Statement of Jehuda Evron, Chairman of the Holocaust Restitution Committee

Mr. Evron is a Holocaust survivor born in 1931.

My name is Jehuda Evron and I am the President of the Holocaust Restitution Committee, an umbrella organization in the forefront of fighting for the cause of Polish restitution for Holocaust survivors and their heirs.

The individuals that our organizations represent are well into their 80s. Even their heirs are in their sixties. They seek the return of their homes in an environment of fairness and equity.

These homes were seized by the Nazis during the Holocaust or the Shoah. These properties have been expropriated by successive communist regimes pursuant to a series of decrees. All of these decrees are still in effect today in Poland.

Poland claims that the survivors and their heirs should go into the Polish court system to secure a return of their homes. Out of thousands of active members of our organization, not a single one has yet been able to secure the return of the property under the Polish legal system.

This is the reason that Mr. Henry Pikelny has decided to take his case before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. There is no way to achieve justice on this subject under the Polish legal system.

We don’t understand why Poland was not requested to stop violating this basic human right of private property as a condition of joining the European Union where this right is also protected by law.

We expected that a nation like Poland that suffered so much during the Nazi and Communist eras, would understand the suffering of other people. There are no words to describe the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. We don’t understand why Poland is creating additional suffering by denying our right to our homes?

The process of property restitution has been critically important to my family for the past twenty years. My wife lost every member of her family in the carnage of Poland during World War II.

All that is left from my wife's family are some tragic memories and her home.

This summer we are planning to take our 11 children and grandchildren to Poland and show them where my wife grew up and to show them Auschwitz where all her family was murdered. How are we going to explain to these children when we reach her home in Zywiec, that after their grandfather was murdered in the most barbaric way, it is the Polish Government and not their mother inheriting this house?

Unfortunately, Poland still doesn’t understand that for us, the survivors, the restitution is not a monetary issue. It is a moral issue of justice that we are waiting for so long to be corrected.

The Polish effort to provide property restitution has so far failed. Every single year brings with it news reports that Poland is preparing to deal seriously with the property restitution issue. However, no legislation has been passed to date. Furthermore, Poland has failed and refused to negotiate a resolution of the property restitution issues with the HRC and the Jewish world. The passage of 15 years since Poland has achieved democracy without addressing the basic human right of ownership is inexcusable.

How long can our 80-year-old members wait for justice?