An obscure treaty signed in June 1919 on the same day as the Treaty of Versailles, the Polish Minorities Treaty, made Leon a Polish citizen. That treaty had been forced on Poland, imposing obligations to protect minorities. An early precursor to modern human rights conventions, Article 4 provided, in effect, that anyone born in Lwów before the treaty was signed in 1919 would be deemed a Polish citizen. There were no forms to be completed, no applications to be made. ‘Ipso facto and without requirement of any formality’, the treaty declared, Leon and hundreds of thousands of other citizens of
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