US State Department releases report on reparations following the Holocaust

According to the report, “Jewish communities throughout Europe continue to face challenges in recovering or receiving compensation for communal and religious properties..."

By OMRI NAHMIAS
The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. (photo credit: REUTERS)
The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, US, January 26, 2017.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
WASHINGTON - The US Department of State has released the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) report, part of a bill that was signed into law in 2018 and requires the secretary of state to submit a report to Congress on countries’ progress in implementing the goals of the Terezin Declaration.
The 2009 Terezin Declaration emphasized the importance of private property restitution and/or compensation and called the 47 countries that endorsed it to implement national programs to address immovable “real” property – including private, communal, and heirless, confiscated by Nazis, fascists, and their collaborators.
“The JUST Act Report is an essential tool to highlight the important actions countries have taken to provide restitution or compensation for property confiscated during the Holocaust or subsequently nationalized during the Communist era,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. “At the request of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, US embassies prepared the initial drafts of country chapters based on information from foreign government officials, community organizations, nongovernmental organizations, academics, and others.”
“At the request of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, US embassies prepared the initial drafts of country chapters based on information from foreign government officials, community organizations, nongovernmental organizations, academics, and others,” Pompeo added.
According to the report, “Jewish communities throughout Europe continue to face challenges in recovering or receiving compensation for communal and religious properties confiscated, destroyed, or nationalized in the Holocaust or Communist eras.”
“In Croatia, for instance, restitution efforts for such properties have been complicated by the fact that many buildings were used for communal rather than religious purposes or were owned by a legal entity that was separate from the official Jewish community,” it reads.
The report cites bureaucracy, weak political will and related issues that have hindered a resolution of Jewish communal property claims in many countries. “In Poland, for example, approximately half of the 5,500 Jewish communal property claims filed under a 1997 restitution law remain unresolved, and approximately half of the adjudicated claims were rejected.”
It mentioned that political resistance was one of the factors that caused the Latvian government in mid-2019 “to withdraw draft legislation that would have provided minimal restitution for more than 200 communal properties identified by the country’s small remaining Jewish community.”
“Over the last 75 years, the inability of many Jewish communities to regain ownership of the synagogues, schools, and community centers that once sustained religious and communal life has had far-reaching, negative effects, likely exacerbating the shrinking of Jewish communities in several European countries in the years after the devastation of the Holocaust,” the report reads.
The report also lays out countries that work toward the goals of the Terezin Declaration. The government of Lithuania resolved its communal property responsibilities by enacting the 2011 “Good Will Compensation Law,” it has more work to do regarding private property restitution, especially with regard to American citizens and others who did not maintain their Lithuanian citizenship, the text notes.
It was also mentioned in the text that in 2016, Serbia became the first country to enact legislation on the heirless and unclaimed property following the 2009 Terezin Declaration. “Several other countries in Europe had earlier adopted legislation that either addresses or partially addresses heirless and unclaimed property from the Holocaust era.  These include Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Romania, and Slovakia.  Some of these countries have yet to put these laws into practice.”
Five countries – Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom – have established dispute resolution panels to resolve art claims, as envisioned by the Washington Principles and the Terezin Declaration, the report noted.


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