• news

• Political-political

Holocaust survivors angry over Polish property law: "Not only did they participate in the murder - now this law?"

Following the decision of the President of Poland to approve the law restricting claims for property looted in the Holocaust, elderly people who survived the inferno as children told Walla!

About their feelings.

"We were in hiding and they took property, it hurts," Halina said, and Nahum added: "The Poles have never been good friends of the Jews, neither then nor today.

Tags

• Poland

• Polish law

Eli Ashkenazi

Sunday, 15 August 2021, 23:37

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments

Holocaust survivors today (Monday) attack Polish President Andrzej Duda's decision to approve the Property Law, which will make it difficult for claims to return Jewish property looted in the Holocaust. "It is not enough that most of the Polish people did not help, and the majority even participated in murder and extradition, now this law is being legislated? It hurts," Halina Birnbaum, 91, a Polish-born woman who went through the Holocaust in the Warsaw ghetto and extermination camps, lost her family.

"While we were helpless in hiding, dreaming only of freedom, we saw around Poles entering the ghetto, taking apartments, buildings and property," attacked Birnbaum, a poet, writer and translator, noting that she herself never intended to act to restore property, and that her anger stemmed from the face The moral. "After so much suffering, we went through every minute and every hour of our lives, when we saw how people are taken to death and taken from them.

"Over the years we have reached understandings between the two countries, and now the Polish government is putting everything back. Apparently what was built over the years was not deep enough. The law.

More on Walla!

Polish Prime Minister v. Lapid: The decision against us is political - it will have consequences

To the full article

More on Walla!

• The President of Poland has approved the law restricting property claims, Israel is returning the representative from Warsaw

• Poland: Parliament approves a law that could restrict communication in the country

• Cartilage wears out and knees hurt?

  Get to know the treatment that will put you on your feet

Will sign the law despite Israeli opposition.

President of Poland, yesterday (Photo: Reuters)

Birnbaum was in second grade when the Germans invaded Poland. "I grew up in the Holocaust, from day one to day one," she said. In a conversation with Walla! She described the hell in which she lived in those years - life in the Warsaw ghetto, escaping from hiding to hiding, in severe hunger and constant fear, and in a sudden sleep with clothes and shoes on her body. "Around the ghetto it was emptying and we saw the Poles coming in and taking things for themselves. We no longer cared about anything, we just wanted to stay alive," she said.

The Holocaust survivor made it clear that she did not blame the entire Polish people for the law. "I have many friends in Poland who oppose it, and in general they live today under a government that kills democracy," she explains. "The law is part of a broader trend of the Polish government, both in relation to the trend of renouncing the Polish people's role in the genocide of the Jewish people and as a government that violates liberal values ​​such as free media.

The law caused a sharp crisis, Polish Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (Photo: Reuters)

Nahum Rotenberg was an 11-year-old boy when the Germans entered the city of Lodz, Poland.

He lost his parents and brother in the Birkenau extermination camp.

His family had a matzah bakery, in partnership with another family, which operated throughout the year.

He never claimed the property stolen from his family, but Polish law angers him morally and ethically.

However he is not surprised by the approval of the law.

"I am not surprised by the new law. The Poles have never been good friends of the Jews, neither then nor today," he told Walla !.

According to him, a huge amount of property was stolen from the Jews, but he estimates that the vast majority of the Jewish property owners were murdered and not a single remnant of their families remains, which would require his return today.

According to him, he himself would not return to Poland today, even if he were offered an apartment and property.

"To this day I do not believe in them," he explained.

"I once went with my son to Birkenau. There were anti-Jewish graffiti on the walls of the city. When we arrived at the hotel in the evening I asked the receptionist how many Jews live in Poland and he replied that they were lonely. 'So why do Jews still hate here?' Their ', he replied to me.

Controversial law, Polish parliament debates property law last week (Photo: Reuters)

As will be recalled, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid decided to temporarily lower relations with Poland following the law, and returned the head of the embassy in Warsaw to consultations in Jerusalem.

Yesterday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki came out against Lapid and threatened a response from his country.

"Israel's actions increase hatred of Poland around the world," the Polish prime minister said.

"If the Israeli government continues to attack Poland, it will have consequences for Poland's bilateral relations and its conduct in international forums."

In response to the Polish Prime Minister's statement, Lapid said: "The negative impact on our relations began as soon as Poland chose in 2018 to start passing laws aimed at harming the memory of the Holocaust and the Jewish people. We are not afraid of antisemitic threats, and we have no intention of blinking at the shameful behavior of the anti-democratic Polish government. "

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments