For a few decades Poland has been pressed by Israel, and recently even by USA, to pay compensation for heirless properties that in accordance with Polish inheritance law, were rightfully taken over by the Polish state.
Poland keeps refusing paying any compensation but the demands made by Jewish organisations only keep on growing, so clearly Poland needs to do something about it but fulfilling the demands would mean for Poland to be be literally colonised.
Heirless properties vs properties with heirs For clarity, any heirs have legal paths to claim compensations from Poland and many of them did that. The issue is about compensation for heirless properties. The amount demanded by the state of Israel is about $300 billions.
It is a multiplicity of Poland's budget.
Jews in Poland - a historical note. Jews have been living in Poland for at lest 750[1] years. They assimilated rather well with the society, mostly spoke Polish language and were good citizens. Jews in Poland have been enjoying full liberties as other Polish citizens did. Because Poland was their homeland Polish citizenship was the only citizenship they had. They were Polish citizens. In the census from 1931[2], out of 30m of Polish population around 3m were Jews. Poland had the highest number of Jews living in any country in the world, clearly, there must have been a reason why Jews chose to live in Poland in such great numbers. Jews were free to move to other countries but for some reason they chose to stay in Poland. The reason was obvious Jews knew that no other country would offer them greater freedom and privileges than Poland. So they did not move anywhere[3].
During WW2, 6 millions of Poles died, of which 3 millions were of Jewish origin, that means overwhelming majority of Jews living in Poland died. Because most of Jews left no heirs, by law, properties they owned was taken over by Polish State. Such move was in accordance with Polish inheritance law that is no different that inheritance law in many other countries deriving its inheritance law from Roman Law. In the end, these Jews that where killed in German death camps, were mostly Polish citizens. They lived in Poland, they spoke Polish language, to lesser or greater extent were assimilated with Polish communities. Because the scale of the Holocaust was so vast, the number of empty, ownerless properties was also big. In Warsaw case, German bombing flatten[4] out the whole districts, so properties needed to be rebuild from the ground up.
Nuremberg Trials and German compensations Today, 70 years after the war, Nuremberg Trials are not part of common knowledge. In today's dollars, Germans have paid 14,500,000,000 dollars[5] to Israel for the Holocaust.
Compensation claims From Israeli point of view Poles of Jewish origin that died in Holocaust weren't Poles. There were Jews, so the compensation is a must. For that to happen, Israel demands from Poland to break it's own inheritance law and create precedence or some sort of tribal inheritance law. From Polish point of view, there is no issue at all, because inheritance law makes the case crystal clear. If there are living heirs they have opened legal paths through Polish courts to claim compensation.
Organisation like World Jewish Congress or State of Israel, that in no way are representing Poles of Jewish origin that died in Holocaust, by Polish law have no right to demand any compensation whatsoever. By any objective legal measure, Poland hold the moral high-ground and does not need to worry about anything, however Israel is a superpower, both militarily and in media.
World Jewish Congress In 1996, a chairman of World Jewish Congress[6], Israel Singer[7], said:
More than three million Jews died in Poland, and the Polish people are not going to be the heirs of the Polish Jews. We are never going to allow this. (...) They're gonna hear from us until Poland freezes over again." If Poland did not satisfy Jewish claims it would be "publicly attacked and humiliated"[8]
US Senate bills S447 and H.R.1226 Last December American Jewish faction entered the game of compensation for heirless property by passing two bills that aim at putting even more pressure on Poland to change it's own inheritance law. That is bill S.447[9] and H.R.1226[10] that are a complete legal(or rather illegal) dud[11][12]
1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Kalisz2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_census_of_19313.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-of-europe-before-the-holocaust-map4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx3aGiurRbQ &
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Warsaw5.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reparations_Agreement_between_Israel_and_West_Germany6.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Jewish_Congress7.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Singer8.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110719115337/http://zaprasza.net/a_y.php?mid=213579.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/447/text?format=txt10.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/122611.
https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/78200.pdf12.
http://www.michalkiewicz.pl/do_sciagniecia/uklad_miedzy_rzadem_prl_a_rzadem_usa_dotyczacy_roszczen.pdf [indemnization
agreement USA-PRL(Poland) July 16, 1960 polish version]
In your posts please, stay away from anything related to Holocaust. I am bringing this up so that you don't have to. That chapter has been closed in Nuremberg a few decades ago. I am seeking a serious answer, political answer, on how Poland could play the ball, maintain moral high-ground, free itself from being bullied by Israel and USA and most importantly, avoid being taken over by Israel. What is the best political move that Poland can make to cease these compensation demands, made by no-heirs or by institutions that in no way represent Poles of Jewish origin that died of German national-socialists hands?