Target: Andrzej Duda, President of Poland
Goal: Return properties seized during World War II to families of Holocaust victims and survivors.
Of the estimated three million Jews who called Poland home prior to World War II, a stunning 90 percent were killed during the Holocaust. Today, only 10,000 Jewish descendants of these atrocities remain. The Polish government just added to the pain of these haunted families.
Polish president Andrzej Duda recently signed a bill into law that would effectively prevent descendants of Holocaust victims from ever reclaiming homes and properties seized during the Nazi take-over. Unlike many other impacted countries, Poland never restored these lands to their original owners or families. Instead, the government kept the properties for itself when communism gained a foothold in the nation. While families have fought to reclaim their rightful inheritances in court, the new law bans such claims from being pursued 30 years or more after the fact. In essence, the statute of limitations will have run out for every affected family.
The government claims this move is meant to curtail fraud, but the law represents the latest maneuver in a troubling trend of potential anti-Semitism within Poland. Sign the petition below to demand this country help make amends for families devastated by the gravest human rights injustice that ever took place on its soil.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear President Duda,
Following the absolute devastation of World War II, Jews who survived the unimaginable were left to rebuild their shattered lives. The Polish government did little to make this grueling process easier, seizing homes and livelihoods that rightfully belonged to others.
Those impacts still have consequences today for too many struggling families. With the newest law, you essentially turned your backs once again on these communities. You claim prejudice played no role in the decision, but other troubling actions, such as the attempt to make speaking out about potential complicity in the Holocaust a crime, signal otherwise.
Ultimately, leaders saw the grave error of this thinking and rolled back that insidious law. Please do the same for this equally, if not more damaging affront to Jewish citizens. Join other countries who shared this global trauma in committing compensation funds to families who have been victimized for far too long. Demonstrate to the world the resilient survival spirit of this nation.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Grzegorz Petka
President Duda: Jews have suffered enough in your country, from unspeakable horrors. Now you deny the few survivors that which is rightfully theirs? That’s another criminal act, another act of anti Semitism, and another black mark on Poland’s shameful and disgraceful history.