I am surprised that the Polish government is not also now demanding the return of the entire treasure-house at the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London ....but wait a former Polish communist government did! However the London Poles refused to hand any of our Polish-British heritage back
Maybe the Polish government has forgotten this case...one of many similar
On August 6, 1997, a score of members of the Prince Czetwertyński family demonstrated before the United States Embassy in Warsaw. The demands of these Polish aristocrats were simple: restitution of their property or a monetary compensation for its loss. They claim—and property registers support their claim—that the land on which the U. S. Embassy sits belongs to them. Moreover, they also had a charming neo-classical chateau that survived the Nazis’
destruction of Warsaw, was occupied by the U.S. Embassy, and was subsequently razed to make way for the current embassy building.
The Czetwertyński family acquired the chateau in 1900. After Poland’s defeat in 1939, the Nazis expropriated the property, which became one of the main Gestapo residences in Warsaw. In 1945, after the arrival of the Soviets, the Communist state radio took over the chateau but continued to pay nominal rent to the owner, the dowager Princess Róża Czetwertyńska. She was also permitted to take out a bank loan for necessary repairs. Next, the Americans occupied it with the permission of the Communist regime in 1949, the year the Princess died. Her son, Prince Stanisław Czetwertyński, inherited the property.
In 1954, however, the Communists arrested him and sentenced him to eight years on trumped up charges of being an “Anglo-Saxon” imperialist spy. His property was expropriated. Meanwhile, the U.S. government had vainly attempted to buy the property from the Czetwertyński family. Finally, in December 1956, ignoring the expropriated owners, the governments of Poland and the U.S. concluded an agreement which granted the latter an eighty-year lease on the land. The agreement stipulated that the Communist regime would be responsible for settling all claims concerning the property taken over by the U.S. government.
As for the chateau, the Communists voided its status as an historical landmark, thus paving the way for its destruction. The chateau no longer graces the posh Aleje Ujazdowskie neighborhood because in 1960 the U.S. government leveled it and in 1963 replaced it with the current hideous structure. Thus, the U.S. Embassy continues to occupy property stolen by the Communists from its rightful owners.
...and the Polish government is claiming the moral high ground over a rifle!
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