Shlomo Taub of Israel, founder of a Polish-based organization, spoke with IsraelNationalRadio's Eve Harow about his efforts to help Holocaust-era Jews reclaim their long-lost property from the hands of absentee-owner administration authorities, mostly in Poland.
Taub's Legacy organization helps Holocaust victims and their descendants reclaim property they left behind in Poland and elsewhere in Europe.
"We must remember," Taub said, "that Poland had 3. 5million Jews before World War II, and afterwards only 280,000 or 300,000 survived. Life was erased, but property was not; it is still there. We are calling for awareness. Awareness is the name of the game. Those 280,000 survivors have the right to claim what was never erased or destroyed; the properties are there, they are being used. We say go and take it, or at least sue for it - otherwise it will be lost forever. Time is absolutely of the essence."
Taub became involved in the issue of Jewish-owned property in Poland via his personal family experience: "I was born in Poland after the war, and my family decided to remain in Cracow. My parents owned property there, but after we came to Israel in 1951, we [the children] were always told that we shouldn't go touch it because it was unworthy for us to step on Polish soil. Only about about ten years ago, after my parents had passed away, I decided that I wanted to see our family property. So I went, and I saw beautiful residential homes in the middle of Cracow, the Jewish area. They were in good condition, with Polish people living there. I didn't know if they knew who the owners were. I found that my parents were still listed as the owners, and that an administrative authority was running the property on behalf of 'owners who were not there.'"
Taub decided that he wanted to reclaim the property: "It was very easy for me to prove that I was the heir, but I had to find a local law office that would be willing to work with me. It took me two years before the court awarded me these two beautiful houses in Cracow. During this period, others asked me, 'Hey Shlomo, maybe you can find our property in Lodz, or other places, too?' And this is how Legacy was born..."
Legacy began with an office in Cracow, "then we opened one in Warsaw, then in Prague, and now we are involved in Romania as well, and in Germany too, where possible." The company now has a website, <www.polishlegacy.org>.
Taub is disdainful of the fact that 60 years after the Holocaust, so many Jewish properties in Europe have not been returned to their Jewish owners: "There are many organization dealing with restitution and compensation, such as the Jewish Agency, Bnai Brith, the Congress, etc. But they are doing nothing, and their files are just collecting dust; the clients then come to me with these dusty files... Unfortunately, there is still $40 billion worth of Jewish assets and property lying there, untouched. The Israeli government reported in 2005 an even higher amount..."
Taub also had strong words against the Polish government, which, he said, "is playing a cynical game. Almost every year, a new government arises in Poland, and the new Prime Minister comes up with a new nice invitation for Jews. The newest Prime Minister, for instance, elected just last November, offered to give compensation - but he said it would be a minimum percentage of the true value of the property, and that it would be spread out over many years. They want people to wait in line, and try to prove their ownership, and bring all the documentation, and then if they ever succeed, they will get a minimum value. Meanwhile, the survivors are already very old, and many of them will die waiting on line..."
25% Are Successful
The process is not a simple one, nor is it cheap, Taub acknowledges: "Sometimes officials have to be paid extra - spoken to in their own language, if you will. There are other costs as well, and it is very painstaking; it must be done step by step. We have to work with lawyers in Poland. Prospective owners must prove that they are the heirs of the last owners of the property; this is not simple or always possible. But in the end, it could be very profitable. Out of every ten cases, two or three end successfully, which I feel is a good record - and these properties are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more."
"Not to mention the moral aspects," added show hostess Harow. "By not trying to claim these properties, we are allowing a situation of allowing the murderers to inherit as well, as in the case of King Ahab [as recounted in Kings I 21, who killed Navot of Jezreel and then took his vineyard - ed.]... In addition, many Holocaust survivors, as we know, are very poor financially; they spent many of their working years in concentration camps, many of them require medication, etc."
"The name of the game," Taub concluded, "is awareness. Now is the time."