Stolen by the Poles

Regarding “Polish PM: We won’t pay one zloty for German crimes” (June 26), an open letter to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Dear Sir,

You say you owe us not one zloty.

My parents were born in the area of Lipno, Poland. They were 9 and 13 years old respectively, when WWII started. My father growing up in the town of Rajeow, experienced antisemitism his entire childhood and was treated with contempt by his teachers. All the Jewish boys had to sit in the back row of the classroom; they were considered second-class citizens.

My grandmother, who survived the Holocaust along with her two daughters, came back to her hometown of Skepe to see if maybe, by the grace of God she would reunite with her husband and son. It was not to be. They were both murdered. When she knocked on the door of her two-story corner house, (the biggest in the town), which bordered the town square, she was refused entry. The people who occupied her home, which she left fully furnished with everything she ever owned, threatened her life if she dared to step in.

Were these people German Nazis? Absolutely not. There wasn’t a German anywhere. They were Polish citizens who exploited the Jewish expulsion and couldn’t wait to steal everything they could from their Jewish neighbors and townspeople.

To add insult to injury, when my grandmother asked the squatters to pay for taking her home, they gave her $100 – which she discovered was counterfeit.

Does the nation of Poland owe my mother’s family and my father’s for the treatment they received and the house which was stolen? You bet they do. Not to mention, the headstones from the local Skepe Jewish cemetery which were stolen by the Poles and used as paving stones.

Wstydz sie!!! Shame on you!

FRANCES KUMMER

Jerusalem