Trump signed a law benefiting Polish Jews
Several days ago the world recalled the capitulation of the Nazis in World War II with the capture of Berlin by the Soviet forces that ended the regime of the Third Reich installed by Adolf Hitler who frightened Europe for more than five years. After concluding the Second World War the states involved in the war have compensated the survivors who lost their properties due to Fascists. Several countries have been implementing this compensation.
However, Donald Trump wants the Polish Jews to have priority, something that angered the Polish government. The American president recently signed the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST), a bill that greatly favors those Jews who lost their property during the war.
But the road to hell is paved with good intentions and, although Trump’s action is praiseworthy for many Jewish families, on the other hand other families, even Polish ones whose wealth was also expropriated by the Nazis or the Communists are discriminated against.
Although the law does not imply that the European nations should abide by it, or that the US government takes action against any country, is an action that crests pressure and that the Polish particularly has not liked.
Jacek Czaputowicz, Polish chancellor, on behalf his people told the press that JUST is a measure that favored Jews from other ethnic groups that in their country, as in others in Europe, suffered the Communist and fascist vexation. "This (US) Congress position is not appropriated since it seeks to privilege the Jews, the Jewish community, but not the Polish in general", said Czaputowicz, who also speculated that the law coul be an offense the Polish living in the United States.
Currently, among the plaintiffs for compensation that exists in the European country there are in addition to the Jews, the Ukrainians who emigrated or settled in that nation just before the Second World War started.
Through JUST the State Department is informed of the measures set by European countries to compensate the survivors of the Holocaust as well as the monitoring of the families compensated. It is striking, however, that Poland is one of the countries that does not have a law to compensate these WW2 victims. Hence, the Polish and their chancellor have taken the law signed by Trump as a reproach for their way of handling the matter.
Poland was one of the countries that suffered the most during the Second World War. In addition to Nazi concentration camps such as Auswitch, the Polish were also victims of Stalinism, which according to estimates murdered close to one million of natives.
Pre-war Poland was considered ideal for Jews. According to several historians, Jewish emigration and presence in that country goes back around a millennium, one of the reasons why scholars and academics rated Poland before the conflict as the Jewish Paradise. However, after the invasion of Hitler in 1939 to Poland until the end of the Third Reich about 90% of the Jew Polish was killed. After the war it is estimated that between 180,000 and 240,000 survivors emigrated to Israel, the United States and South America.
In Polish territory there were three of the bloodiest Nazi concentration camps: Auschwitz, Treblinka and Belzec, in which it is estimated that around 1000 people died every day. In all nearly six million of Polish people died during the war, of which about 20% are estimated to be of Jewish origin.
After the victory over Nazi Germany, it is known that the world was divided among the winning nations: the United States and the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Poland has lost out and for almost 45 years they were under the Communist regime imposed by Moscow that even carried out retaliation actions against the government of Poland.
The Nazis expropriated many Polish families of Jewish origin. Meanwhile, the Soviets, once the war ended, nationalized most of these properties, although according to statistics many of these did not belong to the Jews. That is why the Polish have reacted in a negatively to the law signed by Trump, because they consider it an interference in the internal affairs of their country.
After the fall of the Communist regime imposed by the Soviets, the Polish government has returned the properties to their rightful owners, process that has been gradual and taken to court. However, Poland does not have yet a law to regulate this process. Several experts have classified this as unfair and a fraud.