Attorneys for persons claiming they are the heirs of the Lichtenstein and Engel family assets in formerly East Germany have submitted a lawsuit to Tel Aviv District Court against the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, INC. (JCC) for allegedly refusing to turn over the rights to what they claim are their family's business and real estate assets, which were appropriated during the Nazi regime.
Dor Heskia and Amos Hacmun of Heskia-Hacmun in Tel Aviv filed the lawsuit on behalf of the claimants.
After the unification of Germany in 1990, the German government enabled owners of Jewish assets in formerly East Germany, which were seized or sold under coercion during the Nazi Regime, to claim restitution for their assets or to receive just compensation where restitution was not feasible.
The Claims Conference reached an agreement with the German government to represent the interests of the former owners of the disputed assets.
The job of the Claims Conference was intended to be to negotiate transfer or compensation of the assets, then manage or distribute to the assets either to the missing owners, once they were located or for the general benefit of Jewish victims of the Nazis.