The transfer ceremony was held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on Wednesday and involved Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Greece’s Ministry of Culture, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute, and the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
The collection includes textiles and decorative finials used with Torah scrolls, among other synagogue objects. Records show the items were transferred in 1951-1952 to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
Polish Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska said restitution has special meaning for Poland, a country that lost statehood for more than a century and then suffered devastating losses during World War II.
“For a country that was deprived of its statehood for over 100 years, and then experienced the cruelty of World War II so painfully, every recovered monument is a symbol of restoring historical justice,” she said.
Kolekcja judaików wraca do Grecji.
Historyczna kolekcja 91 greckich judaików, skradzionych w czasie II wojny światowej obywatelom Grecji i z greckich synagog przez niemiecką organizację Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, a odnalezionych w Polsce po wojnie, powraca do kraju… pic.twitter.com/eyJ4M4MEJZ
— Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego (@kultura_gov_pl) March 4, 2026
Cienkowska noted that Poland has spent years tracing and recovering cultural property looted from Poland and described that effort as a continuing priority.
She said Poland therefore understands the importance of restitution for Greece, adding that the objects being returned were taken from synagogues and unlawfully seized from Greek citizens during the war by a Nazi organization, later found after the war in a German cultural-property depot located on what is now Polish territory.
The collection was subsequently placed under the care of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, she said.
Greece submitted a restitution claim to the Polish ministry in December 2024, with documentation stating the items were looted in occupied Greece between 1941 and 1943, Cienkowska said.
She called the handover “a historic moment,” saying it was the first time another country had used a special procedure under Poland’s 2017 law on the restitution of national cultural property to secure the return of objects illegally removed from its territory and later found in Poland.
Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said the return carried multiple layers of symbolism.
“They are part of the living memory of my country and of Greek Jews,” she said, describing the objects as linked to family stories and to relatives who never returned from Nazi concentration camps, victims of the Holocaust.
She said the effort to recover them was driven not only by legal and artistic considerations, but also by “a deep sense of duty” to honor Greek Jews murdered during the war.
Piotr Wiślicki, head of the board of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute, said the handover was “an expression of respect” for Holocaust victims and for the history of Greek Jews, and a reflection of principles that should underpin modern Europe, including responsibility, solidarity and justice.
“Today we are not returning only objects, we are returning a fragment of memory, restoring part of history to its rightful place,” he said.
Zanet Battinou, director of the Jewish Museum of Greece, which is to receive the items, said the objects were more than historical artifacts and formed part of the life and national memory of Greek Jews.
Polish officials said the items were looted by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, a Nazi unit created to systematically seize cultural property, artworks, libraries, and archives across occupied Europe.
The set of 91 objects was found after the war in the Central Museum Storage Facility of the former Ministry of Culture and Art at Bożków Castle in southwestern Poland.
Do Grecji wraca 91 judaików, ukradzionych w czasie II wojny światowej przez Niemców, a odnalezionych w Polsce. To pierwszy w historii przypadek zwrotu obiektów nielegalnie przemieszczonych z innych państw do Polski.https://t.co/vPBYnbOwkG pic.twitter.com/KEbqouwMgz
— Dzieje.pl (@dziejepl) March 4, 2026
The handover was supported by the World Jewish Restitution Organization, an international body that represents Jewish communities in efforts to recover property lost during the Holocaust.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP