Poland's back pages

[emad]

Guardian

A landmark case before the European court of human rights could open the door for Holocaust survivors to reclaim property stolen by the Nazis, writes Gillian Sandford
Gillian Sandford in Lodz
Friday February 11, 2005

A big black book held in the land registry of the Polish city of Lodz tells a tale of human enterprise and tragedy in its scrawled ink pages.

The book contains documents relating to a textile factory bought by a Jewish entrepreneur who fled in 1937, like so many, but who failed to escape the Nazis.

The papers inside are written in three languages: Polish, Russian, German and then Polish again - a reminder of the Tsarist rule, German occupation and Communist oppression that is modern Polish history.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworldwar/story/0,14058,1411103,00.html

[Igel]

1. Thanks for the link. Didn't realize that

Lodz (pronounced Wootch) had such a large Jewish population. I just heard that they have a somewhat famous ghetto; I'll be there in May, it seems.

Cleaning up all the various messes in Eastern Europe is going to be hell. Expropriation by the Soviets, then the Nazis, then the soviet Polish government ...

I heard of one case in the Czech republic where a guy got restitution for land taken by the communists from some Czech who fled to the US. The Czech in the US then got title to it, but it turned out he in turn had gotten it from the Nazis after they confiscated it from some Jewish fellow. At some point you have to call "finito."

[American Tragedy]

2. As well as property stolen and destroyed by the Soviets, I would hope

Poland went through hell in the twentieth century, and we should never forget that it didn't end with the Nazis. Though the world justifiably celebrated the end of WWII, the Polish must have had a rather different perspective when the Soviet army charged in to "liberate" their country, robbing and slaughtering innocent civilians and children. Business as usual.

You know, it says a great deal about the Bush administration military-industrial priorities that they figure the best way to help Poland is to fund their army. If you've ever been to Poland, especially a Polish hospital, you know that they need a hell of a lot of other things besides guns... We need a hell of a lot of other things besides guns, for that matter.