The committee wants the restitution process to be 'unbureaucratic, simple, transparent, and timely' so that it 'results in a real benefit' for the former owners, many of whom 'well into their 80s or older'.

The resolutions mentions also Lithuania, but it criticises Poland as 'virtually alone among post-communist countries' in having failed to enact restitution legislation.


The Donald Tusk administration has been drawing up a bill on the restitution of property confiscated by the communists after WWII. The bill is to be ready by September, and by October is should be submitted to parliament.

'We'll adopt solutions that are both acceptable for the budget and do justice, partly at least', Mr Tusk said Monday.

Asked whether in such a case the resolution wasn't unnecessary, the adviser of one of the congressmen on the committee told Gazeta, 'The consecutive Polish cabinets told us not to rush them. And so we've been waiting for almost twenty years. We took a lot of pressure from our voters to remind the Polish government about this issue. And let me assure you that this resolution could have been much firmer'.

The resolution, a fourth one on the issue that can be adopted by the whole Congress, was lobbied through by American Jewish organisations.

Asked whether he realised what burden the restitution would create for the Polish budget, the congressman's adviser said, 'If you had done it ten years ago, the cost would have been much lower. Besides, no one is expecting you to pay 100 or even 50 percent of the property value. The point is that Poland has done nothing for almost twenty years'.

The Senate's foreign affairs committee is to vote on a similar resolution shortly. If it's passed, the two resolutions will likely be merged into one to become the US Congress's official position.

However the resolution will be but an appeal and will not result in any more decisive steps towards Poland.

During the same session, and unanimously too, the House committee passed a resolution commemorating Irena Sendler, who died in May this year, a 'woman whose courage and heroic efforts helped to save over 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust'. The resolution mentions that Ms Sendlerowa worked for the 'underground group Żegota', but says nothing of the fact that Żegota was an official organisation of the Polish Underground State.