Letter to President Trump
Polish Americans Reject
Act S. 447

• PostEagle
• May 8, 2018
• Uncategorized
• 0 Comments

April 25, 2018

The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 90500

Dear Mr. President,

We, the Polish Americans stand united today in our absolute rejection of Act S. 447, which was passed by the U.S. Congress on April 24, 2018! Poland is unquestionably the main target of that Bill. We urge that you VETO this grossly flawed UNJUST bill! Here are the reasons:

• Signing into law S. 447 would violate the terms of the 1960 Treaty between the United States and Poland. Poland has already compensated American nationals whose assets had been nationalized by the Polish Communist government and the United States has indemnified Poland from any additional claims and compensation demands. Poland has also signed similar agreements with twelve (12) other Western European countries and Canada.

• S.447 aims to enrich private Jewish American groups, which make absurd, unfounded claims for hundreds of billions of dollars, against Poland. Your signature under the Bill would legitimize extralegal demands of compensation and/or” restitution of the heirless property”, a concept which carries a contradiction in terms, and which constitutes a departure from the existing law and the Western legal tradition. Heirless property always escheats to the state, and the groups attempting to make claims are not successors of the Polish citizens murdered by Germany between 1939 and 1945.

• If signed into law, the Bill S.447 would destabilize and weaken Poland, the most important strategic ally of the USA in Europe. The universal uproar, which the passage of the Bill created in Poland, has damaging effect on the image of the U.S. in Poland. The S.447 obstructs the U.S. national security interests in Europe.

• Act S. 447 discriminates against Polish Holocaust Survivors. It advocates on behalf of just one group, Jews, and leaves out members of other ethnic and religious groups who were also subjected to the genocidal policies carried out by Germany during WWII.

• Poland has resorted to various means in order to return properties to their rightful owners, regardless of their ethnic background. Tens of thousands of people with legitimate title claims – regardless of their ethnic origin – have recovered their properties through the court system pursuant to the existing private property law. Over 2500 Jewish religious and communal properties in Poland have been returned or compensated for since 1997 when the community and religious organizations property law was enacted.

• Poland was the main victim of German genocidal policies during WWII. The Bill treats Poland and her citizens as perpetrators of the Jewish Holocaust rather than another victim of World War II (“WWII”) German aggression and genocidal policies. Poland suffered the most of all countries during WWII. Poland lost 3 million ethnic Poles and 3 million Polish Jews and experienced physical destruction like no other European country. After the war, Poland was placed under the Soviet brutal oppression for over forty years as a result of 1945 Roosevelt – Churchill – Stalin agreement in Yalta.

Mr. President, justice for all of the Polish victims and their descendants, and for Poland in the reparations due to the German genocidal policies of WWII calls for your VETO of Act S. 447.

Sincerely,
Edward Wojciech Jesman, President
Polish American Congress of Southern California
president@pacsocal.org