital of Galicia lived 130 thousands of Jews. In terms of numbers, it was the second ethnic group in the city after the Poles.

“The restitution law will quarrel between states and societies”

The 477 law is based on the Terezin Declaration adopted in 2009 (named after the place of its adoption in Terezin, a former Jewish ghetto and concentration camp in the Czech Republic). The document was signed by 46 countries after the Prague Conference on the subject of property from the time of the Holocaust. Autograph set and Ukraine.

These states pledged to return property taken away from the victims of the Jewish genocide.

“The American JUST Act is rather symbolic in nature, since it does not provide for sanctions against countries that did not transfer Jewish property to the heirs. But it deals a serious blow to the image and affects interstate relations, because the topic of the Holocaust is very painful in the world. It’s not for nothing that the Polish diaspora in America protested against Bill 477, they tried to put pressure on congressmen, and in Poland itself it caused outrage,” American international journalist Charles Frago told Strana.

Polish authorities called the law “discriminatory,” and local nationalists picketed the US embassy in Warsaw. “The women will not receive a penny from us,” said Robert Vinnitsky, a member of the Sejm and leader of the National Movement. And video memes circulated on Polish social networks, saying, “Kukish for you!”

Krzysztof Lapinski, a spokesman for the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, said that one cannot expect compensation from Poland for losses and damages caused by Nazi Germany, which initiated World War II and brutally occupied Poland.

According to Lapinski, the US act “could be dangerous in the sense that claims could be formulated” and that this issue should be resolved through diplomatic negotiations.

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputovic also criticized such actions by the United States and Trump during a performance at the club of the Polish intelligentsia in Warsaw. He said that during the Second World War the Poles also died, and their property also passed to the state if there were no descendants. And what can not be put in the unequal rights of the Poles and Jews.

“According to Polish law, in the absence of direct heirs, the property becomes the property of the state, and in this case we are talking about the possibility of acquiring such a right by Jewish organizations. The issue of restitution will always give rise to conflicting interpretations, because in any case there will be those who will not be satisfied with the state’s decision. And although they will not be held accountable for failure to comply with Law 447, this is a declarative document, it will still become the subject of disputes between states and societies,” predicts Irina Vereshchuk, president of the Center for Baltic-Black Sea Studies, in an interview with Strana.

On the other hand, Poland has always been a major ally and partner of the United States in Europe, so Polish diplomats are hoping for a compromise. Among the arguments they mention military and energy cooperation.

“There is more politics in Law 477. This is another nod to the influential Israeli lobby, after the cancellation of the nuclear deal with Iran and the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. For this, Israeli politicians have already called Trump the greatest friend of their state,” says Frago.

"Response" to the Polish law on the Jewish question

Experts call the restitution bill a “response” from the United States and Israel to the Polish authorities’ view of the history of the Holocaust. We are talking about the scandalous law on the Jewish question, which was adopted this winter in Poland.

These are amendments to the law “On the Institute of National Remembrance”, according to which they can give from three to five years in prison for public statements about the involvement of Poles in the Holocaust, as well as for glorifying Ukrainian nationalists (in Ukraine it was called “anti-Bandera”). In particular, the expression “Polish death camp” is prohibited.

In recent years, Warsaw has been grappling with painful debate over the country's role in Nazi Germany's crimes, including against the Jewish population. During the war, concentration death camps were built there, including Auschwitz and Treblinka (by the way, Poland itself is demanding reparations from the Germans in the amount of $850 billion - this is how much Warsaw estimates the damage that Germany caused during World War II, Berlin says that all military accounts have long been closed).

Polish law greatly outraged Jews around the world and caused a very angry reaction from the governments of Israel and the United States. Washington urged the Polish authorities to revise the law.

“Poland made a mistake by opening Pandora’s box.” Warsaw prompted US Jewish organizations, which have great influence on Congress and the government in general, to act more categorically and radically, defending their right to respect for the victims of the Holocaust, as well as the right to know the truth about the events of those years,” says Vereshchuk.

“Ukraine will have to return property to Jews or pay compensation”

As for Ukraine, these problems may concern us if the issue of our country's accession to the EU turns into a practical plane.

“Restitution is not yet happening in Ukraine, so the American law will serve as a reminder to our authorities that this problem will have to be solved. Almost all European countries went through the process of restitution of Jewish communal property. This will begin to happen for us when we approach joining the European Union. Ukraine will have to return the Jewish community or communal property, including synagogues, houses of worship, schools, hospitals, or provide material compensation for its loss,” Eduard Dolinsky, head of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, told Strana.

Especially a lot of Jewish property in Western Ukraine, the former Polish lands.

“Jews lived in Lviv from time immemorial, until they were exterminated en masse by the Nazis and their accomplices. Until 1939, Jewish merchants owned hundreds of shops, cafes, hotels, factories and factories. For example, large businessman Ion Sprecher, owner of the largest construction company in Galicia, built the first Lviv “skyscraper” - a seven-story building behind the monument to Adam Mickiewicz in the city center; in Soviet times there was a House of Books there, and now there are shops. Sprecher was called the local Scrooge; he ate only potatoes and butter and walked so as not to spend money on travel. But he did not skimp on construction. Many Jewish scientists, artists, writers, actors, lawyers lived in Lvov - famous throughout Europe. In addition to real estate and business, Lviv Jews had dozens of synagogues, the Bet Hamidrash house of wisdom, and their own court. In the old Jewish quarter, after the war, only a fragment of the Golden Rose synagogue remained, which was destroyed by the Nazis in 1942,” says Grigory Stakhursky, an expert on the history of Lviv.

Photo: A. Kharchenko

During the war, most Lviv Jews were killed. Lviv ghetto was the third largest after Warsaw and Lodz.

“According to Jewish authors, at the beginning of July 1941 in Lviv, during three-day pogroms, from 2 to 6 thousand Jews died. In the so-called “days of Petliura” (July-August-1941), the Ukrainian police exterminated about 5 thousand more Lviv Jews, mainly from among the intelligentsia. In general, anti-Jewish pogroms took place in 58 cities and towns in Western Ukraine (24 thousand Jews died),” Oksana Borutskaya, a researcher at the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion, tells Strana.

Among historians there are disputes about the involvement of Lviv in the murder of Jews. Some insist that many citizens have sheltered Jews, risking their lives. But there are other eyewitness accounts that talk about the involvement of the local population in the pogroms, which supported the Nazis.

“In June 1941, on the ninth day of the war, Hitler’s troops entered Lviv along with the Nachtigal battalion, consisting of Ukrainian soldiers (the future commander of the UPA Yuri Shukhevych served in it, among others - Ed.). The Ukrainian police was created for Lvov and the whole district. Together with the German Sonderkommandos, it carried out arrests and pogroms. German gendarmes, together with police officers and volunteers, drove Jews out of their homes and forced them to clean the streets with their bare hands or their clothes. At the same time they beat them with sticks and iron rods. Many Jews were killed on the spot,” wrote Yakov Honigsman, a Jewish historian and author of numerous books on the history of the Jews of Galicia, about the bloody page in Lviv history.

Photo: evreimir.com

Anti-Semitic attacks will exacerbate relations with Israel

Experts say: the issue of restitution to the victims of the Holocaust for Ukraine may be aggravated against the background of growing nationalism and increasingly loud anti-Semitic scandals, which have recently become more frequent in our country.

A recent example is the scandal surrounding Vasily Marushinets, the Ukrainian consul in Hamburg and a native of Transcarpathia, who was convicted of openly anti-Semitic posts on social networks and veneration of the Nazis. Vladimir Moskal, the mayor of the Carpathian Skole in the Lviv region and a member of the Right Sector, also “distinguished himself” with anti-Semitic speeches.

“The more such Marushins in Ukraine, the worse it will be for relations with Israel and the world Jewish movement,” political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko tells Strana.

Periodically, incidents with Jewish organizations arise in Ukraine. Last summer, the existing synagogue on the street. The Mikhnovsky brothers in Lviv were thrown a Molotov cocktail, and offensive inscriptions appeared on the houses of the Jewish community in the city center - “Get rid of the Vlada” and “Remember 1 linden.”

“This is an allusion to the pogroms in Lviv, which took place from June 30 to July 2, 1941, during which seven thousand Jews died,” says Adel Dianova, director of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Charitable Foundation “Hesed-Aryeh.”

On the same days, Shukhevychfest was held in Lviv in honor of the 110th anniversary of the birth of one of the OUN leaders and commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) Yuriy Shukhevych, who was accused of participating in the murder of Jews.

Dolinsky directly connected the festival named after Shukhevych and the attack on the synagogue, believing that the local extreme right-wing radicals were behind the incident.

“The festival in memory of Shukhevych was held on June 30 - July 2 - the days when the Jewish pogrom took place in Lviv in 1941. This, for example, is as if the Jewish community, on the day of remembrance of the victims of the Holodomor, organized a “Kaganovich Fest” (Lazar Kaganovich, a close associate of Stalin and the leader of Soviet Ukraine in the 20s, is considered by some historians to be involved in the organization of the Holodomor - Ed. ),” says Dolinsky.

The Lviv City Council condemned “acts of vandalism” against Jews. “Lviv has always been, is and will be a tolerant city,” Deputy Mayor of Lvov Andrey Moskalenko said then.

Traces of the Molotov cocktail at the synagogue in Lviv, which was attacked last July during the days of Jewish pogroms and rallies in honor of Shukhevych. Photo: facebook.com/eduard.dolinsky

By the way, on the eve of Shukhevychfest, Jewish organizations demanded to cancel the holiday, considering it offensive and cynical to hold it on the days of remembrance of the victims of Jewish pogroms.

“This event insults the memory of those who died during the Holocaust. Roman Shukhevych served in the Nachtigal battalion, which collaborated with Nazi troops. Ukrainian nationalists from the UPA and Nachtigall willingly participated in the pogroms, in which up to 1941 thousand Jews were killed in early July 4,” said the appeal of the National Coalition in Support of Eurasian Jewry on the eve of Shukhevychfest.

And the CEO of the World Jewish Congress, Robert Singer, said: “It is regrettable that Lviv will hold an event in honor of an anti-Semitic murderer on the anniversary of the brutal massacre in which thousands of Jews died.”

The Ukrainian nationalists themselves reject both Shukhevych’s involvement in the Jewish pogroms during the war years and the accusations of attacks on the synagogue of his modern fans.

Poles threaten to bill Ukraine for $ 5 billion

By the way, not only Jews, but also Poles can force Ukraine to return their pre-war possessions.

There is no talk of restitution at the state level yet, but in the last few years the organization “Restitution of Kresov” has been gaining momentum in Poland. Activists have prepared several thousand cases for legal action to return former property in Western Ukraine that belonged to Poles evicted after World War II.

In total, according to the head of the organization, Konrad Renkas, about 150 thousand Poles can present such rights. “The total amount of claims could reach $5 billion. This is payment for Polish houses, lands, factories, farms, workshops,” he calculated.

“We are going to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. A number of Polish members of the European Parliament are ready to work in this direction,” Renkas told Strana.

“The Polish authorities may review the legislative framework that relates to this issue. The ruling party will have enough votes in the Seimas,” Vereshchuk, director of the Center for Baltic-Black Sea Studies, told Strana.

In the meantime, according to the expert, legally these cases are doomed to defeat in the European courts.

“Back in the 90s, Poland adopted a corresponding law with a clear procedure for return and compensation for damage caused to those Poles who lost property as a result of eviction from the eastern lands in the first half of the 2004th century,” says Vereshchuk. “This was the EU’s requirement for Poland, which pledged to resolve this issue before joining in XNUMX.” That is, from the point of view of Europe, this topic is closed and it is unlikely that the Poles, even if their authorities have such a desire, will be able to turn the situation in their favor.”

Read also on ForumDaily:

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