Jewish group blasts Polish PM for calling WWII restitution a win for Hitler

The World Jewish Congress on Monday condemns the Polish prime minister for saying that holding Poland liable for the restitution of Jewish property seized by the Nazis during WWII would hand a “posthumous victory” to Hitler.

Poland, a victim of the Nazis, would be turned into a perpetrator, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, becoming the latest ruling party member to comment on a US law on the restitution of Jewish properties seized during the Holocaust.

“This unwillingness to acknowledge that the victims of the Holocaust and their heirs are entitled to a modicum of material justice is unfortunate enough,” says World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder.

“But Prime Minister Morawiecki’s contention — assuming that it was uttered as reported — that providing restitution to Jews for their stolen property would be ‘Hitler’s posthumous victory’ is alarming in the extreme,” he adds in a statement.

According to Polish state television, Morawiecki made the remarks at a convention of the ruling governing Law and Justice (PiS) party in the central city of Lodz last week.

“Whenever anyone says today that Poland must offer someone restitution, we say: we don’t consent, and we won’t,” Morawiecki said, quoted by the television station.

“If it were ever to get to that point, where the executioner and the victim are swapped, then it would go against all principles of international law,” he added.

“It would also be Hitler’s posthumous victory.”

— AFP