Polish American
Strategic Initiative

Act S.447, Public Law 115-171,

“Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act of 2017”
(Introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin of WI on February 27, 2017)
(Signed by President Trump into law on May 9, 2018)­­

The law requires the US Department of State to assess the national laws and policies of countries participating in the 2009 Terezin Holocaust Era Assets Conference, concerning the identification and return of, or restitution of assets allegedly wrongfully seized from Jews during World War II, including the so-called “HEIRLESS PROPERTY”. PASI considers Act S.447 to be legally flawed, discriminatory, unjust, and its language deceiving.

There is no such thing as “heirless property.” In all countries, the United States included, heirless properties escheat to the state. The private Jewish American organizations make legally unfounded demands for billions of dollars without any evidence of title. The so-called “heirless properties” are legal property of the Polish state, the only legal successor of all Polish citizens regardless of their ethnic or religious background. The transfer of such property would only amount to a massive property giveaway.

Law 115-171 is morally offensive because it is based on an apparent double standard, which advocates an extralegal solution, which would not be acceptable in the United States. Furthermore, there are no uncompensated Jewish Holocaust survivors. Jewish organizations, state of Israel and individual Jews received untold billions of dollars from Germany for all human and property losses suffered by European Jews during World War II. The “JUST” law distorts the history of World War II and eliminates Millions of ethnic Polish victims from the definition of Genocide.

Poland must not be held responsible for the Genocide and property expropriations conducted by her German and Soviet occupiers, and for the political, social, and economic ramifications of the Yalta Agreement imposed on Poland by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union in 1944.

Act H.R.943

(Never Again Education Act)
(Introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney of NY. on January 31, 2019)
(Signed by President Trump into law on May 29, 2020)

The Never Again Education Act introduced in the US Senate as S.2085 by Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and in the House of Representatives as HR 943 by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is designed to increase the allegedly diminishing awareness of the Holocaust in the United States. The Never Again Education Act calls to establish a public-private funding mechanism at the US Department of Education to allow the introduction of various new Holocaust education programs, which would target teachers in all 50 states. The law expands US Holocaust Memorial Museum education programming and tasks it with developing and disseminating fitting resources.

PASI continues to oppose the Never Again Education Act, because it fails to acknowledge and include in the envisioned new programs the Genocide committed by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia against millions of Poles. This Act is now a law, yet it unacceptably restricts the meaning and teaching of the WW2 Genocide exclusively to the extermination of Jews.

Senate Resolution 566

(Introduced by Sen. Menendez of NJ. on May 7, 2020)

While PASI supports the idea of the resolution commemorating 22,000 victims of the Katyń Genocide, PASI strongly opposes specific fragments of the proposed resolution. As is, Senate Resolution 566 strips Polish citizens – most of them Prisoners-of-War murdered by Soviet Russia in 1940 – of their citizenship and falsely merges them with a vaguely defined mass of political crimes committed by the Communists worldwide.

The present version of the resolution resembles an attempt at Genocide Denial rather than an accurate characterization of the nature of the horrific mass murders confirmed by the 952 Report of the US Rep. Ray J. Madden Commission.

The proposed text of the resolution is not only historically erroneous, but it also creates specific political and legal consequences, which prejudice and disaffirm the rights of thousands of Polish families to the legal inquests and proper compensation.

Despite the 80 years which have passed, the world is still waiting for the official Genocide recognition by the US government of the brutal mass murders and deportations of millions of Polish citizens. The United States Congress owes the world a clear and straightforward declaration. The US government’s suppression of the Katyń Genocide needs to end today!