[bob443]

Did they have a "National Treasure" out there on the battlefield, issued to a soldier or cop? Really? Seriously? As in, would we allow one of our soldiers to go running around with Army issued bald eagles?

The definition of National Treasure status is fairly ambiguous but I have yet to see a single weapons system from the 20th century make the list. And I have yet to hear of an instance where a bona-fide national treasure was on a quartermaster's issued receipt.

No. It was a military rifle issued during the war.

If it became a national treasure at some time after the war; too bad. Say you had an Elvis record when you were a kid. You left home and some time later your parents sold it at a garage sale. Can you now claim your parents stole it and sold it, just because its worth thousands of dollars? No, if you wanted to make that claim, you should have taken it with you or made the claim years and years ago.

The fact is the rifle is neither a relic nor a treasure, and without somebody keeping it secure and safe from the environment, it would be a lump of scrap iron by now, as are apparently almost every single one of these guns that they produced.

Fact is Poland lost any rights to it when a German soldier picked it up as a war trophy. If Polish officials want to make the argument that an ally's soldiers cannot claim war trophies; that argument falls apart completely when a German soldier picks it up. The allied soldier flat out stole it from Germany, under the guise that it was a 'war trophy'.


If the Poles want to deny that it was a war trophy on the basis that Germany subsequently lost the war, I guess they'd have to give up on that front as well, as the rifle was built in 1938 or 1939. They (the Poles) were militarily defeated, simultaneously by Germany, the Soviet Union and (get this) Slovakia in 1939, meaning the new government has zero claim, since the weapon was taken as a war trophy from the prior government. An no; there is no treaty regarding the succession of war trophies, only antiquities or "national treasures".

So, in conclusion; Poland has never issued "National Treasures" to their soldiers in time of war. Therefor when they lost possession of it, it could not have been regarded as such.

Neither can they successfully claim that an ally cannot take a war trophy, as Germany was not an ally when Poland was militarily defeated by them. It was a war trophy at that moment in time. Title is lost when your government expires.

In fact it seems that if a claim is to be made, it would be Germany who could make it. It was not a German weapon, and is therefor not a war trophy taken from Germany. If it obtained "National Treasure" status before Germany lost the war, it would be theirs to claim. Unlikely.