Over 90 Greek Jewish religious artifacts, stolen during the Nazi occupation of Greece, are being returned from Poland under an agreement between the two countries, the Ministry of Culture has announced.
The collection, which consists of 91 objects, was looted from synagogues and Jewish families in Greece by the Nazi-era “Rosenberg Task Force,” an organization tasked with appropriating cultural property during World War II.
The facilities include:
46 liturgical textiles;
17 pairs of Torah scrolls;
9 individual Torah scrolls or fragments;
A pair of hanging ornaments.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni traveled to Warsaw on Wednesday to receive the artifacts, describing their return as an important act of historical justice and the first repatriation of cultural goods from Poland to their country of origin.
“These relics… are part of the living memory of my country and of Greek Jews,” Mendoni said, noting their connection to communities destroyed during the Holocaust.
Polish Minister of Culture, Marta Cienkowska, called the repatriation "a historic moment," achieved in less than two years through cooperation between the two ministries.
The artifacts were discovered after the war in castles in Lower Silesia, where property looted by the Nazis had been stored, and were transferred in 1951 to the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. Greece first requested their return in 2001, writes ekathimerini.
