The idea of restitution is a lot easier than the practice. For one thing, the problem of Jewish property in Poland cannot be separated, either ethically or analytically, from many lesser but similar problems around the world. Just looking at Poland, if Jewish properties are to be subject to restitution, then what about other groups in Poland who lost their properties -- the Germans in Wielkopolska and Silesia, the Russians in the Northeast and the Ukrainians in the Southeast. I do not mean Nazis or Soviets, I mean people, usually peasants or smallholders, whose families had lived in Poland for generations, and who we no more guilty or deserving of their fate than the Jews? Ordinarily one should make restitution to those who have suffered directly, but only rarely can than be done now. Now you will be taking property away from people who did nothing to steal it and giving it to people who don't even live in Poland to atone for crimes committed by Germans against their grandparents and greatgrandparents. This is a strange sort of justice. Furthermore, the administration of such mass redistribution of property will be a nightmare (subject to countless frauds) and cost a fortune. The resources it would take to accomplish the restitution can and should be better spent. Better to put the money into Poland's schools, its clinics, its universities -- and to teach about the Holocaust -- than to reassign (one cannot truly call it return) properties three and four generations after the problem. As for setting bad precedents, I ask you to consider how the USA should make restitution to the Native Americans? In many countries the people who live there now are not those who were there a hundred (or even 50) years ago. What possible reason can be given for treating the Jews differently from all the others?

First, Poland put in place a system for returning Communal Jewish Properties (synagogues, mikvahs, etc.) in 1997, and it has worked slowly (partly do to levels of proof required in this terribly corrupt country) but reasonably well. Hundreds of Jewish communal properties have been returned, though one might question the bona fides of the organization to which they were returned. That is not Poland's fault - that is the fault of the various Jewish communities in Poland who spend all their time fighting with each other and who tolerate levels of corruption in their own organizations at least as great as those in the country as a whole. Second, no other country in Eastern Europe -- in fact no other country in the world -- has anything like the number of formerly Jewish properties as Poland has. Recall that approximately 3.4 million Jews lived in Poland in 1938, and that fewer than 30,000 Jews live here now. The homes, shops, factories, etc., were not burnt down in most cases, they were reassigned (or sometimes stolen). There are few records from the era for obvious reasons. It will take an entirely new set of laws; new set of courts; new set of lawyers...and it will go on forever. No one will benefit. Keep in mind that both judges and lawyers in this country are often openly corrupt. A simple case can take five years. Witnesses routinely lie. No one should get involved in the Polish legal system. (3) No other country in Europe has done a better job of property restitution than Poland. If you want to check, then write to people who hand the properties -- the ZGWZ, ul. Twarda 6, Warszawa, Poland -- and ask. I don't think they will have the chutzpah to say that as regards the return of property, Poland has behaved badly. For an interesting example of how restituted properties can still "go wrong" look to the case of the former synagogue in Poznan. www.pozsynpro.org

The right-wing parties, led by the Narodowa Demokracja (Endecja) officially denounced Hitler's barbaric methods, but in fact remained anti-Semitic and regarded the Nazi "solution of the Jewish problem" in Poland with quiet satisfaction. The extreme right-wing radicals, the Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny (ONR) and the Falanga, rejoiced over Hitlerism and approved of the Nazi murders

The Jewish Pogrom in Kielce, July 1946 represents the real Poland. The Poles seem to have forgotten about the Holocaust. You are not saints. Please stop telling these lies. History proves you wrong. You aided the Nazis in the Final Solution. You may not like to hear the truth but that is part of Polish history. Stop your denial. Poland is a very Anti- Jewish country. Just accept it. There is no need for Jews to have relations with Poles. We just do not get along. Any effort to improve relations is a waste of time. I refuse to even try.

... I would reccomend you for noble prize as well as oscars

I think you're Anti-Jewish. You don't know polish history so you can't say anything of it. A lot of Poles died because they hide Jews in their homes. Nazist killed them. It is prize for people who helped Jews at II WW. There is 80% Poles!!! at that list. So please don't say anything if you don't know the true

if anyone by any chance knows how i can contact Daniel Schatz, the writer of the rticle, i would highly appreciate your help. The people and places he mentions in the article I believe are my great aunt and uncle.

this is an excellent article, but it has the following problems: 1. you need to demonstrate how the Government of Poland reacts when you show them the provisions of the treaties Poland ratified, especially re personal possessions! 2. compare it by going to Zamosc and just TRY and get valuables back that CAtholics should not have like shabbos candle sticks, etc. Easy ti identify, hard to get back when the thief refuses to return it! 3. This article by well over 60% of the people in Poland will be perceived as anti-Polish because this is not a logical debate for them. they feel they suffered just as much as Jews did and do not give a damn 4. They deny these allegations and look at what the DA of Krakow is doing to Jan Gross