| March 3, 2003
Former Leader of Jewish Community arrested in Cracow: Defrauded Holocaust Heirs
THE former vice-head of the Cracow Jewish community in Cracow, Feliks T . (his last name was not disclosed), was arrested March 1 [2003] in Cracow, the Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported March 2.
The prosecutor has charged him with overseeing the fraudulent acquisition of Cracow apartment buildings that once belonged to Jews. According to daily Rzeczpospolita , March 3, the prosecutor’s office alleged that Feliks T. was joint leader of a gang that in 1997-99 used forged documents to take over apartment buildings and real estate.
Members of the gang located property that belonged to Jews who perished in WWII, then, pretending to be the owners or their heirs, took possession of and sold it to third parties. Three other members of the gang had been arrested previously.
One of them forged a signature on a document enabling him to take possession of an apartment building. The prosecutor’s office has been investigating numerous cases of embezzlement of formerly Jewish apartment buildings in Cracow. In order to make the transactions, the fraudsters used forged powers of attorneys and persons with the same last names as the dead owners.
Website note: The above item was compiled from two Polish news-items (which are reproduced below): a PAP despatch which disappeared the same day it was posted (March 2), and could not be found anywhere. and a Rzeczpospolita article (dated March 3).
1[ The PAP despatch :] [03-02] [00:36]
Late on Saturday evening, the Cracow court arrested Feliks T., former vice-chairman of the Jewish community in Cracow. The prosecutor’s office accused him of managing the extortion of tenement houses in Cracow, prosecutor Jacek Para told PAP. The value of the stolen property was estimated at PLN 450,000. PLN, however – according to the prosecutor’s office – due to the developing nature of the investigation, this value will certainly increase.
2The Rzeczpospolita article:
Arrest of the head of a group of Cracow fraudsters
He sold post-Jewish tenement houses
The prosecutor’s office charged the former vice-chairman of the Jewish community in Cracow with managing the extortion of tenement houses in Cracow. Feliks T. was arrested on Saturday for three months.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Feliks T. co-led a criminal group that, using false documents, extorted tenement houses and plots of land in 1997-1999. The mechanism of depopulation included, among others: that fraudsters found properties that belonged before the war to Jews who had died, then pretended to be the owners or their heirs and sold these properties to third parties.
Recently, after returning from Germany, Stanislaw B., collaborating with Feliks T., was stopped at the border and then arrested. According to the police, he forged a signature on a document enabling him to extort one of the tenement houses. Earlier, two other people belonging to the criminal group co-led by Feliks T. were arrested.
The illegal takeover of Jewish tenement houses in Cracow is the subject of several dozen investigations conducted by the prosecutor’s office. Some of them have already ended in court proceedings. New threads and new suspects are constantly emerging. The way criminal groups operated was similar. Tenement houses were usually sold on the basis of forged documents, for example powers of attorney of the real estate heirs. People with the same surname as long-deceased house owners were also used to conclude transactions. Some false documents were confirmed by foreign notaries and Polish consulates. J.SAD.
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