A diplomatic row has erupted over Poland’s approval of new legislation that Jewish groups have warned will make it significantly harder for Holocaust survivors to reclaim seized property.

Polish president Andrzej Duda signed a new law on Saturday that would stop claimants from challenging decisions made more than 30 years ago.

Mr Duda said the law’s approval would end “the era of legal chaos”.

But Israel's Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, criticised the “shameful decision and disgraceful contempt for the memory of the Holocaust.”

Foreign minister Yair Lapid described the new law as “immoral” and “antisemitic” and said Israel’s ambassador to Poland would remain “in Israel for the time being.” 

Board of Deputies Vice President David Mendoza-Wolfson waded into a chorus of criticism on Sunday. 

He accused Poland of “sliding backwards towards decline.”

“Until it reverses this measure, Poland’s Government is complicit in the dispossession of Polish citizens. The attitude of its leaders in penalising Holocaust survivors brings shame on the country,” he said. 

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, joined in the condemnations.

"76 years after their liberation, it is deeply unjust that survivors will not be able to receive compensation for what the Nazis and subsequent communist governments stole from them.

"The Trust joins Jewish and non-Jewish voices across the world in condemning this act. It is simply wrong," she said in a statement on Monday.