"A moot issue? Rethinking Holocaust Era Restitution of Jewish confiscated personal property in Poland", in Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol 13.2

The German invasion of Poland began with the widespread confiscation of property in an effort to fund Hitler’s war effort and to eradicate Poland of all things “degenerate.” In 1939, Poland was the site of the world’s largest Jewish population and the center of the European Jewish World. However, after the German invasion, Poland became the site of Nazi Germany’s most extensive concentration camp and ghetto. The massacre of Polish Jews accounted for a substantial number of the victims in the Holocaust. Indeed, three million Jewish citizens of Poland died at the hands of Hitler. The Nazis ripped the Jews from their homes, closed their
businesses, ruthlessly “confiscated” their assets and other belongings, and sent them to camps to do hard labor and die. Even those objects classified as “unacceptable for home consumption” were used for Nazi gain, as Hitler was “not unaware of [the object’s] market value . . . and the rejects ended up in collections worldwide.“ Thus far, little has been done to return these possessions to their true owners.