A positive event in Polish-Jewish relations – US rabbis support Poland’s WWII reparations claim
Representatives of the North American Board of Rabbis (NABOR) told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that, from a moral point of view, Poland’s claim for war reparations from Germany needs to be resolved.
On September 1, 2022, the Polish government presented a comprehensive report detailing the material losses suffered by Poland during the Second World War along with a pledge to demand money from Germany in reparations totaling $1.572 trillion. The loss of Polish lives under German occupation is estimated at 5,219,053 victims and about 2.4 million Poles were killed as were about 2.8 million Polish Jews. Approximately 196,000 “racially valuable†Polish children were abducted for Germanization. Poland suffered the highest relative population loss of the Second World War, which was the result of Hitler’s genocidal campaign to destroy Polish society. There were unprecedented losses in infrastructure, arts and culture, banking and insurance, and the State Treasury.
The German Foreign Ministry has rejected Poland’s claims and stated the matter is closed and that the German government would not enter into negotiations on the subject. Berlin claims that the Polish communist government at the time had waived all reparations claims against Germany; however, the Polish government says Poland was under Soviet coercion and unable to make sovereign decisions. Warsaw adds that the waiving of reparations has no proof in formal documentation and the then government’s declaration was forced upon Poland in order to lift the economic burden from Moscow’s former communist ally, East Germany.
Rabbi Art Vernon from Long Island, one of the representatives of a NABOR delegation that visited Poland, told PAP the claim was understandable and important to the Polish government and nation as a whole, but that whether Poland would be successful in its efforts was a political issue.
Rabbi Vernon said NABOR treated the reparations claim as a moral issue but also one of strength, self-confidence, and of Poland regaining its agency and history, which he said were good signs regardless of the outcome. He said he was expressing a personal opinion rather than that of Jewish Americans as a whole, but that he well understood Warsaw’s motivation in claiming damages from Germany.
Vernon said that, following the end of World War II, there was no Polish government capable of achieving anything for the country. The Russians were in control and for many decades Poles were powerless in the matter. Therefore, it is no surprise that Poland, which now has an established democratic government, is making use of the opportunity to claim damages from Berlin. He also said the American rabbis had received a copy of Poland’s comprehensive three-volume report on war damages during their visit to Poland organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, though he had not yet had a chance to study it in full.
Another NABOR delegate, Rabbi Steven Graber, also from Long Island, said that, although 78 years had passed since the end of the war and Poland and Germany are now EU and NATO partners, the events of the war could not be forgotten.
According to Lance Sussman, a retired rabbi from Philadelphia, the reparations issue is difficult due to history and the role of the Soviet Union, which controlled East Germany and as such did not want damages to be paid. But Germany must once again reckon with the Russian threat following the invasion of Ukraine. He argued that, on the one hand, historical problems had to be resolved, but on the other, countries needed to cooperate in order to counter Russian aggression.
The North American Boards of Rabbis (NABOR) was formed in 1999 as part of an effort at interdenominational cohesiveness in the Jewish community. The organization was established to be a parent body for boards of rabbis in individual communities across North America.
Gene Sokolowski, Source: Polish Press Agency, August 30, 2023
