World Jewish News

Ann's Church . (photo credit:COURTESY ANN DRILLICH)

Second generation Holocaust survivor in legal battle with Polish church

After winning a court case against a Catholic church in Poland over stolen property, Ann Drillich, daughter of two Holocaust survivors, is yet to see the results. Australian-Polish doctor Ann, inherited the property in Tarow from her late mother Blanka Goldman, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in the basement of her own family home. At age 18, she fled the Tarnow ghetto, after the rest of her family had perished. Ann says the Poetschke family--who rented part of the Goldman House-- saved her mother's life. They hid her away in the basement, while they lived upstairs.

After the war, Blanka repossessed and inherited the entire estate. When she left the country in 1948, fleeing anti-Semitism that lingered after the Holocaust, she delegated the power to administer the estate to the Poetschkes. After Blanka's death, her family inherited the property and continued to entrust its administration to George Poetschke.

In 1994, Ann's father, Henry Drillich, nominated George for the honor of Righteous among the Nations, which he received in 1995. Ann notes that her family also expressed their gratitude to the Poetschkes, through financial means. But the relationship turned sour when the Goldman-Drillich family discovered years later, that in 1986 George Poetschke had illegally acquired 8,583 square meters of land that had belonged to Blanka Goldman Drillich. He pocketed half of it, and donated the other half to the church. Ann tells The Jerusalem Post that George was advised by Parish lawyers, to this end. "It was a betrayal from the man our family trusted implicitly and nominated as a righteous gentile," she says, remarking that her late father had described it as “one of the greatest disappointments of his life.” The Our Lady of the Scapular in Tarnow church now stands on her family’s land. The church legally and technically belongs to Ann, but she's never been in; when she tried to, she found it locked.

In 2010, Ann launched a long legal battle over the property stolen from her family and she and her father learned about the theft by Poetschke. She won the case against the parish in 2013, but in April this year the church appealed, based on a claim of usucapion; the court denied their appeal. “The church was found to have property that wasn’t theirs. You would have thought they would settle after the court reversed the initial illegal acquisition, but they didn’t, they again tried for usucapion,” Ann remarks. “You wouldn’t think the church would do such a thing- but they did.” She tells the Post that since the court’s decision in April, the church has not offered her a penny, after having already refused to negotiate with her following the 2013 court decision too. Ann is therefore suing the church.

Asked whether she wants the land itself returned to her she responds: “No. I want proper settlement but if the Parish refuses that might need to happen. I think a public recognition of wrong would be the right thing to do, though I don't expect it.”

Ann by no means won the battle for the entire estate, saying that most of it was appropriated. The Goldman Drillich House, now called the Wedding Palace, was reclaimed through usucapion by the Treasury and City of Tarnow, after reversing the decision by which they acquired it in 2013. “The court refused to accept it was impossible for us to lodge a successful claim during the People's Republic of Poland (communist Poland),” Ann explains, and included this period in the 30 period required for usucapion.

“This government isn’t doing anything about property restitution,”shes states - and she’s not alone in this opinion. Indeed, on Wednesday, a constitutional court in Poland rejected a motion to scrap a law, which critics say is preventing restitution of some property that used to belong to Jewish families in Warsaw.

The Polish Constitutional Tribunal gave its ruling on a review requested by the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO), which challenged the constitutionality of a law passed last year by the Polish Parliament that limits the rights of claimants to restitution for private property in the Polish capital.

The WJRO said the move highlights the need to resolve Holocaust-era restitution in Poland. “We are very disappointed that the court upheld an unjust law that ends the rights of many claimants to their property in Warsaw,” said Gideon Taylor, WJRO chair of operations. “This decision highlights the need for Poland, at long last, to do what all other countries in the former Soviet bloc have done: establish a national program to provide all Jewish and non-Jewish former owners, and their families, the opportunity to claim restitution or compensation for their property confiscated during the Holocaust or by the Communist authorities. As the last survivors get older, now is the time for Poland to act.”

“Survivors are running out of time for Poland to meet its obligations to return property,” said Jehuda Evron, president of the Holocaust Restitution Committee, a New York-based group of Polish survivors. “We are losing survivors by the day, and we must do everything we can to ensure they spend the last few years of their life in dignity.”

The chief rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, told the Post that key issue is ownership. “This is not about Jewish ownership. It’s not about synagogues or cemeteries – for which there is a process – it’s about private ownership by anyone. The decision is disappointing and it has an impact on Jews, but it’s not about Jews.” Familiar with Ann’s case, Rabbi Schudrich said the outcome “shows that the Polish court upheld the law.” He said that while it was disappointing that it took so long, he was hopeful that a wise and fair solution would be arrived at in a timely manner.

While Rabbi Schudrich was hesitant to comment on the Catholic church, Ann pointed out that Pope Francis was landing in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, for a leadership drive. “Will he show leadership on this?” she mused.

By TAMARA ZIEVE. JTA contributed to this report

JPost.com