JUST 447: August 5, 2019 The Honorable Michael R. Pompeo

United States Senate

WASHINGTON, DC 20510

August 5, 2019

The Honorable Michael R. Pompeo Secretary of State United States Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20011

Dear Mr. Secretary,

The United States and Poland have a strong relationship dating back to the American Revolutionary War that continues today through our NATO partnership. Our alliance is not only based on shared interests, but also the deep affinity between our peoples, who aspire to common ideals. One of those ideals, respect for private property rights, is foundational to the success of democracies.

That is why we were heartened by your public statement in Warsaw in February calling on Poland to take appropriate steps to restitute private property belonging to Holocaust victims, their families and others from whom it was confiscated during the Communist era. Prime Minister Morawiecki’s response to your comments, in which he said that Poland has “resolved” this issue, was deeply troubling. As you know, the issue has not been resolved, nor will it go away.

Now is the time, while the last Holocaust survivors are still alive, to back up our words with meaningful action. We encourage you to pursue bold initiatives to help Poland to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

Poland suffered greatly during the Second World War, and its Jewish population was singled out by the Nazis for extermination. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, approximately 3 million Jews - 90% of Poland’s prewar Jewish population - were murdered by the Nazis. An estimated 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians were killed by the Nazis as well. It was the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators - not Poland- that systematically confiscated Jewish property during the Second World War.

After the war, the Communist regime in Poland nationalized property owned by Jews and non- Jews. In the decades since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Jewish Holocaust survivors of Polish origin and their families as well as others have found it nearly impossible to reclaim or seek compensation for the property that was nationalized by the Polish Communist regime. In fact, Poland is the only country in the European Union that has not passed a comprehensive law for the restitution of or compensation for private property, despite in 2009, endorsing the Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets along with the United States and 45 other nations which among other things encouraged states to pass national legislation that facilitates restitution “in a fair, comprehensive and nondiscriminatory manner.”

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Seventy-four years after the end of the Second World War, the remaining Holocaust survivors are aging and cannot wait any longer for justice. That is why 59 US Senators wrote to the Prime Minister of Poland in March 2018 urging the passage of legislation that would meet the Terezin Declaration’s standards by creating a claims process conducted “in a fair, comprehensive and non-discriminatory manner.” It is also why Congress in May 2018 upanimously passed the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act, which aims to hold countries accountable for fulfilling their promises to Holocaust survivors.

While these actions were important reminders that Americans have not forgotten about this issue, Poland has not yet fulfilled its promises to Holocaust survivors and others from whom property was confiscated and time is running out.

As staunch supporters of the US-Poland relationship, we are writing to urge you to act boldly and with urgency to help Poland resolve this issue comprehensively, and in the context of strengthening the bilateral relationship between our countries.

Sincerely,

Marco Rubio United States Senator

Charles E. Schumer United States Senator

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Kirsten Gillibrand United States Senator

Mike Braun United States Senator

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Steve Daines United States Senator

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James Lankford United States Senator

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Martin Heinrich United States Senator

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Jeffrey A. Merkley United States Senator

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CC:

John R. Bolton

National Security Advisor

Executive Office of the President of the United

States

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The Honorable Mark Esper

Secretary of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The Pentagon

Washington, DC 22202