ࡱ> Z\STUVWXY'` 0bjbj .s/  44484t<6 \9:9999:::       $ hV ] ::  99 2 9 9  rT 9P9 @o4Q   O>OO P:86p&yuE:::  *X:::  L+D L+   STATE OF ISRAEL SECOND GLOBAL REPORT ON RESTITUTION OF RIGHTS AND LOOTED JEWISH PROPERTY 1952-2008 JUNE 2009 JERUSALEM The Second Global Report on Restitution of Rights and Looted Jewish Property (1952-2008) created for the 2009 Prague Holocaust-Era Assets Conference to serve as a resource, as well as a basis for deliberations. This report is based mainly on The First Global Report on Restitution of Jewish Property (1952-2004) which was composed in accordance with a 2003 Israel Government resolution, by the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee on Restitution of Rights and Jewish Property. The First Report included the activities in Israel and various other countries and consolidated the reports of the countries and organizations engaged in this subject. The report was submitted to the Ministerial Committee on Restitution of Rights and Jewish Property, discussed and approved by Government resolution in 2005. We acknowledge with gratitude all those who participated in compiling both reports. Without their important contributions, assistance and devotion this report would have never reached its present depth and comprehensiveness (please see names listed on the last page of this report). TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Executive Summary.............................6 Preface10 Introduction....12 1. GERMAN RESPONSIBILITY (Where it all began)...13 A Shoah: Holocaust Chronology...........15 2. THE JEWISH MATERIAL DAMAGE DURING THE SHOAH (The Result).17 2.1. The Jewish Material Damage during the Shoah.17 2.2. Looted Jewish Private Property..17 2.3. Looted Jewish Communal Property...........18 2.4. Abandoned Jewish Culture: Jewish Cemeteries.....19 2.5. The Law on Restitution of Jewish Property...19 3. UNRESOLVED ISSUES (What needs to be done) ...........19 3.1. Returning to the Jewish People...20 3.2. Right Value 20 3.3. Recording and Publication......20 3.4. Judicial............21 3.5. Follow-up on Resolutions of International Conferences ...21 3.6. Follow-up on Historical Commissions and Reconciliation21 3.7. Coordinated Jewish Distribution21 3.8. Future Fund of Jewish People and Diaspora (Unclaimed Property)..22 3.9. Further Research Required....22 3.10. Nazi Impact on Lives and Property of Jews from North Africa..23 3.11. Next Steps....23 APPENDIX A - UNRESOLVED ISSUES: PROCESSES AND COUNRTY BY COUNTRY25 A1. Looted Jewish Art..25 A2. Jewish Life Insurance Policies...25 A3. Burial of Jewish Holocaust Victims...........26 A4. Countries: Austria..26 Bosnia.......27 Bulgaria27 Croatia..28 The Czech Republic.29 European Union (EU)......30 France..30 Germany......30 Greece......33 Hungary...33 Israel (see Appendix C1) Italy.....34 Latvia .35 Lithuania.....36 Republic of Macedonia...37 Poland.....38 Romania..39 Republic of Serbia ..41 Slovakia...41 Slovenia...42 Former Soviet Union...43 Sweden....44 Ukraine44 United States (see Appendix C4) Vatican....45 APPENDIX B - ACROSS BORDERS (What has been done)...46 B1. German Reparations for the State of Israel and the Jewish People..46 B2. German Personal Restitution, Compensation, Indemnification and Pensions for Jews ................48 B3. German Restitution of Jewish Unclaimed Property.49 B4. German Forced Labor Compensation for Jews49 B5. German Life Insurance policies50 B6. German Dormant Bank Accounts50 B7. German Future Fund50 B8. International Process and Conferences ....50 B9. Jewish Dormant Bank Accounts in Swiss Banks.50 B10. Jewish Life Insurance Policies........51 B11. Looted Shoah Victims Gold...55 B12. Looted Jewish Art..55 B13. Looted Jewish Communal Property...56 B14. Looted Jewish Private Property.56 B15. Historical Commissions on conduct of Nations during the Shoah: Holocaust and Reconciliation56 B16. A Shoah Restitution Timeline59 APPENDIX C - ONGOING ACTIVITY (Who is doing what) 61 C1. Israeli Government and Parliament: From German Reparations until today..61 C2. Jewish Organizations: 1) Claims Conference; 2) WJRO; 3) Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel....65 C3. U.S. Congress: Helsinki Commission...69 C4. U.S.: State Department & Treasury Department..69 C5. Foundations: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Norway, Other..72 APPENDIX D - POST HOLOCAUST ISSUES (Never Again!) .........................................77 D1. Holocaust Denial...77 D2. Anti-Semitism...77 D3. Shoah Commemoration and Education78 D4. Historical Commissions on conduct of Nations during the Shoah: Holocaust and Reconciliation...79 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............80 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......90 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY It all started with hatred of Jews just because they were Jews linked to the complete absence of freedom in the murderous tyranny and despotism in Nazi Germany, and with similar situations in the countries of her allies.[1] It ended with the greatest crimes in human history, the worst of which were the degradation, torture, and ultimate extermination of four million Jewish men and women and two million Jewish children, and the robbing of every conceivable kind of property belonging to nine million Jews. The cause of the need for Restitution is the Shoah that originated in Nazi Germany. As a result of the Shoah, material damage in private and communal property and abandoned or destroyed Jewish culture. The Attorney General in Israel (today the Supreme Court Justice, Honorable Elyakim Rubinstein) recommended in 1999 to the Prime Minister that a global report on Restitution of Jewish Property be created. The government acted upon this recommendation when it resolved to establish the Ministerial Committee on Restitution of Rights and Jewish Property. It was a challenge to produce the First Report. Many of the subjects required major new research. Therefore, the focus of the First Report was mainly on the Jewish material damage during the Shoah and on unresolved issues. The Appendixes herein describe what has been done. The First Report in 2005 was the first ever of its kind. Historians may speculate about why it took 60 years. In the initial post-Holocaust period, Shoah survivors were totally preoccupied with getting their lives together once more, extricating themselves from the pit of extermination camps, setting up new families, in the struggle for the establishment of the State of Israel. There was little or no time to deal with the material issues, and there was a general reluctance to broach this subject. While memories of the Nazi horrors were still fresh and the wounds still festering, who could speak of the Holocaust and money in the same breath? In the nineties, fifty years after the beginning of WWII, many closed archives were opened. This led to new, published research that became instrumental in making Restitution issues available in depth for public, open discussion. Six million Jews were murdered during the Shoah, but the property of nine million European Jews was looted or destroyed. The contents of homes and apartments, real estate, commercial accounts and economic investments, savings and insurance policies, personal effects, investments in gold, bank accounts, securities, foreign currency, jewelry, art and other valuables all were plundered. Jewish material damage during the Shoah is estimated to be $230-320 billion (1997 prices) as follows: Jewish looted property - $120 billion; Loss of Income - $100-150 billion; Wages unpaid for forced labor - $10-50 billion. Stuart Eizenstat, who was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton to coordinate the U.S. governments efforts to identify the assets of Shoah victims, estimated at the end of 1998 that the assets were worth $145 billion, in 1998 prices ($150 billion in current prices. This figure refers to Looted Jewish Property, which is only a part of the overall Jewish Material Damage during the Shoah). Some estimates suggest that no more than 20 percent of looted Jewish assets of all sorts private and communal - were returned after the Shoah. Communal property probably does not account for more than five percent of the assets looted. Still, only a small fraction of it was restitute Restitution of Jewish private property is the weakest link in the Restitution process. A great deal still needs to be done in this area. Even though over $8 billion dollars of one-time payments were negotiated in settlements during 1998-2001 (some to non-Jews) and a substantial part was paid and distributed, this is only a small part of the Jewish material damage during the Shoah. There is much left to be done to achieve some justice for Shoah survivors and their heirs. Quite a number of Restitution issues were dealt with successfully. However the accomplishments made so far are incomplete. Some of those with whom agreements on Restitution were negotiated have not implemented those agreements fully and do only the bare minimum. There has been a loss of momentum in dealing with the hundreds of thousands of elderly victims, Shoah survivors, about ten percent of who die each year. Any systematic delay in establishing settlement and disbursement processes or resolving disputes is therefore not just another bureaucratic hurdle. It is rather the difference between a dignified closing to a tragic period in their lives and an unrequited sense of the permanent denial of justice. These survivors deserve assistance for the needs of old age to alleviate their unabated suffering. It is just and right that whatever belonged to the Jewish people should go back to the Jewish People. The distribution among the Jewish People becomes then an issue for the Jewish people themselves. It is the Jewish people who were the major victims of the Nazi atrocities before and during World War II. The dead cannot be returned alive, but whatever can be done to help Shoah survivors and future Jewish generations must be done. Whatever can be done for Shoah commemoration and education must also be done. This is the only way to achieve some justice at this late date. The issue of the current value of Restituted property is of essence. The historical pre-WWII value has little relevance today. Substantial work was done on this in the process of updating the value of insurance policies from the Shoah era. This can serve as a raw model for other types of restituted assets. There is an urgent need for registration of Jewish Property in a centralized database that will serve as a resource and memorial for future generations of the Jewish heritage in Europe prior to WWII. Restitution can successfully be dealt with only by exceptional legal measures. In most countries, special, fast, and simple legislation is badly needed. Only extraordinary means will enable closure on the issues of restitution of Jewish property. There is a need for follow-up to assure implementation of resolutions adopted at international conferences. A great deal of multinational effort went into achieving these resolutions, and they must be fully implemented. There is a need for follow-up on resolutions and recommendations of historical commissions and reconciliation bodies. In some countries, progress has been painstakingly slow. Stuart Eizenstat suggested in his memo to the American court dealing with the Swiss banks litigation to look at four substantial amounts of funds originating from Restitution. He further suggested how to coordinate the distribution of those funds. Eizenstats proposal could serve as a basis for the big picture thinking. Such visionary thinking is essential to help Shoah survivors, assist Shoah education and commemoration, and to ensure continuity and the future existence of the Jewish People. Several attempts were made in Israel to establish a Future Fund of the Jewish People and Diaspora and deposit into it heirless funds originating from Restitution. The attempts were made by proposed legislation in the Knesset and by establishing a new non-profit organization. All attempts have been opposed by the Shoah survivors organizations. They continue to insist that the funds should be used for the benefit of needy survivors. There are many unresolved issues, among them major issues involving art, real estate, and insurance. In addition, there are at least 20 countries with unresolved issues inclusive of Israel and the United States (in alphabetical order): Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, The Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Romania, the Former Soviet Union, Sweden, Ukraine, and the Vatican. A country-by-country Combined Status report is necessary and requires further research. Restitution depends on what has already been done in each country, and what needs to be done in various areas such as legislature, economics, politics etc. Professional evaluation needs to be done on each country. Further research is required on the Nazi impact on the lives and the property of Jews from North Africa. In order to prevent another Shoah other crucial areas need to be dealt with such as: Holocaust denial; Anti-Semitism; Shoah commemoration and education; and follow up on Historical Commissions to examine the conduct of nations during the Shoah. A five-year Work Plan on Policy and Principles and a five-year Work Plan relating to the Restitution of Rights to Jewish-owned Property were formulated in March of 2004. They were submitted for review of WJRO and the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel. They were then brought for approval to the Ministerial Committee for Restitution of Rights and Jewish Property. The primary concept was to have closure on as many as possible issues within five years, while some of the first generation Shoah survivors are alive. After the Ministerial Committee approved the multi-annual policy, an annual action plan for each of the five years needed to be formulated, decided and agreed upon, with relevant bodies and organizations in Israel and abroad participating. The division of labor for the annual action plan needs to be done according to the ability of the participants to bring closure on the issues within the framework agreed upon. The implementation of above-mentioned Ministerial Committee Policy will be funded by the Government in cooperation with other relevant organs. PREFACE The Attorney General of Israel (today the Supreme Court Justice, Honorable Elyakim Rubinstein), recommended in 1999 to the Prime Minister that a global report on Restitution of Jewish property should be composed. His recommendation came after a full day symposium [2] he held that year on the many aspects of Restitution [3]. In 2003, the government acted upon this recommendation when it resolved to establish the Ministerial Committee on Restitution of Rights and Jewish Property (see Chapter 3.11). Composing the First Global Report on the Restitution of Jewish Property (1952-2004) was a difficult challenge. It was the first-ever report of its kind. It required the organization and compilation of a myriad of sources of information. In its completion and entirety the First Global Report on the Restitution of Jewish Property served as a framework for all matters concerning the issue. This framework created a need to compose a Second Global Report on the Restitution of Jewish Property. The First Report answered the questions of what, when, who, why, and where? Private and communal Jewish property was plundered by European nations during the Shoah and WWII. The Jewish people of Europe were victim to genocide simply because they were Jews. In total, 6 million Jews were murdered and 9 million Jews lost ownership of their property. The First Report also brought clarity to the need for the Restitution of Jewish property. In 2005, 60 years after the end of WWII and the Shoah, the time was ripe to address the issue. Shoah survivors were much older and had reached a time of relative stability in their lives. The memories of Nazi horror were no longer fresh and immediate. Shoah survivors had reestablished their lives and created families. The issue of the Restitution of Jewish property has now become the issue of the Jewish people. In working toward compensation for the property stolen from European Jewry there resides the promise of some small measure of justice owed to Shoah survivors. Of the 1,092,000 elderly Shoah survivors almost 10 percent will pass away each year. It is urgent then that restitution is delivered to those who experienced the greatest injustice in human history. In the 1950s during a debate in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, on the issue of German reparations, Foreign Minister Moshe Sharrett asked of his colleagues, If the dead Shoah victims would be asked in advance, if there comes a day when it will be possible to get back a part , shall we take it or not? They would say: Take it and God bless youWas our state established to demand sacred debts which belong to the Jewish People or to let the debtors get free? In this spirit, 64 years since the Shoah, the Jewish people and the heirs of the survivors of the Shoah are ready and able to tackle this issue and to fight for the restitution of property. This report, the Second Global Report on the Restitution of Jewish property, highlights the progress, or the lack thereof, in regards to the restitution of Jewish property since 2004. Most of the Jewish property in question resided in former Communist countries of Eastern Europe. Today, democratic governments have arisen in many of these nations. In conjunction with a plethora of research published on the issue in recent years, the prospects of retrieving Jewish property has become increasingly realistic. Quite a number of Restitution issues have been successfully dealt with. However, the accomplishments made are far from complete. Some of those with whom agreements on Restitution were negotiated do only the bare minimum despite previous commitments. The issue of the restitution of Jewish property is real. Thorough information on it exists and is there for the taking. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the issue is expected and unexpected, revealing and evasive, disconcerting and consoling. Most of all, it is rousing and a call for action. Greater efforts and ventures need to be undertaken. Any systematic delay in establishing settlement and disbursement processes or resolving disputes is therefore not just another bureaucratic hurdle, but the difference between a dignified closing to a tragic period in the lives of Shoah survivors and unrequited sense of the permanent denial of justice. These survivors deserve assistance for the needs of old age to alleviate their unabated suffering. INTRODUCTION Hast thou killed and also taken possession?! 1 Kings 21:19 You have committed murder, now do you wish to become the victims heir?[4] Eli Wiesel, Shoah survivor, Writer, Nobel Laureate Six million Jews died in the Shoah between the years 1939 and 1945: JEWS WHO DIED IN THE Shoah Polish and FSU*Jews....4,565,000 German Jews.125,000 Austrian Jews...65,000 Czechoslovakian Jews...227,000 Hungarian Jews.402,000 French Jews.83,000 Belgian Jews24,000 Jews of Luxembourg700 Italian Jews7,500 Jews of the Netherlands.106,000 Norwegian Jews760 Romanian Jews.40,000 Yugoslavian Jews.60,000 Greek Jews65,000 TOTAL LOSS**...5,820,000 Source: Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 8 p. 889  Eli Wiesel, Shoah survivor, Writer, Nobel laureate tried to grasp the enormity of the number of 6,000,000. On several occasions he tried to simply count to six million. He said that the task overwhelmed him and he never managed to get past around 100,000 before he had to stop[5] Six million Jews were murdered during the Shoah, but the property of nine million European Jews was looted or destroyed. The contents of homes and apartments, real estate, commercial accounts and economic investments, savings and insurance policies, personal effects, investments in gold, bank accounts, securities, foreign currency, jewelry, art and other valuables all were plundered.[6] Stuart Eizenstat, appointed by US President Bill Clinton to coordinate the U.S. governments efforts to identify the assets of Shoah victims, estimated at the end of 1998 that the assets were worth $145[7] billion in 1998 prices ($150 billion in today prices). _______________________________________________________________________ * FSU: Former Soviet Union. **Does not include Jews from North Africa and the Middle East in countries controlled by the Nazis and their allies. 1. GERMAN RESPONSIBILITY (Where it all began) THE Shoah The first declaration of war by Nazi Germany was against the Jewish people, and it took a special form [8] (see next: A Shoah: Holocaust Chronology). Chaim Weizmann, the president of the Jewish Agency (later the first President of the State of Israel), told the Allies in a note about the Shoah in 1945: Its aim was not conquest and enslavement, but the complete physical extermination of the Jews, the utter destruction of their spiritual and religious heritage, and the confiscation of all their material possessions. In executing their declaration of war, Germany and her associates murdered some six million Jews, destroyed all Jewish communal institutions wherever their authority extended, stole all the Jewish treasures of art and learning, seized all Jewish property, public and private, on which they could lay their hands.[9] Weizmann said that Hitlers war against the Jews created a three-fold problem of reparation, rehabilitation, and restitution. He demanded indemnification and compensation from Germany. He also called for heirless Jewish property to be turned over to the Jewish Agency, because that body was the official representative of the Jews and bore the cost of resettling Jewish refugees in Palestine.[10] The State of Israel, then three years old, sent a diplomatic note on March 12, 1951, to the four occupying powers of Germany the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union seeking compensation from Germany. However, Israel cautioned, No indemnity, however large, can make good the loss of human life and cultural values or atone for the suffering and agonies of the men, women and children put to death by every inhuman device.[11] David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, said in his speech delivered on January 7, 1952, at the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) in Jerusalem: Six million Jews were killed by torture, hunger, slaughter and mass suffocation. Many were burnt to death, buried alive, there was no mercy for elderly, women and children, and babies were torn out of the hands of their mothers and thrown into the furnaces. And before this mass and systematical murder was carried out, during (the murder) and after (the murder), came the robbery, vast and unprecedented. A crime so vast and so horrible cannot be forgiven despite any material compensation. Any compensation, big as it may be, cannot compensate for the loss of lives or offer forgiveness for the suffering of men and of women, children, elderly and babies.[12] Scholarly studies of the Shoah during World-War II suggest that if the Shoah had not occurred, the world Jewish population in the year 2000 would have been between 20.1 million people and 32.8 million people, instead of the actual 12.8 million[14]. In terms of demographic composition, and especially its age-structure, the pre-World-War II Jewish population was bound to a slow process of aging. But because of the Shoah this process was greatly accelerated. Of critical importance was the fact that young children were heavily over-represented among total victims of the Shoah. The demographic growth momentum that was implicit in the relatively young age structure of world Jewry in 1939 was irreparably lost. The consequence was additional massive erosion in the demographic process of generation replacement already tragically upset by mass destruction.[15] A Shoah : HOLOCAUST CHRONOLOGY Source: see bibliography Rossel.Seymour (1992) over Austria; anti-Jewish laws are enforced there. APRIL 26 Decree on the reporting of Jewish assets. OCTOBER 28 15,000 Jews are forced at gunpoint to cross the border into Poland. NOVEMBER 9 Kristallnacht begins, resulting in enormous destruction to Jewish property in Germany and Austria. NOVEMBER 15 All Jewish students are expelled from German schools. DECEMBER 13 Compulsory expropriation of all Jewish businesses and industries. 1939 AUGUST 23 Russia and Germany sign a non-aggression pact. SEPTEMBER 1 Germany declares war on Poland. SEPTEMBER 3 World War II begins. OCTOBER 12 First trainload of Austrian Jews sent to camps in Poland. NOVEMBER 23 All Polish Jews ordered to wear a yellow badge imprinted with a Star of David. NOVEMBER 28 First ghetto set up in Poland at Protrkow. 1940 FEBRUARY 12 First time that German Jews are sent to concentration camps. APRIL 9 Germans occupy Denmark. MAY 10 Germany invades Holland, Belgium and France. MAY 20 Auschwitz concentration camp set up. JUNE 22 France surrenders to Germany. SEPTEMBER 27 Japan joins Germany and Italy in Axis powers. OCTOBER 2 Warsaw ghetto set up. NOVEMBER 20-24 Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers.1933 JANUARY 30 Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. FEBRUARY 27-28 Reichstag fire set by Nazis. Constitution of Germany is suspended. Hitler is given emergency powers. MARCH 20 First concentration camp set in Dachau. APRIL 1 Hitler orders a one-day boycott of Jewish shops. APRIL 7 First anti-Jewish law passed in Germany 1934 FEBRUARY 7 Hitlers Defense Council declares its intension to Prepare for war. JUNE 30 Hitler consolidates power by executing Ernst Roehm and several other Nazi leaders. AUGUST 3 Hitler declares himself both President and Chancellor of Germany. 1935 SEPTEMBER 15 First Nuremberg laws passed. German Jews lose their citizenship. NOVEMBER 14 Nazis define a Jew as anyone with three Jewish grand parents, or anyone with two Jewish grandparents who claims to be Jewish. 1937 JULY 2 Many Jewish students ordered to leave German schools and universities. JULY 19 Buchenwald concentration camp set up. NOVEMBER 16 Passports of Jews are declared invalid for foreign travel . 1938 MARCH 12 Anschluss: Germany takes 19411943 FEBRUARY 2 German army stopped at Stalingrad, Russia. APRIL 19 Warsaw ghetto revolt begins. Jews fight till early June. JUNE Nazis order destruction of all ghettos in Poland and Russia. Armed resistance begins in many ghettos. AUGUST 2 Armed revolt breaks out in Treblinka camp. FALL Large ghettos destroyed at Minsk, Vilna , and Riga. Danes begin the rescue of Danish Jewry. OCTOBER 14 Armed revolt breaks out in Sobibor extermination camp. 1944 MAR. 19 Germany occupies Hungary MAY 15 Hungarian Jews are sent to concentration camps. JUNE 6 Allies invade France. JULY 24 Russia army liberates the concentration camp at Maidanek. SUMMER Remaining Jews in Kovno, Shavli, and Lodz ghettos are sent to concentration camps and the ghettos are destroyed. OCTOBER 7 Revolt in Auschwitz. OCTOBER 31 Remaining Slovakian Jews are sent to Auschwitz. NOVEMBER 2 Jews remaining at Theresienstadt ghetto are sent to Auschwitz. NOVEMBER 8 Beginning of death marches. 40,000 Jews are marched from Budapest to Austria. 1945 JANUARY 27 Auschwitz concentration camp is liberated. APRIL 6 Buchenwald death march. MAY 7 Germany surrenders. NOVEMBER 20 Nuremberg War Crimes Trials begin, ending on October 1, 1946.MARCH Adolf Eichmann appointed Head of Gestapo section for Jewish affairs. APRIL Germany occupies Greece And Yugoslavia. JUNE 22 Germany invades Russia. JUNE- DECEMBER Einzetzgruppen begin mass murder of Eastern European Jewry. SEPTEMBER 15 German Jews ordered to wear the yellow badge. SEPTEMBER 28-29 Massacre of 35,000 Jews at Babi-Yar, near Kiev. OCTOBER 23 Massacre of 19,000 Jews in Odessa. DECEMBER 7 Japanese attack Pearl Harbour. United States joins the Allied Powers. 1942 JANUARY 20 Plans for the Final Solution of the Jewish Problem discussed at the Wannsee Conference. MARCH 1 Extermination by gas begins at Sobibor camp. LATE MARCH Deportations to Auschwitz begin. JUNE 20 All Jewish schools closed. JULY 28 Jewish fighting group organized in the Warsaw ghetto. SUMMER Dutch, Polish, French, Belgian, and Croatian Jews sent to extermination camps. Armed resistance by Jews in few ghettos. OCTOBER 4 All Jews in German concentration camps scheduled for transfer to Auschwitz. NOVEMBER Allied troops land in Africa WINTER Norwegian, German, and Greek Jews sent to concentration camps . Jewish partisan groups gather in forests to fight. 2. JEWISH MATERIAL DAMAGE DURING THE Shoah (The Result) 2.1. JEWISH MATERIAL DAMAGE DURING THE Shoah Jewish material damage during the Shoah is estimated to be $ 230-320[16] billion (1997 prices) as follows: Looted Jewish Property - $120 billion[17] ($150 billion in current prices[18]) Loss of Income - $100-150 billion[19] Wages unpaid for Forced Labor - $ 10-50 billion[20] Total - $230-320 billion[21] Division by major countries of the first issue - Looted Jewish Property was done by the World Jewish Congress[22]. 2.2. LOOTED JEWISH PRIVATE PROPERTY Looting of Jewish private property took place from 1933 until 1945. Many Jews had to sell their businesses, homes and possessions at far less than prevailing market values because of forced Aryanization (legalized theft) and security concerns. Property was extracted from Jews via extortion, bribery and heavy taxes. Looting went on in the concentration camps and even from the corpses of the Jewish victims (i.e. gold teeth).[23] Ideally, a breakdown of assets would involve the following categories and its sub-categories: - Homes, land and farms. - Normal household items furniture, rugs, ornaments, etc. whose value about matches the material and labor input made in producing them, less depreciation. - Collectors items paintings, sculpture, jewelry, books etc. whose value far exceeds the material and labor involved in producing them. - Businesses including financial holdings, real estate, machinery, and equipment. - Personal monetary holdings and investments, currency, bank accounts, precious metal (coins and bars) and stones(non-jewelry), stocks, bonds and other negotiable financial instruments, and the invested value in life insurance, annuities and retirement accounts.[24] The best information on looted Jewish property comes from the detailed census of Jewish assets in Germany and Austria in 1938 and Slovakia in 1940. In all three countries, Jews were asked to report their assets and liabilities by some 10 categories as follows: agricultural/forestry, residential real estate, business, financial (securities, capital claims, cash, saving annuities), unpaid salaries, household items, valuables, insurance, misc., and other.[25] Real estate was broken down between residential and commercial with the later placed under business. Businesses were integrated by type commerce, trade (retailing), industry, banking and transportation.[26] The most revealing results from analyzing those censuses are: - Residential real estate consists of some 25-30 percent of total. - Personal monetary holdings and investments account for at least 40 percent and probably more than half of Jewish assets.[27] Based on this information it can be tentatively estimated that about two-thirds of the assets were easily movable. The common used breakdown of looted Jewish private property includes: - Real Estate commercial and agricultural land, residential and commercial buildings, flats. - Contents of homes and apartments furniture, carpets, appliances, clothing, etc. - Jewelry gold, silver, diamonds and other precious stones. - Gold coins and bars. - Financial assets private and commercial bank accounts, savings, foreign currency, securities (bonds, shares, etc). - Insurance policies life and commercial. - Intellectual Property patents, trademarks, engineering and architectural plans. - Art paintings, sculptures, gold and silver items, carpets and antique furniture. - Judaica Torah scrolls, prayer books and ceremonial objects. - Books novels, encyclopedias, art books and entire libraries.[28] Much of the Jewish looted private property is unclaimed as all owners and their heirs died in the Shoah. 2.3. LOOTED JEWISH COMMUNAL PROPERTY Jewish communal property was looted, taken over and confiscated during the Shoah and thereafter. Depending on the country, communal property may have been initially taken by the Nazis or their associated regimes and/or thereafter seized and nationalized by post-war Communist regimes. The term communal property includes any buildings (existing or not) or land that was owned by a Jewish community, religious congregation or organization such as a synagogue, school, hospital, ritual bath, library, old age home, orphanage, or cultural facility, as well as cemeteries. Communal property also includes Judaica, books and art belonging to the community. In many cases, properties are now occupied by commercial or private tenants, especially public institutions (such as schools, hospitals, housing, museums, etc.). Some properties have already been sold to third parties. Communal property probably does not account for more than 5 percent of the assets looted. The vast majority of assets looted were private Jewish Property.[29] See sample of unresolved issues on Jewish communal property in Appendix A. 2.4. ABANDONED JEWISH CULTURE: JEWISH CEMETERIES [30] A large number of Jewish Cemeteries and Jewish mass graves (more than 20,000) were abandoned following the Shoah in Europe because there were no Jewish communities to care of them. Some of those cemeteries are ancient and of great historical value. Most of these cemeteries remain abandoned. Quite a few were taken over for commercial purposes. A sample report on cemeteries in Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Austria and Germany (East) reveals a grim picture. 2.5. THE LAW ON RESTITUTION OF JEWISH PROPERTY The laws on Restitution of property, inclusive of Jewish property, in Europe and especially in Eastern Europe are rare. When they do exist, they are different in each country, difficult to follow, often there are requirements of citizenship, and often costly to act upon.[31] The EU previously announced that it would form a framework for restitution of property in order to accommodate the new EU members from Eastern Europe.[32] 3. UNRESOLVED ISSUES (What needs to be done) Even though over $8 billion of one- time payments were negotiated in various settlements (for Jewish property as well as for personal indemnification) during 1998-2001 (some to non-Jews) and a substantial part was paid and distributed, this is only a small part of the Jewish Material Damage during the Shoah. (see Appendix B for what has been done).[33] The accomplishments achieved so far are incomplete. Some of those with whom agreements on Restitution were negotiated, have lost sight of the moral message {and their previous commitments} of this particular work and do the bare minimum.[34] There has been a loss of momentum in dealing with the hundreds of thousands of elderly victims, Shoah survivors, about ten percent of whom die each year. Any systematic delay in establishing settlement and disbursement processes or resolving disputes is therefore not just another bureaucratic hurdle. It is rather the difference between a dignified closing to a tragic period in their lives and an unrequited sense of the permanent denial of justice. These survivors deserve assistance for the needs of old age to alleviate their unabated suffering. [35] There is much to be done in order to achieve some justice for Shoah survivors and their heirs. 3.1. RETURNING TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE Some estimates suggest that no more than 20 percent of looted Jewish assets of all sorts private and communal - were returned or compensated for after the Shoah.[36] At the beginning of year 2004, there were 1,092,000 Shoah survivors living worldwide, inclusive of survivors from North African and Middle Eastern communities (Of them: 508,100 in Israel; 183,700 in FSU and East Europe; 184,700 in North America; 216,200 in other countries)[37].. It is the Jewish people who were the major victims of the Nazi atrocities before and during World War II. The martyred dead cannot be returned alive, but whatever can be done to help Shoah survivors and future Jewish generations must be done. Whatever can be done for Shoah commemoration and education must also be done. This is the only way to achieve some justice [now] at this late date. It is just and right that whatever belonged to the Jewish people should go back to the Jewish People. The distribution of heirless property among the Jewish People becomes then an issue for the Jewish people themselves. 3.2. RIGHT VALUE The issue of the value of restituted property is extremely important. The historical pre-WWII value has little relevance today. Substantial work was done on this in the process of updating the value of insurance policies from the Shoah era (see Appendix B10). This can serve as a raw model for other types of restituted assets.[38] 3.3. RECORDING AND PUBLICATION There is an urgent need for registration of Jewish Property in a centralized database that will serve as a resource and memorial for future generations of the Jewish heritage in Europe prior to WWII. Reconciliation should be made between the database on Jewish Property and the names published recently by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on the Central Database of Shoah Victims Names.[39] This task is urgent as long as first generation of Shoah survivors are among the living and can help. All the information on Shoah assets must be made publicly available so that this and future generations understand the horrors of the past and that todays and future Jewish families may be able to achieve a better understanding of the life of their ancestors and genealogical factors affecting the Jewish people. [40] All information on the Shoah should be in the public domain. Unfortunately, there are many countries hiding behind the rubric of privacy laws material and embarrassing facts.[41] 3.4. JUDICIAL Existing special legislation for restitution is spotty, inadequate, and poorly implemented.[42] There are often requirements of citizenship. Nevertheless, some countries enacted special legislation and some established special Foundations (see Appendix C5). However, restitution issues were dealt with mostly by existing ordinary procedures and existing ordinary legislation. This does not appear to work. As the Shoah was not an ordinary event, it cannot be dealt with by ordinary means. Restitution can successfully be dealt with only by exceptional legal measures. In most countries, special, fast, and simple legislation is badly needed. Only extraordinary means will enable closure on the issues of restitution of Jewish property. 3.5. FOLLOW-UP ON RESOLUTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES There is a need for follow-up on resolutions adopted at international conferences (Washington and Vilnius).[43] A great deal of multinational effort went into achieving these resolutions and they must be fully implemented. 3.6. FOLLOW-UP ON HISTORICAL COMMISSIONS AND RECONCILIATION There is a need for follow- up on resolutions and recommendations of historical commissions and reconciliation bodies. In some countries, progress has been painstakingly slow.[44] 3.7. COORDINATED JEWISH DISTRIBUTION Stuart Eizenstat suggested in his memo to the American court dealing with the Swiss banks litigation [45] to look at four substantial amounts of funds originating from Restitution. {He further suggested how to coordinate the distribution of those funds.} Eizenstats proposal could serve as a basis for the big picture thinking. {Such visionary thinking is} essential to help Shoah survivors, assist Shoah education and commemoration, and to ensure continuity and the future {existence} of the Jewish People. The four funds are those being distributed by: 1) ICHEIC (See Appendix B10); 2) the Claims Conference (See Appendix C2); 3) excess funds in the German, Austrian and French settlements (See Chapter 3.8; Appendix C5); 4) the Swiss banks settlement (See Appendix B9). [46] 3.8. FUTURE FUND OF JEWISH PEOPLE AND DIASPORA (HEIRLESS PROPERTY) Several attempts were made in Israel to establish a Future Fund of the Jewish People and Diaspora and deposit into it heirless funds originating from Restitution. The attempts were made by proposed legislation in the Knesset[47] and by establishing and shelving a non-profit organization with the World Jewish Congress. Organizations of Shoah survivors insist that heirless funds should be used strictly to benefit needy survivors.[48] 3.9. FURTHER RESEARCH REQUIRED [49] As this is the first report of its sort, further research is required in the following areas: a. A country by country analysis of the Jewish Material Damage during the Shoah, inclusive of looted Jewish assets (see Appendix A). b. A country by country analysis how much was paid back in each country during the post-war years and up to mid-1990s (the start of the renewed interest in restitution). c. A country by analysis of what has been accomplished in returning or compensating for unpaid assets between the mid 1990s and 2008. d. In rough numbers, what remained to be paid by each country. e. Indicate the amounts provided to cover assets that never will be claimed by individuals because of time and the enormous loss of life during the Shoah. It should be pointed out that recent experience indicates that the bulk of assets will never be claimed and that these unclaimed funds are, and should be, devoted to humanitarian purposes, including both assistance for Shoah survivors and other activities. f. Determine a uniform system to calculate current value of stolen Shoah era property. The way to do it maybe in a currency that has remained stable for the past 60 years such as the US dollars or the Swiss franc. g. Provide a benchmark to measure the progress of property restitution. h. The future of restitution depends on what has already been done in each country, and what needs to be done in various areas such as legislature, economics, politics etc. Professional evaluation needs to be done on each country. 3.10. NAZI IMPACT ON LIVES AND PROPERTY OF JEWS FROM NORTH AFRICA Further research is required on the Nazi impact on the lives and the property of Jews from North Africa.[50] 3.11. NEXT STEPS The Government of Israel resolved on formulating an overall multi-annual policy and annual action plan as follows: a. An overall multi-annual policy - According to Government resolution #1250 of December 28, 2003 (resolved unanimously).[51] 1) The Government of Israel will formulate an overall multi-annual policy regarding the restitution of Jewish rights and property in all fields and from all relevant countries of the world. 2) The State of Israel, in conjunction with Jewish organizations, will lead and coordinate the issue of restitution of private and communal Jewish rights and property, as well as the restitution of rights and property of Jews after the Holocaust, with or without heirs, in Israel and abroad, vis-a-vis domestic and foreign bodies, various organizations, Jewish communities involved in the subject, the Jewish Agency and government officials abroad, with the assistance and cooperation of various Jewish organizations, as required. 3) To establish a Ministerial Committee regarding the restitution of Jewish rights and property. The Committees functions will be to formulate an overall policy, as mentioned in the above clauses 1 and 2, update this policy once a year and oversee all policy aspects of the restitution of Jewish property, subject to government policy on this matter and in accordance with Israels foreign policy. The overall policy and the annual plan will be presented to the Government before their implementation. A Work Plan on Policy and Principles 2004-2008 and a Work plan for 2004-2008 relating to the Restitution of Rights to Jewish-owned Property were formulated by the Steering Committee (established according to paragraph 4 of the abovementioned resolution) in March of 2004, and submitted for review of WJRO, and the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, before bringing them for approval to the Ministerial Committee. The leading goal was to have closure on as many as possible issues within the coming five years, while first generation Shoah survivors are alive. b. Annual action plan after the Ministerial Committee will approve the multi- annual policy, an annual action plan for each of the five years needs to be formulated, decided and agreed upon, with all relevant bodies and organizations in Israel and abroad participating. Division of labor for the annual action plan needs to be done according to the ability of the participants to bring closure on the issues at hand, within the framework agreed upon. APPENDIX A - UNRESOLVED ISSUES: PROCESSES AND COUNTRY BY COUNTRY A Country by Country Combined Status report is necessary and it requires further research. This Combined Status report should include at least all of the following: A. The Jewish Material Damage during the Shoah B. Communal Property C. Private Property D. Judicial E. Foundations F. Ongoing Activity G. Unresolved Issues Such combined status will enable each country to pinpoint areas it needs to concentrate on and deal with. Each country should also pay attention how it is dealing with issues such as Historical Commissions and Reconciliation, Holocaust Denial, Shoah Commemoration and Education, as these reflect on restitution issues. At this stage, unresolved issues only will be dealt with in this report, and not the full Combined Status of each country, which requires further research. A1. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: FRAMEWORK FOR RESTITUTION There is a need for a worldwide framework for restitution.[52] EU parliament passed a resolution in 2003 that an all-European institution will be established, in order to accommodate the new EU members from Eastern Europe, to supervise restitution of property, and serve as a mediator between the claimants and the current owners. The required regulation and uniform system for registration and cataloging was planned to be in place by the end of 2004[53]. So far the EU has not acted on restitution issues. As the Shoah happened in Europe, it is most desirable that the EU should act with priority intensity on restitution, and press accession countries to resolve it at once. A2. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: ART In art restitution, there has been some progress, particularly in the United States, Austria, and France. But serious research to locate looted Nazi art is underway in only about half a dozen of some forty countries that subscribed to the 1998 Washington Principles. Twenty-nine have done virtually no research at all.[54] Where web sites have been established, they are in different languages and different designs, making a family's search for its treasures a passage through a labyrinth. The Russian Federation holds the largest repository of Nazi-looted art. Yet in spite of its own law on restoration of looted art, Russia has made almost no progress in identifying their holdings despite repeated promises.[55] A2. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: INSURANCE Closure proceedings of ICHEIC (See Appendix B10). A3. BURIAL OF JEWISH Shoah VICTIMS An unknown number of Jewish Shoah victims in Europe were never buried. These were victims who were buried in mass graves or individually hunted or killed by the Nazis or by the local population. A special effort needs to be made to find and bury the remains of these victims while people who know about such instances are still alive.[56] A4. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: COUNTRY BY COUNTRY (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER) The list of unresolved issues presented here is far from being comprehensive. This is a sample list and further research is required to detect all unresolved issues. Quite a few countries have passed restitution laws. However there is often a very slow and bureaucratic process of actually getting the property returned. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: AUSTRIA Delay in release of settlement funds. Austria did not obtain, like Germany, legal peace in U.S. courts. After the U.S.-Austria settlement in 2001, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. challenging the fairness of the settlement. Since these cases are still ongoing, Austria has refused to release settlement funds. In November 2005, the last case was dismissed by a New York court, and the Austrian government subsequently began to mail letters to some of the 19,300 Holocaust survivors who applied for compensation payments. The letters informed the first 100 people how much they would receive after signing a waiver releasing Austria from further responsibility. In addition, the Austrian government and the provincial governments agreed to provide $40 million to support Austrian Jewish institutions. According to Stuart Eizenstat, President Clinton's special representative on Holocaust-era issues, the feeling during negotiations with the Austrians was that the traditional trial system never would have worked in the victims' lifetime. Eizenstat noted that lawyers who opposed a non-trial settlement delayed the settlement and, during that time, the number of Austrian survivors declined from 21,000 to 13,000. The government of Austria and a number of Austrian companies pledged to pay $210 million to endow the fund once all court cases against Austria relating to the Holocaust were resolved. The amount for property was limited to $2 million. This limitation is not in force in Germany; the German government thus far has paid out more than EUR1.5 billion in compensation.[58] On June 6, 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court's approval of the Settlement. Although appellants continue to challenge this ruling, Generali Insurance Company has started to review and process the tens of thousands of claims submitted by class members. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: BOSNIA Communal Property The Jewish community in Sarajevo is seeking the return of four properties, including the Old Stone Synagogue which is now a City Museum. The aspirations of the Jewish Community are to regain usage rights rather than ownership. The various ethnic groups cannot agree on which of several property nationalizations should be reversed. There are other issues causing difficulties in creating an acceptable Restitution law. No restitution laws exist [59], but there undoubtedly will be such laws eventually. Therefore, the Joint Distribution Committee provided Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia with grants, loans, and expertise for research to inventory Jewish community properties prior to World War II. [60] Jakub Finci, chairman of the country's small Jewish community, estimated that about 2,000 apartments in the city belonged to Jewish families when they were nationalized by the socialist government of Marshal Josip Broz Tito after the war [61]. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: BULGARIA Communal Property Approximately 100 properties throughout Bulgaria have been returned to the Jewish community (Organization of Jews in Bulgaria Shalom). However, one notable building at Suborna Street in the center of Sofia remains in government hands despite repeated court rulings that it should be returned to OJB Shalom. There is also the issue of the Rila hotel. There are also a handful of other unreturned buildings in smaller communities outside Sofia. Several restitution laws have been enacted allowing both Bulgarian and non-Bulgarian citizens to claim [for] restitution of private property confiscated during the fascist and the communist periods. Non-citizens, however, must sell the property. Heirs are eligible to claim. It is still possible to file certain claims under the so-called LRTERE law (Law on Reinstatement of Title of Expropriated Real Estate). While title automatically reverted back to original owner at enactment of this law without need to file a claim, potential claimants must still file a request for possession to regain physical possession of property. Such repossession is not always possible at this time.[62] UNRESOLVED ISSUES: CROATIA Croatian law provides for the restitution of private property to Croatian citizens. This law was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Croatia. In 2002 the law was modified to allow claimants to make claims (in theory). However, the new law states that claimants cannot file in the absence of a bilateral agreement between Croatia and the state of the claimants citizenship. Croatia has not signed an implementing agreement with Israel or any other country. Israeli President Moshe Katzav met with Croatian President Mesic in July 2003. At that meeting, President Katzav proposed the creation of a joint committee to deal with the issue of the restitution of property to Israelis who are not Croatian citizens. WhilePresident Mesic responded positively to this proposal, this committee was never created. The restitution issue was most recently raised at a meeting between Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom and Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mionir Zuzul. The WJRO has decided to renew negotiations in the near future with the government of Croatia regarding the restitution of private property. The Jewish Community and WJRO are pressing for several changes in the law, e.g., citizenship and dates of confiscation, to allow former Croatian Jews to press claims, no matter where they live.[63] WJRO board member Dan Mariaschin was quoted in the press as saying: "It would be far easier if a process could be opened that wherever people live they could apply. We're looking to see if there might be some mechanism that could provide the channel and maybe even the fast track for both the issue of the claimants and a resolution of the issue of heirless property."[64] In 2006, the Croatian government decided instead to {attempt to} amend the 1996 law to allow foreigners the ability to pursue restitution under the 1996 law on an equal basis with Croatian citizen claimants. Unfortunately, the amendments to the 1996 law were never submitted to the Croatian Parliament. Following the Croatian elections of December 2007, the Croatian government again stated its intention to amend the 1996 law to permit equal treatment of claims from foreign citizens.[65] UNRESOLVED ISSUES: THE CZECH REPUBLIC 1. Private Property The Czech law regarding the restitution of private property taken between 1938 and 1945, was passed in 1994 and contained a number of deficiencies. Specifically, it did not apply to non-Czech citizens and did not apply to all types of property. In 2001 a Endowment Fund for the Victims of the Holocaust was created with $7.5 million. One third of this money was earmarked to provide symbolic payment to claimants of private property who had been unable to claim under the 1994 law. Deadlines have passed for both citizens and non-citizens. The government maintains most private property claims have been resolved, in spite of complaints by many U.S. citizens who had encountered problems with their claims.[66] It appears that agricultural land can be claimed. This is being confirmed. Former Owners of Agricultural Land: In 2000, the Czech Parliament passed a law enabling claimants who have Czech citizenship to approach the current owner of the property. If the owner is not ready or willing to return the property, the claimant can attempt resolution through the courts. In complicated cases, it is recommended hiring a Czech law firm.[67] 2. Art Both citizens and non-citizens [have] {originally had} until 2006 to present claims for the restitution of art held by the national museums. Following efforts by the Claims Conference and World Jewish Restitution Organization, the Czech lower house of Parliament passed a bill that abolished the December 31, 2006, deadline for filing claims for artworks and cultural objects looted during the Shoah. Under this bill, claims may be filed indefinitely.[68] The Czech government recently agreed to extend funding for the Documentation Centre of Property Transfers of Cultural Assets of WW II Victims, which researches the provenance of artworks and identifies Nazi-stolen art.[69] 3. Communal Property No law exists requiring the government to restitute communal property. There is a problem at the municipal level: there is no law forcing the municipalities to implement communal property restitution procedures. About 200 properties have been returned to the local Jewish community [on the basis] {as a result} of government decrees. No joint foundation exists. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: EUROPEAN UNION (EU) The EU parliament passed a resolution in 2003 that an all-European institution be established to accommodate new EU members from Eastern Europe. Its purpose is to supervise restitution of property and to serve as a mediator between the claimants and the current owners. The required regulation and uniform system for registration and cataloging was planned to be in place by the end of 2004[70]. According to a report , "the legal situation in this area is at present entirely unclear (...) Claimants face a bewildering array of legal problems, many driven by the sheer accident of where looted property happens to be found. Access to data varies from nation to nation, as do the legal standards regarding such fundamental issues as determining the applicable law, proving ownership, assessing when a claim must be brought and the effect of intervening transfers to allegedly innocent transferees. There is a need for a legal and institutional framework that will be fairer to claimants, current holders and state-owned and not-for-profit entities."[71] UNRESOLVED ISSUES: FRANCE 1. Private Property compensation The French governmental commission (the Matteoli Commission) was established in 1997 to look into the circumstances under which movable and immovable property belonging to Jews living in France was confiscated or acquired by fraud, violence or deceit, either by the occupying power or the Vichy authorities, between 1940 and 1944. The Commission has completed the first stage of is reports, and the government has recommended restitution in hundreds of millions of francs (now euros) to the Jewish community. The distribution of settlement funds is slow. 2. Compensation for Orphans of Deported Parents A fund was established by the French government in July 2000 for child survivors who were orphaned as a result of the deportations of Jews from France. Eligible claimants can choose between a pension or a lump sum payment. There is no deadline to file claims.[72] UNRESOLVED ISSUES: GERMANY 1. Closure of the 1952 Reparations Agreement with the State of Israel See Appendix B1. 2. Ghetto Pensions (ZRBG) Refusals [73] About 60,000 Holocaust Survivors worldwide have applied for the pensions since 2002 when the law came into affect. The rate of refusals is high: up to eight to one. It seems that the German officials dealing factually with these pensions do not posses the necessary historical background, causing the high rate of refusals. To date only about 2,000 Holocaust Survivors in Israel have received the pensions. In Germany there are about 15 different authorities in the different German States that [deal with] {administer} these pensions. There are a variety of different offices to deal with Holocaust Survivors in different counties and there are variations in the outcomes. For instance, two members of the same family who were in the same ghetto and worked together at the same place may receive different treatment due to different places of current residence: the one who resides now in the U.S. received the pension and the other who resides in Israel was refused. Some say that the office dealing with Holocaust Survivors who reside in the US is more positive in its responses than the office dealing with Holocaust Survivors who reside in Israel. The suggestion of the German authorities that those who were refused are entitled to appeal is not workable because Holocaust Survivors are passing away. Because of complaints by German lawyers representing Holocaust Survivors, a scrutiny of about 200 cases were scrutinized in Germany and were finalized by end of January 2005. Negotiations with German officials are focused on the high rejection rate, disparate treatment of applicants, and recent and pending German court decisions.[74] Following a decision of the German Federal Social Court (Bundessozialgericht) in early June 2009, the tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors previously rejected for German Social Security payments under the countrys Ghetto Pension Law (ZRBG) will have an opportunity for a reconsideration of their rejected claims pursuant to newly liberalized guidelines. 3. New Ghetto Labor Compensation Fund [75] The German government announced on September 19, 2007, the establishment of a new fund to pay symbolic compensation for voluntary work in Holocaust-era ghettos. The fund will issue one-time payments of 2,000 to Holocaust survivors who performed voluntary work in ghettos subject to criteria [of] {set by} the German government. The German government expects that 50,000 survivors will be eligible for payment. The individual payment of 2,000 is not sufficient to compensate for the work carried out in a ghetto and the criteria as currently proposed is unclear and too restrictive. Notwithstanding the establishment of this new fund, Holocaust survivors will continue to be able to pursue individual claims under the Ghetto Pension law and the existing rights of survivors will remain unaffected under the announced fund. According to information given to the Claims Conference in March 2009 out of 45,184 people who have applied for the funds one-time payment, 15,382 applications have been approved.[76] 3. Hardship Fund (Hereinwachsen) Refusals.[77] Under the terms of the West German Indemnification Laws (BEG), direct compensation was limited to former German citizens, refugees and stateless persons. Thus, Holocaust survivors living in Soviet bloc countries received no indemnification. Further Holocaust survivors who left East European countries in the 60s and the 70s were still excluded from German compensation programs, which had a filing deadline of 1969. Beginning in 1975, the Claims Conference negotiated for proper compensation to survivors who were refugees from Soviet bloc countries, including trying to obtain an extension of the BEG filing deadline, but to no avail. Finally, in 1980, the Federal Republic of Germany created a "Hardship Fund" of DM 400 million. It was to be paid to survivors as one-time payments of DM 5,000 (now 2,556) each. The Hardship Fund stipulates that applicants must have suffered significant damage to health. The German government insisted that applicants could prove this by showing at least an 80 percent reduction in earning capacity, or a 50 percent reduction in earning capacity as a consequence of persecution. Female applicants who reached the age of 60 and male applicants who reached the age of 65 at the time of the application are presumed to have suffered an 80 percent reduction in earning capacity. As a result, the applications of those who were not able to meet the above criteria were denied. For instance, two members of the same family who left an East European country at an age below 60 or 65 and applied were refused and those who left later received the one time payment. As of March 19 2009 and as a result of Claims Conference negotiations with the German government, Jewish victims of Nazism who applied to the HYPERLINK "http://www.claimscon.org/index.asp?url=hardship/overview" Hardship Fund and were not eligible for payment under German government criteria will be able to file a second application. 4. Class Action on restitution of private property of all Jews of Germany. C.D. (Jerusalem) 5158/03, 1310/03. Ziporah Hilde Jochsberger v. Federal Republic of Germany[78] A civil action was brought before the District Court in Jerusalem and a motion was made to have the action recognized as a class action suit against the government of the Federal Republic of Germany on behalf of all the Jews of Germany who filed Declarations of Property and Assets during the late 1930's, or their heirs. In the context of seeking legal, moral and historic justice the plaintiffs requested that the Court order disclosure and repatriation of all Jewish property in Germany which was [confiscated and] stolen by the Nazi regime and has as yet not been returned or compensated for the Jews of Germany and for the Jewish people as a whole. Between 1933 and 1938 the Jews of Germany were obligated by law to deliver to the Nazi government declarations specifying all their property and assets. The duty to file such declarations was imposed on all the Jews of Germany, the clear intention being to use these declarations [in order to confiscate] {to steal} all Jewish property and assets in Germany. The existence of the Declarations has only recently been revealed. They will not be made public until 2018. This documentation is highly detailed, including real estate, money, tangibles, intangible rights and other assets, held by German Jews prior to the Holocaust. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: GREECE In 1955 the government conducted a population census. All those who did not participate in it because they where not in Greece had their citizenship abolished. This includes all Shoah survivors, Shoah victims, and heirs. As a result, today they can not get birth certificates nor any documentation regarding Jewish property. Therefore, they can not apply for restitution of their property [79]. Certain Jewish victims of the Nazis from the island of Rhodes are covered by Italian Law (see Italy, below) if they have retained Italian citizenship. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: HUNGARY 1. Private Property Compensation. A law for the restitution of private property was passed in 1991, but it provided for very limited compensation - about 5-10 percent of market values, with a ceiling of about $21,000). 2. Communal Property The Hungarian law on the restitution of religious property from 1991 only provides for the restitution of property for the current direct needs of the religious community and does not allow the sale of property. Under this law the local Jewish community has received approximately 100 properties. In 1997 a new law was passed that allows the community to receive an annuity in exchange for its rights to specific communal properties. The local Jewish community has signed a agreement waiving rights to 152 properties in exchange for an annuity of about $2.7 million per year. 3. Unclaimed Heirless Property The Paris Treaty (Section 27, Article 2) required the Hungarian State to return Jewish property, including that of Jewish organizations, without heirs after WWII. The Constitutional court ruled in 1991 that Hungary had failed to carry out the requirements of this section. In 1997 the Government created a public endowment the Jewish Heritage of Hungary Public Endowment as a means to carry out these obligations. The government has granted this endowment a 4 Billion Forint bond (about $15 million), seven properties, and a number of works of art. The Endowment uses the sum to pay monthly pensions to Holocaust survivors and the income from the properties to fund projects in Hungary. No additional assets have been transferred to the endowment. An additional bond of 2.9 billion Forint has recently been provided to the Endowment[, in order] to allow it to continue to pay the monthly pensions to Holocaust survivors. The board of the endowment is made up of representatives of the government, the local Jewish community and Jewish organizations, and the WJRO. In a more recent development, the government has recognized that the creation of the foundation does not in itself fulfill all of the obligations of the State as laid out in the Treaty of Paris regarding heirless Jewish property. The government has established an inter-ministerial committee to discuss the restitution of heirless property and invited representatives of the local community to take part in the meetings of the committee. Hungarian "Gold Train" On March 17, 2005, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida preliminarily approved the Hungarian Gold Train settlement. Allegations were made that the United States mishandled the personal property in a train of approximately twenty-four freight cars that contained personal property taken, seized, confiscated or stolen by the Hungarian government from Hungarian Jews. This occurred after the U.S. Army took such property into its custody at the conclusion of World War II after which the United States improperly disposed of some of the property. Under the settlement, approximately $21 million provided by the US government will fund social service programs benefiting Jewish Hungarian victims of Nazi persecution.[80] UNRESOLVED ISSUES: ITALY The Italian Parliament passed Law 791 in November 1980 to provide monthly pensions (equivalent to the minimum monthly Italian Social Security of approximately Euro 390) to Italian citizens who were deported to concentration camps. Law 96 (March 1955) and Law 932 (December 1980) also provide pensions for Italian citizens who were persecuted for political or racial reasons. Certain Jews from the island of Rhodes who were deported to concentration camps are eligible to apply under Law 791, on the basis of their Italian citizenship during the war, provided they have retained Italian citizenship.[81] In November of 1997 the Italian government submitted a bill to Parliament to formalize Italy's donation of $7.2 million to the Fund for Victims of Nazism. Italy has undertaken along with the Italian Jewish community the restitution of looted assets, a process that is continuing. The government of Italy investigated the whereabouts of the possessions of Trieste-area Jews sent to the Nazi death camp at San Saba. The plundered treasure was taken by the retreating Germans to Austria and was brought back to Trieste by the Allies, with only a small fraction claimed by surviving Jews. The rest was sent to the Treasury in Rome for safekeeping in 1962. Pursuant to legislation passed by the Italian Parliament in July 1997, five sacks of valuables were returned to the Union of Italian Jewish Communities for distribution.[82] Insurance Generali Insurance Company There were two unresolved issues: the commitment of Generali for $40 million for humanitarian programs while paying insurance claims as much as necessary over and above its commitment to ICHEIC of $100 million, and distribution of funds with the Generali Fund in Jerusalem ($12 million) for humanitarian programs (balance of $10 million of which $6 million are with the Generali Trust Fund) (see Appendix B10). UNRESOLVED ISSUES: LATVIA 1. Private Property Latvia provides for restitution to former owners or heirs, without discriminating on the basis of citizenship or residency. Property deemed non-returnable is compensated through local vouchers.[83] 2. Communal Property An April 1992 Law on Return of Property to Religious Organizations applies to all faiths and provides for return of religious property to religious organizations. The Jewish community applied for 24 properties and received 16 and compensation for two others. The community (4,000 members) is interested in pursuing remaining claims for all communal properties, which may total to 200-300. Many of these properties are in small towns and in poor condition. Under the 1992 law administrative procedure for filing claims ended in 1995 and now any religious community must go to court to do so. Some legislative changes may be needed in order to cover all communal property and to allow restitution to the Jewish Community of Latvia. A 1995 agreement to create a foundation for WJRO and the religious and secular communities was never implemented but might be reestablished in the future. A bill that would have provided compensation to the Jewish community for formerly Jewish communal property, among other assets, was defeated in Parliament. The local Jewish community has requested that the WJRO take the lead in reviving and trying to have the proposed legislation enacted.[84] UNRESOLVED ISSUES: LITHUANIA 1. Private Property The current law provides for the restitution of private property to Lithuanian citizens exclusively. A separate law relating to the right to citizenship denies citizenship to any person who has been repatriated. This effectively means that Jews who arrived in the U.S. (for example) after the war can acquire Lithuanian citizenship and claim their property, while those who arrived in Israel cannot. The deadline for applying for the restitution of private property passed on December 31, 2001. A recent directive allows Jews who arrived in Palestine during the British mandate to reclaim Lithuanian citizenship, based on the reasoning that they did not return to a Jewish State. In its final session the outgoing Seimas approved a law amending Paragraphs and 4 of Article 10 of the "Law on the Restoration of the Rights of Ownership of Citizens to the Real Property". These amendments allow citizens of Lithuania to continue to claim property, despite the expiration of the deadline, as long as the reasons for their not claiming within the deadline are "reasons acknowledged by the court as valid". While under the current law Jews who returned to Israel before May 15, 1948, can receive citizenship and subsequently claim their property, those who arrived after this date remain unable to regain their Lithuanian citizenship and therefore still cannot claim their property. Resolution of outstanding claims would require the creation of a compensation fund of approximately $500 million. In 2009, the government agreed to pay $41 million to compensate Jewish community for looted assets by the Nazis in WWII. The $41 million will be placed on a special fund between 2011 to 2021. The long awaited deal however falls short of the value of looted property.[85] 2. Communal Property Current law provides for the return of religious communal property to the representative designated by the supreme authority of each faith. In order to adapt this law to the needs of the Jewish community, an amendment to the law has been under negotiation for the past two years. Currently, these negotiations are on hold until after the Lithuanian elections. In addition, the Lithuanian Government has repeatedly stated that it will not pass the law and begin restitution until it has a firm estimate of the costs of such restitution. Based on a list of some 152 properties, the Government has located about 58 properties that it agrees would be eligible for restitution under the proposed amendments to the law. The WJRO has retained the services of a Lithuanian lawyer and a research team. This research team has recently completed intensive archival work in order to prepare extensive, separate lists of both the existing and destroyed property. The major issues under negotiation are as follows: * The existing law does not apply to land or to properties on which the original structure has been destroyed and replaced with a new building. A separate compensation fund has been discussed as a possible solution. The position of the WJRO is that any such solution must be implemented together with the law. * The definition of the Jewish communal property. The position of the WJRO is that this definition must be broad and inclusive. * The timetable for the payment of compensation for properties that are currently occupied by certain types of tenants defined in the law. The position of the WJRO is that this timetable must be short. 3. Foundation The WJRO has signed a cooperation agreement with the local Jewish community and is currently working to establish a joint foundation that will be empowered under the law to make claims and to receive and manage property. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: MACEDONIA 1. Private Property Former owners of property, or heirs, who were citizens on the date of the restitution laws enactment were eligible to recover private property confiscated after August 1944. Compensation (government bonds) was provided when in rem restitution was not possible. 2. Communal Property The Jewish Community of Macedonia presented the government with a documented list of 40 communal properties which led to a settlement in 2002 of all communal claims. In exchange for relinquishing all remaining property claims, the Jewish community received: (i) four properties, and (ii) compensation consisting of 176.5 million Macedonian dinars ($3.5 million) in government bonds, paid over 10 years, for general community needs. 3. Unclaimed, Heirless property A Holocaust Fund was established in 2002 to receive and manage restituted, heirless Jewish property and, among other activities, to construct a Holocaust Museum and Education Center. The Jewish community identified 1,700 heirless properties (previously owned by the 7,200 deported Macedonian Jews) and, based on the 450 heirless cases that have been settled, the government has thus far transferred the following to the Fund: An initial payment of 29.5 million Macedonian dinars (500,000 EUROs) 35 plots of land in the former Old Jewish Quarter of Skopje (where the Holocaust Memorial Museum is being built) 4. Dispute with Bulgaria The Macedonian Jewish community seeks the return of about $16.5 million (for assets looted from Macedonian Jewry during World War II) apparently held in a Bulgarian National Bank account.[86] UNRESOLVED ISSUES: POLAND 1. Private Property A law for the Restitution of private property was passed by the Polish parliament in 2001. This law would have restricted the right to claim to Polish citizens who had acquired Polish citizenship as of the 31st of December 1999. The President of Poland vetoed this bill and it was never passed into law. The current government has announced that it intends to introduce a new law but this bill has not yet been brought before the Polish parliament. This bill would provide for very partial compensation, with payment to be extended over many years. A delegation of Polish survivors visited Warsaw in February 2005 to advise the Polish government that the current legislation for compensation being drafted for their parliament is unacceptable and that property-owners are seeking restitution and not merely compensation unless the latter is adequate to meet their claims. In October 2006, the Eastern Territories (Bug River) Law came into effect. This law established a claims process for the loss of private property in was the eastern region of Poland. Currently, it is not within Polish borders. The law requires Polish citizenship in order to file a claim and provides 20 percent compensation of a propertys current market value. The compensation will be paid in four installments. The payments are to begin in 2009.[87] There is litigation going on in U.S. courts as well as in the EU court in regarding restitution of private property in Poland. 2. Communal Property The Polish parliament passed a law dealing with the restitution of Jewish communal property in 1997. The deadline for the filing of claims under this law was the 11 May 2002. By this deadline, about 5,544 claims were filed. Of these, about 3,500 were filed by the Foundation (see below) and about 1,700 were filed by the local Jewish community (the JRCP). Claims are decided by a Regulatory Commission comprised of three members chosen by the Polish Government and three chosen by the local Jewish community. In an attempt to speed up the process a second commission was created at the beginning of 2003. The process remains extremely complex and slow To date a total of about 340 properties have been restituted to the Foundation and the local Jewish communities out of a total of about 5,500 claims presented. 3. Foundation The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland was established as a joint venture by the WJRO and the Union of Jewish Religious Communities (the JRCP) to handle property restitution in 26 of the 49 Polish districts. In the remaining districts the JRCP is responsible for property restitution. The Foundation is responsible for receiving and managing restituted property in these districts, and continues to actively seek further documentation to strengthen its claims. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: ROMANIA [88] 1. Private Property A law for the restitution of private property was passed by the Romanian parliament in 2001.The deadline for the presentation of claims passed in February 2002. This law imposed difficult documentary and procedural requirements that prevented many claimants from presenting or completing their claims. Necessary documentation could only be acquired in government archives, which were uncooperative at best. In addition, the Romanian government has not created a mechanism for awarding compensation to those claimants whose property cannot be returned in kind. Because of this situation, very few claimants have received either their property or compensation. In Bucharest, for example, only a couple of thousand claimants have received their property out of tens of thousand of claims which were presented prior to the deadline. 2. Communal Property The process of restitution began in 1997 when a government committee including representatives of the Jewish community was set up to recommend properties for restitution to the Government. Government Decrees were subsequently issued regarding 58 properties of which 41 have been returned and 17 remain in process. On June 25, 2002, the Romanian parliament adopted a law dealing with the restitution of communal property. This law presented a number of problems: The law did not provide for the restitution of land or for any form of compensation for land. The law did not provide for the restitution of properties on which the original structure has been destroyed and replaced with a new building. Here too, no compensation was offered. The law did not relate to properties nationalized during the years 1940-45. Any property sold to a private buyer must be pursued in court. The Romanian parliament passed a new law relating to communal property, which went into effect on March 30, 2004. The Prime Minister has announced that approximately 20 properties would be returned [over the coming months] {in subsequent months}. This law provides for the restitution of properties confiscated during the years 1940-1945, and provides for the restitution of land. The deadline for new claims was the 30th of December 2004. The claims process remains extremely slow due to unreasonable and unrealistic requests for documentation, and the requirement that the Foundation, rather then the Government, investigate the current legal status of each property. The special commission established to adjudicate claims delays issuing its decisions, even after it approves restitution. Also, the law allows the municipalities holding the property to appeal the decisions of the commission to the Romanian court system, resulting in almost endless delays. 3. Foundation The Caritatea Foundation was created as a joint venture by the WJRO and the local Jewish Community to prepare and document claims for Jewish communal property, and to receive and manage restituted properties. The Foundation has presented a total of 1807 claims to a special Retrocession Commission, which is empowered by law to examine and resolve the claims. Of these claims, only 97 claims have been discussed by the Retrocession Commission, of which 50 properties have been approved for restitution. Of these approvals, the Commission has issued only 27 written decisions. A written decision is a prerequisite for the return of the property. A number of these decisions have been appealed and are slowly wending their way through the Romanian court system. A total of 55 properties are now in the possession of the Foundation, including a number of properties restituted prior to the current restitution process. While these numbers speak for themselves, the following is a point by point list of the major obstacles before the restitution of Jewish communal property in Romania: a. The Commission meets infrequently. b. The Commission repeatedly demands additional documentation even when the documentation presented is sufficient to demonstrate Jewish communal ownership. c. The Commission delays issuing its decisions in writing. d. The Commission expressly grants the Municipalities the right to appeal in each of its written decisions (the decisions of the commission can be appealed only if it grants such permission). This causes extensive delays in the restitution process. 4. Unclaimed Property This issue has not yet been dealt with in a systematic manner. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: REPUBLIC OF SERBIA 1. Private Property A law regarding the registration of property nationalized after 1945 was enacted in May 2005. Only when all eligible properties have been registered will a draft restitution law be presented to parliament.[89] 2. Communal Property There is no Restitution law in Serbia & Montenegro but draft legislation has been proposed by the Ministry of Justice. There may be as many as 300 properties eligible for restitution. In February of 2005, the Joint Distribution Committee held a property reclamation seminar in Belgrade, Serbiathe first of its kind for countries of the former Yugoslavia. When JDC held a follow-up seminar in June of 2006, the Serbian government had just, a few weeks earlier, enacted a new law regarding the restitution of church and religious property. And so the work began, with JDC funding and technical assistance from a property management coordinator, to translate all of the research that had been conducted into filing legal claims in accordance with the governments deadline. By September 2008, the Jewish community of Serbia had filed 513 claims to former synagogues, schools, and community institutions. Two months later, in November 2008, the Jewish community got back its first property.[90] UNRESOLVED ISSUES: SLOVAKIA 1. Private Property As a part of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia returned a number of both private and communal properties in the 1990s. A government commission, including Jewish representatives, established the value of the remaining unrestituted stolen Jewish property received by the State of Slovakia during the Holocaust at about $180 million. In September 2002, the local Jewish community agreed to accept 10 percent of this sum. This 10 percent is to be put in the bank and the community will receive the interest for the next 10 years. Only at the end of that time will the principal become available to the local community. The claims filing process was only open for a brief period of time. Applicants were only able to file claims until December 31, 2003. Funds are to cover the healthcare of 1,450 Holocaust survivors in Slovakia and to help renovate Jewish historical sites.[91] The Association of Jews of Czechoslovakian Origin in Israel issued a statement in April 2003 rejecting the deal and emphasized that: This Agreement was signed without any authorization from Slovakian Jewish representatives worldwide. In June 2007 the WJRO and the Central Union of Jewish Communities of Slovakia (UZZNO) reached agreement with the Slovak Ministry of Culture on publication of a provenance research survey, on continued encouragement of provenance research by the museums of Slovakia, and on creation of a database of Judaica held in Slovakia. In June 2008 the Slovak Ministry of Culture reported that it had carried out the first two activities.[92] 2. Communal Property As mentioned above, a number of communal properties have been restituted to the local Jewish community. All remaining property is included in the settlement mentioned above. There is no joint foundation. The agreement between the government of Slovakia and the local Jewish community concerning the restitution of Jewish property has been strongly criticized by a number of international Jewish organizations, and rejected by the Association of Jews of Czechoslovakian Origin. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: SLOVENIA 1. Private and Communal Property WJRO negotiations with the government are scheduled to begin in the fall of 2007.[93] 2. Communal Property Ambassador Christian Kennedy, President Bushs Special Envoy on Holocaust Issues, traveled to Murska Sobota where he met with the Mayor as well as one of the few remaining Holocaust survivors. Ambassador Kennedy also met with Slovenian government officials and local activists working to preserve the history and culture of the Jewish community in Slovenia.[94] UNRESOLVED ISSUES: FORMER SOVIET UNION (FSU) 1. Private Property Russia While there has been progress in the restitution of some Jewish communal property since 1991, there is no legislation that oversees the restitution or compensation of private property in Russia today. Ukraine Ukraine has no legislation covering the restitution of private property. There are currently no related government drafts or proposals on this issue.[95] 2. Communal Property It is estimated that there are 1,000 standing synagogue buildings in the republics of the former Soviet Union (FSU). Of these, 50 were functioning houses of worship in the USSR period and 85 have been returned since 1990: 40 in Ukraine, 27 in Russia, 8 in Belarus, 6 in Moldova, 2 in Azerbaijan and 2 in Georgia. Except for Ukraine, there is no central list of all Jewish communal property seized by the Soviets. There are several major differences between communal property restitution in the FSU republics and other Central & Eastern Europe and Baltic countries: 1. Only Russia and Ukraine have laws albeit weak ones requiring the return of religious property. Other republics have statues only permitting such restitution. 2. Properties are more often returned to Jewish organizations or religious communities for long-term-use (55 of the above-noted 85) rather than for ownership (30 of 85). 3. Properties must be used by the communities for religious or communal purposes. They generally cannot be sold or rented in order to provide income to the community. There is also generally no possibility for return of alternative property or for compensation in lieu of a building or land. 4. Usually only one building is returned in each city. 5. There is no central Jewish organization handling restitution claims on a national level in any of the Republics. The process is very decentralized, with each local Jewish community or organization negotiating on its own with the municipality or oblast (regional government). 6. Except for areas that were pre-war Poland, properties were generally confiscated in the 1920s and 1930s by the Soviets earlier than the seizure by the Nazis (or their allies) during WWII. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: SWEDEN [96] The Swedish government established the Commission on Jewish Assets in Sweden at the Time of the Second World War in 1997, with the final report, Sweden and Jewish Assets, published in March 1999. The commission determined that the Swedish central bank had received transfers of gold bars and coins during WWII from Germany. The report also announced that it had a list of unclaimed bank accounts at Swedish banks, dormant since 1945.[97] No claim process was announced. No victim's pension fund was established by the various Swedish governments and there are no plans to do so in the future.[98] The commission concluded by recommending further research, particularly on the question of whether Swedish trade with Germany helped prolong the war and on the relationships between Swedish and Jewish-owned businesses.[99] Complaints were published in press about refusal to allow full access to archives containing records of the countrys involvement with WWII. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: UKRAINE 1. Private Property Ukraine has no legislation covering the restitution of private property. There are currently no related government drafts or proposals on this issue.[100] Please refer to Former Soviet Union (FSU) above for more information. 2. Communal Property A study funded by WJRO has documented 2,000 properties, of which 500 are synagogues or prayer- houses, 800 are other communal buildings or sites, and 700 are cemeteries. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: UNITED STATES See Appendix C4. UNRESOLVED ISSUES: VATICAN [101] 1. No answers were given to 47 questions posed by researchers, members of the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission (2000), and there is no granting of access to documents containing the answers. 2. Opening the Archives of the Vatican for academic researchers. Despite repeated requests since 1997 (the London Conference for Gold Looted by the Nazis), the Vatican refuses to open its archives for academic researchers on the Shoah era, contrary to the practice of most countries in Europe and worldwide. The Shoah was being scrutinized by a joint Jewish / Vatican commission that had been expected to deal honestly with this painful subject. The commissions Jewish scholars has since suspended its work to protest the lack of progress.[102] APPENDIX B - ACROSS BORDERS (What has been done) This chapter includes what has been done by Germany and what has been done on international process which started in the 1990s. As Germany was where it all started, a comprehensive overview is included also on issues such as reparations to the State of Israel and personal indemnification to the Jewish people. Total of major Shoah Individual Payments, Institutional Allocations and Other Programs for Jewish Nazi Victims paid by Germany, Austria and Switzerland is about $62 billion (this does not include about $700 million paid by Germany to the State of Israel as reparations for absorption of 500,000 Shoah survivors).[103] Majority of the total payments are for health damages. Only about $1.2 billion of these payments is for Slave Labor which is part of the Jewish Material Damage during the Shoah. B1. GERMAN REPARATIONS FOR THE STATE OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE [104] Israel presented its claims against Germany in a series of diplomatic notes addressed to the four occupying powers, the U.K., the U.S., France and the Soviet Union, during 1951. The most important of these notes was presented on March12, 1951, and set out Israels locus standi in presenting claims against Germany on behalf of the Jewish people.[105] Israel is the only State that can speak on behalf of the Jewish people, membership in which was the cause of the death of the six million. One purpose Israel was created for was to provide a refuge for all persecuted and homeless Jews. The recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to the reestablishment of its commonwealth was seen, {in part,} as an act of reparation for the wrongs endured by them throughout history, culminating in the Nazi campaign of {theft, torture, and}extermination. Having thus arisen, Israel has made itself responsible for the absorption and rehabilitation of the survivors of that catastrophe. For all these reasons, the State of Israel regards itself as entitled to claim reparations from Germany by way of indemnity to the Jewish People. The original claim from both parts of Germany (West and East) presented in the 1951 notes was $1.5 billion[106] in current prices The funds were for the State of Israel for the absorption and rehabilitation of about 500,000 Jewish refugees, Shoah Survivors, and another $6 billion for the damages caused to the Jewish People in the Shoah. The total was $7.5 billion. The claim as presented to the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) prior to the negotiations was $1.5 billion for the State of Israel for the absorption and rehabilitation of about 500,000 Jewish refugees, Shoah Survivors, and another $500 million for the Conference On Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) on behalf of the Jewish People for a commensurate share for heirless and unclaimed Jewish assets which accrued to Germany other than those which will be reclaimed by individuals and successor organization for a total of $2 billion. Of the $1.5 billion claimed by the State of Israel, $1 billion was claimed from West Germany (two thirds) and $500 million (one third) was claimed from East Germany. The Reparations Agreement between the Federal Republic of West Germany and the State of Israel was signed on September 10, 1952.[107] This agreement did not represent or include East Germany and therefore its one third (estimated nowadays at $2.5 billion) was not dealt with.[108] According to the Reparations Agreement, the Federal Republic of West Germany committed itself to paying the State of Israel DM3.450 billion ($833 million), out of which DM450 million ($108 million) has been made available to the Claims Conference (See Appendix C2: Claims Conference). In the Reparations Agreement, the Government of Israel was recognized as the representative of the Claims Conference for its material claims from Germany[109]. Those funds represented a partial refund of the expenditure born by the State of Israel for the absorption and rehabilitation of about 500,000 Jewish refugees, Shoah Survivors, estimated at $1.5 billion. In the framework of the Reparations Agreement, starting August 1953 and approximately for the following 12 years, goods in the value of DM3.450 million (about $833 million) were imported from Western Germany to Israel. The Government of the Federal Republic of West Germany committed itself to paying DM400 million ($97 million) until March 31, 1954. The remainder was to be paid in equal yearly installments over 10 to 12 years, at the choice of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, but no less than DM250 million ($60 million) per annum. The Government of the Federal Republic of West Germany chose the longer period of time, but the fulfillment of the Reparations Agreement was enhanced due to interim financing and all orders were made by the end of March 1964, except of budgets for services endured and petrol which were available only on the 1964/65 and 1965/66 budget years. Up to August 1965, goods and services worth of DM3.450 billion (about $833 million) were imported into Israel within the framework of the Reparations Agreement. Thirty-eight percent of that sum was devoted to purchasing boats, industrial machinery, industrial and other equipment; twenty-four percent was used for purchasing metals, raw materials, industrial and agricultural products; eight percent was used for payments on shipping and banking services; and thirty percent was for payments on purchase of petrol. Out of the sum of DM3.450 billion (about $833 million) received by the Israeli government from selling the imported goods in the Israeli marketplace, Israel committed itself to paying a total of about DM676 (about $163 million) as follows: DM450 ($108 million) to the Claims Conference; and DM 226 million ($55 million) to the following German organizations: DM54 million (about $14 million) - for German property in Israel to the Order of the Templars; DM 3.6 million (about $1million) to the Lutheran Church; DM0.500 million (about $0.125 million) to the Catholic Church in Cologne. Just before signing the Reparations Agreement, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) categorically demanded that Israel guarantee that Shoah survivors who became Israeli citizens before 1953 would not apply to West Germany for compensation for body and health damages caused to them during the Shoah and that the German law relating to those issues will not apply with those Shoah survivors [110]. The State of Israel had no choice but to comply with this demand and its consent is included in Protocol No.1 and Protocol No.2 of the Reparations Agreement. As a result, Israel has introduced legislation which entitled those Shoah survivors to compensation from its Treasury. As of the year 2000, the Israels annual budget devoted to this item was about $380 million. Cumulatively since 1957, when the legislation was enacted, Israel has paid about $4 billion to these Shoah survivors.[111] The State of Israel never received reparations for absorbing about 150,000 first generation Shoah survivors, who immigrated to Israel after 1965, when the reparations agreement ended. B2. GERMAN PERSONAL RESTITUTION, COMPENSATION, INDEMNIFICATION AND PENSIONS FOR JEWS 1) PERSONAL COMPENSATION, INDEMNIFICATION AND PENSIONS Following the Reparations Agreement (See Appendix B1), West Germany enacted programs for Shoah survivors, administered by the West German Federal government or by the Claims Conference (See Appendix C2: Claims Conference).These programs are aimed at various population groups of Shoah survivors according to the degree of health damage, presence during the Shoah, residence afterwards or other considerations: a. West German Federal Indemnification Law-BEG (expired for new applicants in 1965) One-time payments and monthly pensions. b. German Social Security Pensions ZRBG Ghetto Pensions (no deadline) Old Age/Social Security pension covering certain work periods in a relevant annexed or occupied Ghetto. c. Claims Conference Article 2 Fund (no deadline) pensions to Shoah survivors who meet certain financial criteria and who have received less than a fixed amount in previous compensation. Eligibility is according to German government guidelines. Pensions are awarded for certain types of loss of liberty and persecution-related hardship. d. Claims Conference Central & Eastern European Fund CEEF (no deadline) same eligibility criteria as the Article 2 Fund. excluding the financial criteria, for those Shoah Survivors currently residing in Central and Eastern Europe. Between 1989 and 2003 an average volume of $730 million per annum of monthly pensions and one time payments arrived to Israeli citizens, most of it from Germany, and mostly to Shoah survivors. 2) INDIVIDUAL RESTITUTION OF PROPERTY Germany enabled individual restitution of Jewish property, with heirs and the unclaimed property (See Appendix B3): a. Restitution from former West Germany (expired 1960s). b. Restitution from former East Germany (expired December 31, 1992). Under the German Property Law 1990, the Claims Conference became the legal successor to all unclaimed Jewish property in the former East Germany covered by the Property Law. Nevertheless, the Board of Directors of the Claims Conference established the Goodwill Fund for property owners and heirs who had not filed claims by the German Government mandated deadline of December 1992 and thus were no longer legally entitled to the property. The deadline for applications to the Goodwill Fund was 31 March 2004. The Goodwill Fund makes payments according to the guidelines established by the Board of Directors of the Claims Conference (See Appendix C2). B3. GERMAN RESTITUTION OF JEWISH UNCLAIMED PROPERTY Germany allowed for full restitution of unclaimed property by the Claims Conference within the specified timeframe (see Appendix C2), thus being the first country in Europe after WWII to follow this procedure. B4. GERMAN FORCED LABOR COMPENSATION FOR JEWS Following the establishment of a DM10 billion ($5 billion) fund by the German government together with German industry, named Remembrance, Responsibility & The Future (covering both Jews and non-Jews), the following programs were implemented: Claims Conference Program for Former Slave and Forced Laborers (expired 2001) (See Appendix C2: Claims Conference). Fund for Victims of Medical Experiments (expired 2001) compensation payments to Shoah Survivors who were subjected to medical experiments in concentration camps, conducted for the purpose of medical research. Of the DM10 billion ($5 billion) the following amounts were allocated: towards ICHEIC (The International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims) DM550 million ($275 million), towards Bank Accounts DM450 million ($225 million), towards the Future Fund - DM700 million ($350 million) (See Appendix B5,B6,B7). B5. GERMAN LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES Life insurance policies from the Shoah era of German insurance companies are being paid by ICHEIC (see Chapter 3.10: ICHEIC). Germany devoted funds to this issue DM 550 million ($275 million) out of the DM10 billion ($5 billion) of the Remembrance, Responsibility & The Future fund (See Appendix B7). B6. GERMAN DORMANT BANK ACCOUNTS Germany devoted DM 450 million ($225 million) towards the issue of dormant German bank accounts out of the Remembrance, Responsibility & The Future fund of DM 10 billion ($5 billion) (See Appendix B4). B7. GERMAN FUTURE FUND Germany created a Future Fund of DM 700 million, out of the Remembrance, Responsibility & The Future fund of DM10 billion (See Appendix B4). B8. INTERNATIONAL PROCESS AND CONFERENCES In 1995, Stuart Eizenstat , acting as the US Ambassador to the EU, was asked by President Bill Clinton to deal with the issues of Restitution of property from the Shoah era. President Clinton [was of the opinion] {believed} that it is an unacceptable situation in international relations when property is looted and not returned to the owners or their heirs. Eizenstat initiated an international process which included four international conferences on restitution of property: London (1997) on looted monetary gold, Washington (1998) on the international process and a specific focus on art, Stockholm (1999) on Holocaust education and Vilnius (2000) on looted art. These international conferences formulated resolutions which were publicly agreed upon. B9. JEWISH DORMANT BANK ACCOUNTS IN SWISS BANKS Prior to WWII, Jews in some Central and East European countries held bank accounts in Swiss banks. Most of these bank accounts remained dormant after WWII because their owners perished in the Shoah, and either the Swiss Banks refused to turn these accounts over to their heirs or there were no heirs at all. On May 2, 1996, an agreement was signed by the WJRO (See Appendix C2) and the World Jewish Congress representing also the Jewish Agency and Allied Organizations on the one side and the Swiss Bankers Association on the other. This agreement created an Independent Committee of Eminent Persons whose central task was to examine, through the services of an international auditing company and other experts, the Swiss Banking system for looted accounts. As a result of a public campaign and class action suits against the Swiss banks in a U.S. court, the Swiss banks in August 1998 agreed to pay $1.25 billion, deposited with the court, for return to the owners and heirs and for distribution of the remainder of heirless monies. This process is ongoing, administered by Judge Edward R. Korman of the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, where the lawsuits were filed. The Settlement Agreement provided for a payment of $1.25 billion to settle claims by members of five represented classes: the Deposited Assets Class, the Looted Assets Class, the Refugee Class, and two Slave Labor Classes. The Plan of Allocation and Distribution set aside up to $800 million of the $1.25 billion settlement for awards to Deposited Assets class members. Those are not restitution payments. As part of the settlement, three major Swiss banks, the Swiss National Bank, and the Swiss business world paid additional about $185 million to needy Shoah survivors all around the world (two other groups, homosexuals and the Roma, received additional funds). The WJRO was chosen as the implementing partner for the distribution of this fund to needy Jewish Shoah survivors (See Appendix C2). B10. JEWISH LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES Prior to WWII, Jews bought life insurance policies from European insurance companies. Most of these policies remained in the hands of the insurance companies when their owners perished in the Shoah, and their heirs were refused compensation. An international process established an entity to deal with this issue. This was one of the three major issues which were settled in the process of Restitution in the second half of the nineties. The others were the dormant accounts in the Swiss banks (See Appendix B9), and the German Forced Labor compensation (See Appendix B4). ICHEIC : THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON Shoah ERA INSURANCE CLAIMS [112] ICHEIC was established in 1998 in order to pay insurance policies from the Shoah era. Insurance commissioners of the various states in the US together with organizations of Shoah survivors were very active prior to its establishment. The Israeli government was also active in the establishment of ICHEIC and has two representatives on its board, one of them ex-oficio, as well as representatives of the founding insurance companies, representatives of the US Insurance Commissioners and on the Jewish side representatives of two Jewish organizations WJRO and the Claims Conference as well as representatives of the State of Israel. The settlement was signed by five European insurance companies: Allianz, AXA , Basler Leben, Generali Zurich Financial Service. Later the Dutch Sjoa fund joined the settlement and agreements were signed with the German Future Fund (See Appendix B7) and with the association of the German insurance companies. The essence of the settlement is the obligation of the insurance companies to pay claims for insurance policies from the Shoah era, even if the claimant does not have the policy itself but there is a high probability that such a policy was in existence. The claimant also does not have to prove the contents of the insurance policy. The settlement contained four stages: 1. Public Access the insurance companies handed over to Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Authority in Jerusalem, the lists of the owners of Shoah era insurance policies that were not cashed to be matched with the names of Jewish victims of the Shoah. The short list which was created was published to allow the policy owners or their heirs to search for their names or the names of their relatives. 2. Claim those who find the name of a family member on the list approach ICHEIC, even if they do not have an insurance policy in their possession, and present a claim for the current value of the policy. 3. Processing - ICHEIC submits the claim to the insurance companies which check the relevant details such as the insurance amount and payment of insurance premiums. All this is done according to ICHEIC guidelines agreed upon after lengthy deliberations with the insurers, the Jewish representatives on the board and the US insurance commissioners. As it was a well-known practice to take a loan based on the insurance policy, the insurers check on the existence of any prior loans and, if found, deduct the amount of any loan from the insurance policy value. All this is done in historic values of the currency in which the insurance policy was issued. 4. Valuation To determine the present value of the insurance policy, coefficients were set usually according to the currency in which the insurance policy was issued. Guidelines were set for payment of insurance policies issued by insurers which were nationalized or whose assets were nationalized or which have seized to exist. ICHEIC has paid or has committed to pay about $500 million to date. The funds originate in the various agreements signed by ICHEIC with the insurance companies. These funds are dedicated for paying insurance policies, humanitarian payments for Shoah needy survivors, commemoration education and research on issues regarding the Shoah. Administrative expenditure by ICHEIC by the end of 2005 were estimated at $85-95 million since its establishment. ICHEIC has about 20 employees in its two offices in Washington and in London. Sub-contractors are employed in Switzerland and in Holland. Close to 100,000 claims were submitted to ICHEIC, in most cases without the names of the insurance policy holders. Many claims were submitted to ICHEIC which do not belong to its areas of activity and therefore were redirected to the proper authorities. So far about 80,000 suitable claims have been submitted to ICHEIC. About $86 million has been offered to about 5,300 claimants by the insurance companies acting according to ICHEIC guidelines. An average offer to claimants made by ICHEIC is of $15,765.[113] This amount is not final as claimants are entitled to appeal. The ICHEIC website contains about 500,000 names of insurance policy holders. Of those, about 360,000 originate in Germany, about 52,000 originate in the founding members of ICHEIC, and about 1,000 originate in various governments and about 98,000 in various archives. A recent claim submitted against ICHEIC in a U.S. court by three Jewish claimants was rejected by the court and the claimants were directed to the ICHEIC process [114]. ICHEIC was expected to close down at the end of 2005, with the claims process and payments to end by mid 2006. The cessation deadline was extended to the end of 2006 with the claims process and payments to end by mid - 2007. This will increase the total administrative expenditure beyond the initial $85-95 million estimate. Humanitarian programs [115] are funded by heirless insurance policies which are included in the funds transferred to ICHEIC by the insurers, who agreed to direct part of the funds to programs for needy Shoah survivors, commemoration education and research on issues regarding the Shoah. The final amount of funds available for humanitarian programs will be available only at the end of the process of payments to the claimants, as the remainder of unpaid funds, after deducting administrative costs, is also dedicated for humanitarian programs. If the funds transferred to ICHEIC by any of the insurers are not sufficient to cover insurance claims, the insurers will transfer additional funds to cover their obligations. There are three sources for humanitarian programs funds: German Foundation (GF) Humanitarian Fund, the fund of the Italian insurance company Azzucarazioni Generali (Generali), and AWZ (Axa, Winterthur ,Zurich). According to existing agreements, $220 million is estimated to be available for humanitarian programs. To date, ICHEIC has approved so far about $200 million as follows: $132 million for assistance to Shoah needy survivors over 9 years to be executed by the Claims Conference, about $20 million for programs on commemoration, education and research to be executed over 10 years by Jewish university students of the Hillel organization and by the Jewish Agency, and about $50 million for various payments for insurance claims, among them payments to claimants whose insurance policies were not found with reasonable explanations that those insurance policies were existing at their times. The remaining assistance period for needy survivors of the Shoah is eight years starting in 2004 ending in 2011 (in addition to funds allocated in 2003), in diminishing amounts of $17 million in 2004 to $12 million in 2011. Discussions are ongoing on shortening this time frame. The geographical distribution of the assistance to Shoah needy survivors is as follows: Israel - $51 million, Former Soviet Union - $19 million, U.S. $19 million, Europe $23 million, rest of the world $5 million. Approvals have been given for two programs on commemoration education and research: a.) Service Corps, which engages Jewish university students in service to their local survivor population extended by the Hillel organization - $10 million; b.) An Initiative for Shoah Education and Awareness as a Means of Fostering Basic Jewish Literacy for Youth in the Former Soviet Union, executed by the Jewish Agency - $10 million. Yad Vashem has submitted a program for training teachers in Europe on how to deliver Shoah Education - $10 million, which is in the process of approval.[116] ICHEICs chairman has recently established a Jewish advisory committee for humanitarian programs, consisting of four members two Shoah survivors (an Israeli and an American), a representative of a Jewish organization and an ex-oficio representative of the State of Israel.[117] Within the context of ICHEIC, the Italian insurance company Generali is the largest contributor. Generali committed $100 million (plus interest earned since 2000) for insurance claims and humanitarian programs. In addition, Generali committed to pay all claims and administrative costs incurred for the period prior to July 2000, including transfers to a number of national foundations, among them Generali Fund in Jerusalem and foundations in Germany, France and Holland. Generali has been involved in Holocaust era insurance claims since the $320 million acquisition of the Israeli insurance company Migdal in 1997. At the demand of several Knesset members and Shoah survivors, Generali committed, in an agreement signed with the Knesset, to transfer $12 million over a period of 10 years to a new foundation established in Israel. The aims of this foundation, named the Generali Trust Fund ,which was formulated by the Finance Committee of the Knesset are: paying insurance claims, supporting organizations acting on commemoration of the Shoah and support for needy Shoah survivors who need medical, psychological and other assistance. After the establishment of ICHEIC in 1998 with Generali as one of its founders, the transfers to the Generali Trust Fund continued without fail (for its commitment of $12 million). In addition, Generali has transferred to ICHEIC all funds according to its commitments. There remain two unresolved issues: the commitment of Generali for $40 million for humanitarian programs while paying whatever insurance claims may be over and above its commitment to ICHEIC of $100 million, and distribution of funds with the Generali Fund[118] ($12 million) for humanitarian programs (balance of $10 million of which $6 million are with the Generali Fund). ICHEIC was closed down in 2008 after ending its mission, ten years since establishment. B11. LOOTED Shoah VICTIMS GOLD [119] Nazis looted gold during the Shoah, melted it and turned it into monetary gold which was sold mainly to Swiss banks. It seems that also golden teeth removed from Jewish victims in concentration camps were included in this gold. One- third of the gold the Nazis looted belonged to victims and the persecuted. The total amount of gold looted from Jews during the Shoah was estimated to be between 285 and 295 tons, and valued about $326 million in 1945 prices, or about $2 billion in 1998 prices. In spite of specific requests by Shoah survivors at the 1997 London conference on looted gold, only $50 million of funds derived from looted gold was distributed to Jewish causes by the International Fund for Assistance to Victims of Nazi Persecution. B12. LOOTED JEWISH Shoah ART [120] During the Shoah as many as 600,000 paintings were stolen by the Nazis, of which more than 100,000 are still missing. When furniture, china, rare books, coins, and items of the decorative arts are included, the numbers of cultural objects swell into the millions. The following principles (Washington Principles) were adopted at the Washington conference in 1998 regarding art: 1. The principles called on museums, governments, commercial galleries, and auction houses to cooperate in tracing looted art through more stringent research into the provenance of every item. 2. Given the difficulty of producing evidence of ownership, the art community was asked to permit leeway in accepting claims on stolen art during the Hitler era. 3. There would be an international effort to publish information about provenance. 4. A system of conflict resolution would be established to prevent art claims from turning into protracted legal battles. 5. Attempts would be made to find a fair solution when owners of looted works could not be found. The compliance with these principles has been poor. At the Vilnius International Forum on Holocaust-Era Looted Cultural Assets in 2000, the Israeli representatives insisted that the Jewish people and Israel as the Jewish State, was the only legitimate heir of what was once Jewish property. B13. LOOTED JEWISH COMMUNAL PROPERTY A few countries in Eastern Europe have restituted some Jewish communal property. Foundations were established in Romania, Poland, Hungary and Lithuania. Those are handled by WJRO and the local Jewish community (See Appendix C2). Communal Property probably does not account for more than five percent of the assets looted. Still, only a small fraction of it has been restituted.[121] B14. LOOTED JEWISH PRIVATE PROPERTY Restitution of Jewish Private Property, real estate and other types (See Chapter 2.2) is the weakest link in the Restitution process. A great deal still needs to be done in this area. B15. HISTORICAL COMMISSIONS ON CONDUCT OF NATIONS DURING THE Shoah AND RECONCILIATION [122] More than 50 historical commissions have been established to deal with various aspects of the property question. In addition to investigating the truth about the fate of Jewish assets (with varying degrees of transparency), the commissions laid the groundwork for the more significant process of moral settlement. For the first time, many societies were forced to confront the fact that much of what they had accepted as truth was actually myth and that the wartime behavior of their forebears was less honorable than they would have liked to believe. Historical commissions have been charged with investigating the question of Jewish property seized or laundered in the Holocaust and many other aspects of national history during Nazi period. This moral soul searching has been and continues to be reflected in the media and in academia. As a result, entire chapters of history have been revised and re-written-often revealing a dark side of the past that has brought shame and embarrassment. The following list represents a concise summary of the work done in 28 countries by historical commissions and records significant restitution legislation and settlements. In several countries progress is painfully slow and a genuine confrontation with history has yet to take place: Argentina - The 1992 Investigation; The Commission of Inquiry into Nazi Activity in Argentina(1997); Official Statement(2000). Austria - The Provenience Commission on Art Objects (1998); The Commission of Inquiry (Historical) (1998);The National Fund for Victims of Nazi Persecution (1995);Official Statements (1996;1998). Belgium The Commission to Study the Fate of Jewish Property (1997). Brazil The Special Commission to Investigate Nazi Assets (1997). Bulgaria Legislation for the Restitution of Property. Croatia The Commission for Investigation of Historical Facts on the fate of Property of the Victims of the Nazis (1997). Czech Republic The Commission on Restitution (1999); New Legislation (2000). Estonia The International Research Commission of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. France The Matteoli Commission(1997); Decree on Jewish Orphans(2000); The Paris Commission; The Lyon Commission; Art Commission (1995); The foundation for the Remembrance of the Shoah;Official Statements(1997). Germany - Remembrance, Responsibility & The Future Fund (2000). Hungary The Hungarian Jewish Heritage Foundation (1995); Official Statement (1994). Italy The Commission on Holocaust Assets (1998). Latvia The International Research Commission of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; Official Statement (2000). Liechtenstein - A Government Commission (2001). Lithuania - The International Research Commission of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; - The International Research Commission of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; Official Statement (2000). The Netherlands The Dutch Gold Commission (1997); The Jewish Property Commission(1999); Agreements and Official Statements (2000);The Jewish Valuables (LIRO) Commission; The Committee on Paintings (1997); Nazi Persecutees Relief Fund. Norway The Skarpness Committee (1996); The Norwegian Fund. Poland Foundation for Jewish Communal Property (2000); Official Statement (2001); Investigation of the Jedwabne Massacre (2002). Portugal Special Commission (1997). Romania Foundation for Jewish Communal Property. Slovakia Commission on Holocaust-Era Property (2001). Spain The Commission on Nazi Gold (1997); Sephardic Heritage Holocaust Fund. Sweden The Commission on Jewish Assets in Sweden at the time of Second World War (1997); The Central Bank Inquiry (1997); Living History Project (1997);Official Statement (2000). Switzerland Foreign Ministry Inquiry (1996); The Volcer Committee (1996); The Historic and Legal Research Commission (Bergier) (1998); The Swiss Fund (2000); Official Statements (1995, 1997, 1998,1999). Turkey Commission on World War II properties (1998). The United Kingdom The Foreign Office Report(1996); The Report on Ex-Enemy Assets (1997); The International Conference on Nazi Gold (1997). The United States The First Eizenstat Report (1997); The Second Eizenstat Report (1998); The Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets (1998); The Museums Task Force (1998);The International Commission on Holocaust era Insurance Claims (1998) (see chapter 3.3). Corporate Commissions of Historians Ford Motor Co.; Deutsche Bank, The German publishing concern Bertelsmann, and the German smelting company Degussa, and the German insurance company Allianz.Nazi Persecutee Relief Funds (1997). B16. A Shoah RESTITUTION TIMELINE 1953 -Reparations Agreement starts by German goods being imported to Israel, ending in 1965. (B1) -Claims Conference starts operating outside of Israel - relief programs to Shoah survivors, and cultural programs. (Zweig,2001) 1965 -Reparations Agreement ends.(B1) 1976 -The United States Helsinki Commission created. Between 1999 and 2003 it holds hearings on Restitution of Property in Central and Eastern Europe. (C2) 1989 -The fall of the Iron Curtain. -Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel established.(C2) 1990 -Claims Conference negotiates with Germany additional pensions and one time payments for Shoah survivors. 1993 -World Jewish Restitution Organization established. (C2) 1995 -Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues created at the US State Department. (C4) -Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich supports Restitution.(C4) -Austrian National Fund established.(C5) 2002 -Belgian Fund established.(C5) 2003 -Israeli Ministerial Committee on Restitution established (C1) 2004 -U.S. government settles Hungarian Gold Train litigation (Bazyler,2005) 2005 -U.S. Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice supports Restitution. (C4) -Recommendations of Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on the Location and restitution of assets in Israel of Victims of the Holocaust.(C1) - U.S. Global Anti-Semitism Report issued. (D1) 2008 -ICHEIC closedown (B10)  1945 -Note of Chaim Weizmann the president of the Jewish Agency to the Allies on the three-fold-problem of reparation, rehabilitation, and restitution from Germany (Chapter 1) 1948 -Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO) authorized to take action to recover any presumably heirless property in the American zone in Germany. (Zweig,2001,pp14) 1949 -Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO) authorized to take action to recover any presumably heirless property in the British zone in Germany.(Zweig,2001,pp14) 1951 -Diplomatic note sent by the State of Israel to the occupying powers of Germany the United states, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union seeking compensation from Germany.(Appendix B1) -The Conference on Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) established. (C2) 1952 -Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO) authorized to take action to recover any presumably heirless property in the French zone in Germany.(Zweig,2001,pp14) -The Reparations Agreement between the governments of Israel and Germany is signed.( B1) 1996 -President Clinton Supports Restitution(C4) 1997 -London Conference on monetary gold (B8) -Nazi Persecutee Relief Fund established.(C5) 1998 -U.S. Congress supports Restitution (C4) -Swiss banks agree to pay $1.25 billion (B9) -ICHEIC established.(B10) 1999 -Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets. (C4) -Stockholm Conference on Holocaust education(B8) -German Future Fund established (Bazyler, 2005) -Israeli cabinet Minister nominated to deal with Restitution. (C1) 2000 -Recommendations of the U.S. Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets. (C4) -Vilnius Conference on looted art (B8) -French Fund established.(C5) 2001 -Austrian General Settlement Fund established.(C5) APPENDIX C - ONGOING ACTIVITY (Who does what) C1. ISRAELI GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT: FROM GERMAN REPARATIONS UNTIL TODAY ISRAELI GOVERNMENT The Israeli State began its involvement with WWII restitution matters through the Reparations Agreement with West Germany in 1952 (see Appendix B.1) and maintained it until the expiration of this agreement in 1965. Israel renewed its involvement after the Berlin Wall fell in the early 1990s. It provided financial support to the establishment of the: World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO,) and of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel. A team of ministers of Justice, Foreign Affairs, and Finance were asked by the Prime Minister to deal with the evolving issues. They established a Director Generals Committee, headed by the Director General of the Finance Ministry (with members from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice) to supervise and enhance the activities of the newly established organizations. Representatives of the Ministries of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Justice act as observers on the board of WJRO[123]. In 1993, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Minister of Finance and the President of WJRO. The Memorandum established principles for cooperation and liaison. The purpose of the Memorandum was to ensure the interests of the Jewish State in the process of Restitution. The Memorandum was not fully implemented. Since the inception of the WJRO, Prime Ministers of the State of Israel Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Benyamin Netanyahu, and Ehud Barak have issued support letters to WJRO to act on behalf of the State of Israel and the Jewish people in restitution issues. From its creation, the WJRO has received financial support from the Israeli government on a yearly basis. Since the Attorney General has changed the method of funding of non-profits in Israel, this support was halted in the year 2003, and has not yet been resumed. In the mid-nineties, the Prime Ministers Advisor for Jewish Diaspora Affairs also dealt with Restitution. In 1999, a cabinet minister was nominated to deal with restitution. That year, the Attorney General held a symposium on restitution, followed by recommendations to the Prime Minister and the appropriate minister. The Attorney General recommended that the Government decides on the scope of its involvement and its structure, and decide where restitution funds should be allocated.[124] Since 2001 the minister in charge of restitution matters has been the Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs. In December 2003, the government decided to establish a Ministerial Committee for Restitution of Rights and Jewish Property. Seven Ministers are members of this committee. Two steering committees were established as well one for restitution of rights and Jewish property and the other for rights of Jews who left Arab countries as refugees. In its resolution, the government decided that a global report should be formulated and that a framework for policy and a five year plan will be submitted by the Chairman of the Ministerial Committee.[125] By March 2004, the framework for policy and a five year plan were formulated, awaiting understandings with the Jewish organizations involved, before being brought for approval of the government.[126] In 2003, the government joined with WJRO (See Appendix C2) the Swiss banks litigation[127] (See Appendix B9). In 2005 the government submitted to the Knesset a law dealing with bank accounts in Israeli banks and monies held with Public Trustee of victims of the Shoah and their heirs.[128] (See next issue: The Knesset). Israeli Prime Ministers have been involved in issues of Restitution since the establishment of WJRO in the early nineties.[129] Stuart Eizenstat complained publicly about the passive role of Israel in restitution matters during his tenure (1995 2000) as the U.S. Presidents Special Envoy for Holocaust issues.[130] On the 31st of August 2006, Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims Assets, Ltd. was registered with the Registrar of Corporations. All of the company's shares are held solely by the state of Israel and it was registered as a non-profit organization for the benefit of the public. The company began its active work in March 2007. (See next issue below) 2) ISRAELI PARLIAMENT: THE KNESSET The involvement of the Knesset in Restitution started in the nineties with the establishment of the Knesset sub-committee for Restitution of Jewish Property which held a couple of hearings on the subject. Knesset members acted as heads of the Israeli Delegation at the Washington conference in1998 (MK Avraham Hirshzon, Chairman of the Knesset sub committee for Restitution of Jewish Property) and at the Vilnius conference on looted art in 2000 (MK Collette Avital, today the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on the Location and Restitution of Assets (in Israel) of Victims of the Holocaust).[131] The Speaker of the Knesset acts as the chairman of the Parliamentary non-Profit Organization for the Memory of the Shoah, which was established in 2000. The Finance Committee of the Knesset was instrumental in the agreement on establishing the Generali Fund in memory of the Generali Insured in East and Central Europe Who Perished in the Holocaust (See Appendix B10). The Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on the Location and Restitution of Assets in Israel of Victims of the Holocaust has published a Report, as well as list of names of bank account owners which is now on the website of the Knesset[132]. The Report includes recommendations on reappraising of the bank accounts and monies which held with the Public Trustee (Apotropos Klali), with and without heirs. It also includes optional administrative structures to deal with its recommendations. The Report recommends that the Knesset should act as soon as possible to advance legislation connected with the implementation of its Report. As for the almost 3,600 bank accounts, the Report includes a minimum appraisal in the case in which there are no heirs (less than NIS 40 million about $9 million), adjusted by the increase in the Israeli cost of living index since 1948 plus 3 percent interest per annum until September 2004. And the maximum appraisal if all bank accounts are with heirs is NIS323 million about $74 million, appraised by the increase in the Israeli cost of living index since 1939 plus 4 percent interest per annum until September 2004. The Professional Advisory Committee to the Inquiry Committee indicated that there is no evidence that the banks acted intentionally to hide accounts of Shoah victims. This finding does not appear in the final Report of the Inquiry Committee. According to the Report, most of the adjusted funds belong to Bank Leumi (NIS 35 million about $8 million). The bank has created a facility for members of the public who wish to inquire and demand dormant bank accounts on its Hebrew web site [133]. The Report states clearly that the Public Trustee (Apotropos Klali) did not act to hide monies belonging to Shoah victims or their heirs and its actions were transparent and according to the law. The Report states the maximum appraisal for the monies with the Public Trustee in the case in which there are no heirs at all (NIS 587 million about $ 135 million), appraised by the increase in the Israeli cost of living index since 1948 plus 3 percent interest per annum until September 2004. Accounts with no heirs are transferred by law, after a period of time, to the governments budget. Finally, the Report recommended that heirless accounts be directed towards welfare of Shoah survivors and commemoration of the Shoah. An agreement was reached for the passage of a law that would establish an entity to search and distribute funds inquired in the Report. The funds to be distributed are NIS 100 million to NIS 200 million ($23 to $46 million). A public committee is to be established to examine the interest rate to be paid. Unclaimed funds will be distributed to needy Shoah survivors in Israel.[134] When considering this Report the difference between Israel as the one and only Jewish state and any other country should be weighed heavily. Israel has a population of Shoah survivors of about 220,000[135], [and as such] the largest worldwide. Inclusive of second and third generation Shoah survivors, this population amounts to about half a million. C2. JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS: CLAIMS CONFERENCE, WJRO, CENTER OF ORGANIZATIONS OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS IN ISRAEL 1) THE CONFERENCE ON JEWISH MATERIAL CLAIMS AGAINST GERMANY History: The Claims Conference (CC) was established in 1951 by 23 major Jewish national and international organizations active in those days, to help negotiate material claims against Germany, at a conference which met in New York.[136] The members are: Agudath Israel World Organization; Alliance Israelite Universelle; American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors; American Jewish Committee; American Jewish Congress; American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; American Zionist Movement; Anglo-Jewish Association; Bnai Brith International; Board of Deputies of British Jews; Canadian Jewish Congress; Centre of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel; Conseil Representatif des Institutions Juives de France; Council of Jews from Germany; Delegacion de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas; European Jewish Congress/European Council of Jewish Communities; Executive Council of Australian Jewry; Jewish Agency for Israel; Jewish Labor Committee; South African Jewish Board of Deputies; World Jewish Congress; World Jewish Relief; World Union for Progressive Judaism; Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland. The CC has 17 officers and 58 members on its Board of Directors: 48 members (two for each organization) and another 10 members who were nominated on a personal rather than organizational basis.[137] The CC is the legal successor to unclaimed property in the former East Germany since 1990. The CC established the Committee for Jewish Claims on Austria (CJCA) in 1953 to secure compensation directly from Austria. Legal Status: The CC is a nonprofit organization, a membership corporation pursuant to the Membership Corporations Law of the State of New York. Its mandate according to its Certificate of Incorporation is: voluntarily to assist act on behalf of Jewish persons who were victims of Nazi persecution in matters relating to compensation and indemnification and relating to the restitution of property and to apply any moneys to the relief of victims of Nazi persecution[138] Budget: The CC annual budget was about $800 million in the year 2002. Allocations included direct compensation to Survivors ($590 million); Allocations for Social Welfare Projects for Nazi Victims and Holocaust Research, Documentation and Education ($94 million); Heirs of Property Goodwill Fund ($65 million); Other Grants; Administration ($26 million); Other expenses composed primarily of costs of management of certain properties and the legislative program ($8 million). Total Successor Organization revenue, as of the end of 2002, is approximately $1 billion. Of that amount more than $450 million was allocated primarily to organizations and institutions assisting needy survivors; $167 million was paid by the Goodwill Fund; $157 million was set aside for future payments of the Goodwill fund; and $259 million was set aside for longer-term needs of Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. CCs salaried staff consisted in 2002 of 310 personnel and additional temporary and contract staff. Staff dealing with the main programs (core and slave labor): in its headquarters in New York - 135; in offices in Europe 60; in Israel (Tel Aviv) 70. In Germany (Frankfurt) and Austria (Vienna) staff dealing with the property 45, plus additional temporary and contract staff.[139] As a result of the conclusion of some of the programs, in the recent years, the Claims Conference had to let go approximately a third of the above mentioned staff. Activity: Over the past five decades, the CC has negotiated for compensation for injuries inflicted upon individual Jewish victims of Nazi persecution; negotiated for the return of and restitution for Jewish-owned properties and assets confiscated or destroyed by the Nazis; obtained funds for the relief, rehabilitation and resettlement of Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, and aided in rebuilding Jewish communities and institutions devastated by the Nazis; administered individual compensation programs for Shoah survivors; recovered unclaimed East German Jewish property and allocated the proceeds from their sale to institutions that provide social services to elderly, needy Nazi victims and that engage in Holocaust research, education, and documentation. CC attained more than 25 agreements in order to obtain a small measure of justice for Jewish victims of Nazi persecution around the world. The CC leads the following bodies, activities and programs: Negotiating Committee Germany; Committee for Jewish Claims in Austria; Program for Former Slave and Forced Laborers; Article 2 Fund; Central and Eastern European Fund (CEEF); Hardship Fund; Swiss Refugee Program; Swiss Deposited Assets Program; Insurance 8A1 Program; Community Leader Fund; Hassidei Umot Haolam Program; Successor Organization; Goodwill Fund; Institutional Allocations; Yad Vashem.[140] 2) WJRO: WORLD JEWISH RESTITUTION ORGANIZATION History: Following the collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the worlds eight leading Jewish organizations decided in early 1993 to establish the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO). The founding members were: The Jewish Agency for Israel; The World Zionist Organization; The World Jewish Congress; the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany; Bnai Brith International; The American Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors; and the Organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel. To these were added Agudath Israel World Organization in 1994, the European Jewish Congress and the European Council of Jewish Communities Joint European Delegation, in 1998.[141] Legal Status: The WJRO is a non-profit organization registered in Israel. Its mandate according to its Rules of Association is: [to] centralize and coordinate the efforts of the Members in their attempts to help recover Jewish assets which belonged to individuals, communities and organizations who became victims of National-Socialist rule and of the Holocaust in all the countries where such assets are situated except Germany and Austria and to arrange for compensation for personal suffering of Holocaust survivors residing in or originating from those countries.. The governing structure of the WJRO consists of twenty Council Representatives, two nominated by each member organization. Edgar M. Bronfman is the President; ten members of the Executive Committee, one nominated by each member organization; and six officers. A memorandum on cooperation and coordination exists between the Government of Israel and the WJRO.[142] Budget: The annual budget of WJRO is less than $1 million, which enables to carry out limited activities. Its salaried staff consists of six members. Its headquarters is in Jerusalem. In the year 2003, and to date, the WJRO did not receive any participation of the Government in its budget, as opposed to the previous 10 years, due to new method of supporting non-profits directed by the Attorney General.[143] Activity: Co-operation Agreements & Foundations The WJRO concluded cooperative agreements with a number of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, where a basis has been set up to establish joint foundations supported by the WJRO and the local community. So far, such foundations have been established in Poland, Hungary and Romania and are operational. The WJRO is in the midst of intensive efforts to create such a foundation in Lithuania. The purpose of these foundations is to research and locate Jewish communal properties (in addition to the archival project and database located at WJRO headquarters) and to receive and manage restituted communal property. In addition, the activities of the WJRO have led to the creation of foundations in France, Belgium, Norway and Holland, as well as the $59 million International Fund for Assistance to the Victims of Nazi Persecution (Nazi gold fund). Due to the efforts of the WJRO, a number of countries have set up historical commissions to investigate the activities and roles of their countries in the Holocaust era. Partial solutions to the problems of the restitution of private property and compensation for survivors have been achieved in Hungry, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Belgium. Holocaust Insurance Claims - The International Commission for Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) was created in 1998 to enable claimants to recover unpaid insurance policies. The State of Israel, the WJRO, and the Claims Conference are the representatives of the Jewish world within ICHEIC. The overall scale of the activities of the Commission is about $400 million. Swiss Banks - WJRO conducted negotiations with the Swiss banks and was a party to the $1.25 billion (plus interest) settlement on the class-action suits. It recently submitted proposals jointly with the Government of Israel for possible residual funds to be allocated by the court.[144] Swiss Fund for the Needy Victims of the Holocaust In addition to the Swiss bank settlement, the WJRO was chosen to be the implementing partner for the distribution of the Swiss Fund for the Needy Victims of the Holocaust to eligible Jewish recipients. In this capacity, the WJRO distributed approximately $185 million to about 253,000 Shoah survivors. Looted Art The WJRO, in cooperation with the Claims Conference, is working to improve and promote the handling of the problem of restituting looted works of art.[145] 3) CENTER OF ORGANIZATIONS OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS IN ISRAEL [146] History: The Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel (Center) is addressing the needs of Shoah survivors in Israel was established in 1989 and serves as the umbrella organization of their organizations. The following 16 organizations are members of the Center: National Organization of Former Jewish Prisoners of the Nazis; Union of Jewish Bulgarian Immigrants; Union of Jewish Bukovina Immigrants; National Union of Jewish Immigrants from Russia and Former Soviet Union; Organization of Jewish Second Generation for the Heritage of the Shoah and Heroism; Union of Jewish Hungarian Immigrants; Union of Jewish Yugoslavian Immigrants; Organization of Jewish Survivors from Greece in Israel of Concentration Camps; Union of Jews from Libya and Tunisia; Organization of Jewish Nazi Victims Invalids; World Federation of Sefardi Jews; Amcha the Israeli Center for Psychological and Social Support for Shoah Survivors and Second Generation; World Federation for Polish Jews; Jewish Union of Polish Immigrants in Israel; Jewish Union of Czechoslovakian Immigrants; Jewish Union of Romanian Immigrants in Israel. After the fall of the Berlin Wall the Center, as a member organization in the Claims Conference, participated in submitting 100,000 claims for Jewish property in prior East Germany. About 50 percent came from Israel and from Russia, by initiative of the Center. The Center initiated the establishment of WJRO (See above). As a result Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir created a Ministerial Committee chaired by Minister of Justice, Dan Meridor with its members the Ministers of Finance and Foreign Affairs. The Center initiated the establishment of the foundation for the benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel.[147] Legal Status: The Center is a non- profit organization registered in Israel. Budget: The annual budget of the Center is about $350,000. It has six salaried staff members. Its headquarters is in Jerusalem. Activity: The Center is a member at the Claims Conference and the WJRO. As such, members of the Center participate in negotiations with the German Government on Personal Restitution, Compensation, Indemnification and Pensions for Shoah : Holocaust Survivors and in negotiations on Restitution of Jewish Property (see above: Claims Conference and WJRO). C3. U.S. CONGRESS: HELSINKI COMMISSION [148] The United States Helsinki Commission, an independent U.S. federal agency, by law monitors and encourages progress in implementing provisions of the Helsinki Accords. The Commission, created in 1976, is composed of nine Senators, nine Representatives and one official each from the Departments of State, Defense and Commerce. The Helsinki Final Act (HFA) was signed in Helsinki, Finland in 1975, and includes ten Principles Guiding Relations between participating States (the Decalogue). The United States Helsinki Commission held hearings on Restitution of Property in Central and Eastern Europe in 1999 and 2002 and got an update in 2003. It also received reports from the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues at the State Department as well as from the President of the Claims Conference.[149] C4. U.S.: STATE DEPARTMENT & TREASURY DEPARTMENT The State and Treasury Departments were involved in restitution during the tenure of Stuart Eizenstat (1995-2000) who served as Under Secretary of State in the first Clinton Administration and Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Second Clinton Administration. An Office of Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues was also created during the Clinton Administration, and the post was held during the Clinton years by career diplomat by J.D. Bindenagel. In the first Bush administration, Secretary of State Colin Powell maintained the Special Envoy Office and Bindenagel was replaced in 2002 by another career diplomat, Randolph Bell. The current Holocaust Issues Envoy is Edward ODonell, who was Eizenstats chief of staff in 1999. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice[, during her confirmation hearings, indicated that she would] {maintained} the Office of Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues. Since 1995 the policy of the U.S. supporting Restitution has been expressed in various ways: In 1995 Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said: It is the clear policy of the United States that each [Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and the Ukraine] should expeditiously enact appropriate legislation providing for the prompt restitution and/or compensation for property assets seized by the former Nazi and/or Communist regimes. We believe it is a matter of both law and justice President Clinton, in a letter to Mr. Edgar Bronfman President of the WJRO dated May 2, 1996, wrote as follows: I would like to express my continuing support in the area of restitution of Jewish property. In 1998 Congress resolved that countries in transition in Central and Eastern Europe should remove certain citizenship or residency requirements for individual survivors of the Holocaust seeking restitution of confiscated property and noted that former Communist countries which seek to become members of the North Atlantic Alliance and other international organizations must recognize that a part of the process of international integration involves the enactment of laws which safeguard and protect property rights that are similar to those in democratic countries. Deputy Treasury Secretary Eizenstat stated before the Helsinki Commission in 1999: [T] he basic principle that wrongly expropriated property should be restituted (or compensation paid) applies to them all [countries in central and eastern Europe] and their implementation of this principle is a measure of the extent to which they have successfully adopted democratic institutions, the rule of law with respect to property rights and market economy practices. As these governments seek to join western economic and political organizations and to integrate their economies more closely with ours, we do expect them to adopt the highest international standards in their treatment of property[150] Secretary of State Madeline Albright stated during the Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets (1999). Our imperative must be openness. Because the sands of time have obscured so much, we must dig to find the truth. This means that researchers must have access to old archives and by that, I dont mean partial, sporadic or eventual access I mean access in full, everywherethe obligation to seek truth and act on it is not the burden of some but of all, it is universal, every nation, every business, every organization is obliged to do so. In this arena, none of us are spectators, none are neutral; for better or worse, we are all actors on historys stage.[151] The U.S. Government established a set of principles for the restitution of private and communal property which were promulgated by Deputy Secretary Stuart Eizenstat in 1999. Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage declared in 2001 that following the fall of the Berlin Wall, possibilities opened for the US Government and others to resume work on securing justice for Holocaust victims.we are convinced that the greatest effort we can make is to try to make a measure of justice to the survivors of the Holocaust. The United States Government remains committed to work for the human dignity that is the hallmark of our country.[152] There has been bipartisan support in the US to address Holocaust related issues. The recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States (2000) included the following points[153]: 1. Establish a public-private foundation - the Congress should establish a public-private foundation to promote further research and education in the area of Holocaust-era assets and restitution policy. A Bill : To establish a National Foundation for the Study of Holocaust Assets (sponsored by Sen. Gordon Smith, Republican from Oregon, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat from New York) was introduced in the Senate; on June 4, 2003, it was referred to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. An earlier version (sponsored by Rep. Brad Sherman of California) was introduced in the House and was referred to the Financial Services Committee. Neither bill was reported from the Committee to which it was referred.[154] 2. Review by the Department of Defense - the Department of Defense is prepared to review existing policies, orders, directives and regulations governing the control of and accountability for property that may come under US military control when the military is deployed on operations in foreign countries. 3. Legislation that removes impediments - the Congress should pass legislation that removes impediments to the identification and restitution of assets belonging to Holocaust victims. The issue of the Gold Train that was dealt with by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets became a class action suit in U.S. federal court in Miami filed by Jews from Hungary against the U.S. The claimants argued that American soldiers sold during WWII or illegally distributed 1,200 paintings, silver items, gold, jewelry, china, 3,000 carpets and other households located on the Gold Train.[155] In December 2004, the U.S. Government announced that it had settled the suit for $25 million, to be distributed to needy survivors from Hungary.[156] Note: The fact that in the mid 1990s until January 2001, the Presidents Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues (Stuart Eizenstat) was also serving as Under Secretary of the U.S. State Department and later as Under Secretary of the Treasury Department, was very helpful for the achievements on restitution at that time. J. Christian Kennedy has been Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues at the U.S. Department of State since August 2006. He is the principal advisor to the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary on foreign policy issues relating to the era of Nazi rule in Germany and Europe. The Special Envoy is a member of the boards of directors overseeing the French and German payments programs. He maintains close relations with Austrian officials administering the programs negotiated with the Austrian Government. He also serves as an ex-officio member of the Holocaust Memorial Council (the board of directors of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum). In addition, the Office of the Special Envoy: Represents the United States on the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research. The U.S. chaired this organization from March 2003 to March 2004. Urges countries of eastern and central Europe to restitute illegally-confiscated communal and private property to rightful owners. Encourages the restitution of artworks to rightful owners. Supports the Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Anti-Semitism, in coordinating U.S. efforts to combat anti-Semitism in the OSCE countries. Serves as the U.S. Government observer to the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims.[157] C5. FOUNDATIONS Various foundations [158] were created during the process of restitution of Jewish property and some of them serve the needs of both Jewish and non-Jewish survivors of WWII. This report deals primarily with Western European Foundations created to fund projects, and does not treat funds intended for individual or direct communal compensation payments. 1) AUSTRIA Name: National Fund of the Republic of Austria for victims of National Socialism [159] Founding date: 1995 Founders: Austrian State Purposes: 1) One time gesture-payment of 70,000.-schillings (about $5,000) to Shoah survivors of Austrian origin and supplementary help to those in special need. Size: unlimited Status: distribution till end of year 2004 approx. $200 million to 29,556 persons worldwide. 2) Compensation for loss of leased apartments, personal valuables and household property. Lump-sum payment of $ 7,000 to survivors of Austrian origin. Size: $150 million. Status: Filing period ended June 2004. Fully distributed. 3) Nazi Persecutee Relief Fund for projects and payments to double victims, Jewish communities in the former Eastern Countries and Austrian victims of Shoah. Size: $10.9 million. Status: distributed $9.6 million to 160 projects worldwide. 4) National Fund Special Projects for institutions of Shoah remembrance, medical equipment, psychological help, educational projects etc. Size: unlimited (subject to yearly negotiations). Status: distributed $4.3 million to 125 projects with special focus on Austria. b. Name: General Settlement Fund[160] Founding date: 2001 Founders: Austrian State and Austrian industry. Purpose: payments to Shoah survivors and their heirs for compensation for loss of property, business and other, bank accounts and other financial assets, insurance policies, moveable property, educational loss and other losses. Size: $210 million Status: further research required. c. Name: Arbitration Panel for In-Rem Restitution Founding date: 2001 Founders: Austrian State and Austrian industry. Purpose: Return in nature to survivors of the Shoah and their heirs of real estate(land) and buildings (superstructures)which on 17th of January 2001 were owned by the Federal Government or by provinces or municipalities that have declared to accept the recommendations of the Arbitration Panel. Status: further research required. 2) BELGIUM Name: Belgian Fund Establish date: June 2002 Establisher: Belgian government, central bank, insurance companies. Purpose: for compensation payments to individual claimants for stolen assets, unclaimed life insurance policies, plundered bank accounts. However, under the law establishing the Indemnification Commission, with the completion of the mandate of the Commission, remaining funds are to be transferred to a foundation whose missions of a social, cultural and religious nature meet the needs of the Jewish Community of Belgium, these missions can also extend to fighting racism, intolerance and the violation of human rights. So far, the Commission has paid out 6.5 million euro ($8 million) on about 20 percent of the claims. The administrative expenses of the Commission have been covered by the budget of the office of the Prime Minister. Size: 110 million euro ($143 million) - from three sources: the banks (53million euro=$69 million), the insurance companies (10 million euro=$13 million) and the government and national bank (46 million euro=$60 million). Belgian banks agreed to pay the additional 53 million euros ($69 million) to compensate for funds in plundered bank accounts. Status: further research required. 3) FRANCE Name: The Foundation for Remembrance of the Shoah Establish date: 2000 Establisher: French government Purpose: Funded projects are divided into 4 areas: history and research, education and transmission, solidarity (social welfare for survivors), and Jewish culture. Project proposals in each area are dealt with by a separate committee. In 2003 the Foundation allocated a total of 14 million euro ($18 million), of which 8 million euro ($10 million), went towards the CDJC memorial, and 6 million euro ($8 million), went for other projects. Funds for other projects were divided as follows: 30 percent solidarity (social welfare), 23 percent Jewish culture, 15 percent memorial sites, 12 percent historical research, 11percent education, 9 percent other. Decision Making Structure: Board of the Foundation is comprised of 25 members: 8 from various government ministries, 10 from French Jewish institutions, and 7 chosen on an individual basis by the other members of the board. Size: 800 million euros ($1,040 million). Status: 14 million euros ($18 million) distributed in 2003. 4) GERMANY a. Name: Remembrance, Responsibility & The Future Fund Founding date: 1999 Founders: German industry, banks, insurance companies and German government. Purpose: to compensate surviving forced and slave laborers, owners of insurance policies and owners of dormant bank accounts. Size: DM 10 billion ($5 billion). Special allocations for insurance ( ICHEIC) - DM 550 million ($275 million); Dormant Bank Accounts - DM 450 million ($225 million); Future Fund - DM 700 million ($ 350 million). Status: all funds were allocated and mostly distributed. b. Name: Remembrance, Responsibility & Future (Future Fund) Founding date: 1999 Founders: German industry, banks, insurance companies and German Government. Purpose: To foster projects that serve the purposes of better understanding among peoples, the interests of survivors of the Holocaust, youth exchange, social justice, remembrance of the threat posed by totalitarian systems and despotism, and international cooperation in humanitarian endeavors. It is also intended to further projects in the interest of the heirs of Holocaust victims. The Fund accepts applications only within approved "funding programs". The Fund has currently approved the following funding programs: History and Human Rights, Scholarships, Psychosocial and medical care for former victims of the Nazis, Encounters Sixtieth Anniversary of Liberation, Documentation of the life stories of former slave and forced laborers, International Journalism Competition on the Topic of Gestures of Reconciliation. Size: DM 700 million (358 million euros = $ 465 million). Status: distributes annual interest of 7-8million euros = $ 9-10 million. 5) HOLLAND Name: The Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund Establish date: further research necessary. Establisher: Dutch government. Purpose: Building and ensuring the continuity of Jewish communities in such areas as culture, knowledge transfer, and enhancement of the non-capital infrastructure, Facilitating Jewish education, Promoting mutual respect between people, Supporting civilian victims of war situations. Primarily dedicated to aiding Jewish communities in the formerly communist countries. Will not fund projects in the Netherlands, or relating to the Dutch-Jewish community in Israel. Size : 24 million euros ( $31 million). Status: intends to distribute annual interest. 6) NORWAY Name: The Norwegian Fund for the Support of Jewish Institutions or Projects Outside of Norway Establish date: further research necessary. Establisher: Norwegian government. Purpose: To commemorate and develop the Jewish traditions and culture that the Nazis tried to eradicate. Jewish education, teaching, research, or information. Has funded: In the Footsteps of Herzl an educational program for Jewish youth leaders, and a traveling exhibition on Jewish life in Norway prior to W.W.II. (Not an exhaustive list) Size: NOK 60 million (about $7 million). Intends to allocate all of capital. Status: further research required. 7) OTHER Name: Nazi Persecutee Relief Funds Establish date: December 1997 Establisher: as part of the Nazi Gold Conference in London, and based on an agreement between the Gold Tripartite Commission (France, Great Britain and the United States) and countries whose gold reserves were sized by the Germans. More than 10 countries donated to the Fund. Purpose: to provide relief to needy victims of Nazi persecution and related projects. Size: $60 million. Status: all funds were distributed. APPENDIX D - POST HOLOCAUST ISSUES In the aftermath of the Shoah the Jewish People made an oath: Never Again! However, Shoah Denial exists (See D1), and Anti-Semitism is increasing (See D2). There is increased need for international cooperation in combating Shoah Denial and Anti-Semitism and for international cooperation in Shoah commemoration and education (See D3) and for follow up on Historical Commissions on Conduct of Nations During the Shoah and Reconciliation (See D4). D1. Shoah DENIAL Holocaust denial is a growing phenomenon, occurring in the United States, Canada, Europe, former Soviet Union and is especially prevalent in Arab lands. This pathological belief seeks to deny the reality of the Nazi regime's systematic mass murder of six million Jews in Europe during World War II.[161] David Matas, Senior Counsel for the League for Human Rights in Canada of the Bnai Brith organization says that the Shoah was the murder of six million Jews, including two million children and that Holocaust denial is a second murder of those same six million. First their lives were extinguished; then their deaths.[162] According to the Global Survey on Holocaust denial 2004, Holocaust-deniers in the United States continued their efforts to gain a measure of respectability and benefitted from the willingness of several individuals of prominence to associate with them. Many Arab and Islamic governments continued to actively promote Holocaust-denial. At the same time, a number of Western governments and other institutions took important steps against Holocaust-deniers.[163] According to the US State Departments first US Global Anti-Semitism Report: July 1, 2003 December 15, 2004, Holocaust denial and Holocaust minimization efforts find increasingly overt acceptance as sanctioned historical discourse in a number of Middle Eastern countries.[164] D2. ANTI-SEMITISM Jews continued to be murdered in the aftermath of the Shoah. According to recent research, in Poland about one thousand Jewish Shoah survivors were murdered after 1945. In Holland , Shoah survivors were put in a camp together with Nazi war criminals. In Paris, a demonstration was held against the restitution of Jewish property[165]. The U.S. State Department published its first US Global Anti-Semitism Report: July 1, 2003 December 15, 2004[166], pursuant to the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act signed by President George W. Bush on October 16, 2004. The report describes acts of violence against Jews, as well as actions governments are taking to prevent this form of bigotry and prejudice. According to this Report, global anti-Semitism in recent years has had four main sources: 1. Traditional anti-Jewish prejudice that has pervaded Europe and some countries in other parts of the world for centuries. This includes ultra-nationalists and others who assert that the Jewish community controls governments, the media, international business, and the financial world. 2. Strong anti-Israel sentiment that crosses the line between objective criticism of Israeli policies and anti-Semitism. 3. Anti-Jewish sentiment expressed by some in Europe's growing Muslim population based on longstanding antipathy toward both, Israel and Jews, as well as Muslim opposition to developments in Israel and the occupied territories, and more recently in Iraq. 4. Criticism of both the United States and globalization that spills over to Israel, and to Jews in general who are identified with both. Anti-Semitism in Europe increased significantly in recent years. The disturbing rise of anti-Semitic intimidation and incidents is widespread throughout Europe. The problem of anti-Semitism is not only significant in Europe and in the Middle East, but there are also worrying expressions of it elsewhere. The proliferation of media outlets (television, radio, print media and the internet) has vastly increased the opportunity for purveyors of anti-Semitic material to spread their propaganda unhindered. Stuart Eizenstat said recently in public that due to restitution efforts, an increase in anti-Semitism was present during his tenure (1995-2000) only in Switzerland.[167] D3. Shoah COMMEMORATION AND EDUCATION [168] The Task Force for International Cooperation on Shoah Education, Remembrance, and Research consists of representatives of governments, as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations. Its purpose is to place political and social leaders support behind the need for Holocaust education, remembrance, and research both nationally and internationally. Membership in the Task Force is open to all countries. Members must be committed to the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Shoah (1999), and must accept the principles adopted by the Task Force regarding membership. They must also be committed to the implementation of national policies and programs in support of Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. The governments comprising the Task Force agree on the importance of encouraging all archives, both public and private, to make their holdings on the Shoah more widely accessible. The Task Force also encourages appropriate forms of Shoah remembrance. Countries wishing to create programs in Shoah education or to further develop their existing information materials and activities in this area are invited to work with the Task Force. To this end, Liaison Projects can be established between countries and the Task Force for long-term cooperation. Such cooperation is mutually beneficial to all concerned. The first Liaison Project, with the Czech Republic, began in 1999. Within this projects framework, a national teacher training program at the Terezin Memorial has been developed, and Czech teachers have received advanced training at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, the United States Shoah Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The project also includes cooperation with Rome cultural organizations. The experience with the Czech Republic has served as a model for work in other countries. Liaison Projects have also been initiated in cooperation with Argentina, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. The Task Force has established working groups in regard to each of these countries, as well as in regard to memorials, information projects, research, and education. The website of the Task Force (http://taskforce.ushmm.org) maintains an international directory of organizations in Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. There is also an international calendar of events, a directory of archives, listings of remembrance and education activities, as well as additional information about the Task Force. Task Force countries are: Argentina, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy (current chair of the Task Force), Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America. A crucial component in education and commemoration of the Shoah is the Central Database of Shoah Victims Names published recently by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem (see Bibliography). D4. HISTORICAL COMMISSIONS ON CONDUCT OF NATIONS DURING THE Shoah AND RECONCILIATION [169] Nations that have looked into their conduct during the Shoah era and have struggled with their past can reach important insights into how to prevent wrong conduct in the future and how to prevent such a thing from happening again. This soul searching is essential for every nation in order to make sure that another Shoah will never happen. Bibliography available REMARKS [1] Sharansky & Dermer (2004a). [2] See bibliography: Symposium (1999) (Hebrew). [3] Attorney General (1999). [4] Eizenstat (2003),pp.xi [5] Lecture by Eli Wiesel in the late 1970's at Brandeis-Bardin Institute, California, reported by Robert M. Bleiweiss. [6] Teitelbaum & Sanbar (2001) p.17. [7] Washington (1999); Teitelbaum & Sanbar (2001) p.17. [8]Henry (2002). [9]Henry (2002). [10] Henry (2002). [11] Henry (2002). [12] Ben-Gurion (1952) (Hebrew). Knesset Session no. 38, (January 7,1952) - German Reparations (Ben-Gurion),pp 896. Jerusalem: Knesset. [13] Beck (2004) (Hebrew). [14] DellaPergola (1996). [15] DellaPergola (1996). [16] Bazyler (2003).p.xi. [17] Zabludoff (1998) p.5; Attorney General (1999) p.188. [18] Washington (1999) ; Teitelbaum & Sanbar (2001), pp.17. [19] Restitution (1999) (Hebrew),pp.17. [20] Restitution (1999) (Hebrew),pp.17. [21] The Jewish People have never demanded compensation for the six million Jewish martyrs. [22] Symposium (1999) (Hebrew),pp.188; Restitution (1999) (Hebrew),pp17. [23] Institute (2004) (Hebrew). [24]Zabludoff,pp 28-29 (1998). [25] Zabludoff. Pp 28-29 (1998). [26] Zabludoff. Pp 28-29 (1998). [27] Zabludoff. Pp 28-29 (1998). [28] Zabludoff. Pp 28-29 (1998). [29] Zabludoff (1998a). [30] Porush (2001). [31] Bazyler. (2003). [32] Salpeter (2004). [33]Levin (2001) (Hebrew); Eizenstat (2003). [34] Eizenstat (2003). [35] Eizenstat (2003). [36] Zabludoff (1998a). [37] Neediness Among Jewish Shoah Survivors: A Key to Global Resource Allocation by Prof. Sergio DellaPergola in Arnold & Porter (2004; 2004a). [38]Zabludoff (1998a). [39] Yad Vashem (2005). [40] Zabludoff (1998a). [41] Zabludoff (1998a). [42] Zabludoff (1998a). [43] Eizenstat. (2003). [44]World Jewish Congress (2002). [45] Swiss Banks (2000;2004; 2004a). [46] Eizenstat (2003a); Zabludoff. (1998a). [47] Hirshzon (2001) (Hebrew). [48] Flug & Gil. (1998) (Hebrew). [49] Zabludoff. (1998a). [50] Satloff.(2005) [51] Government Resolution (2003). [52] Zabludoff (1998a). [53] Salpeter (2004). [54] Eizenstat (2003). [55] Eizenstat (2003). [56] Porush (2001). [57] Block (2002); Spanic (2003); Compensation & Restitution (2003). [58] Haaretz [59] Block (2009) [60] American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (2009) [61] Jerusalem Post (2006) [62] Jewish Virtual Library (2005) [63] idem [64] Jewish Times (2005) [65] U.S. Embassy in Zagreb (2008) [66] Claims Conference (2006) [67] idem [68] idem [69] Approximately 20,000 objects in Czech collections have been identified as having been obtained by the Nazis, but only about 500 have been returned. A list of artworks identified as confiscated by the Nazis is located on its website at  HYPERLINK "http://www.restitution-art.cz. [70] Salpeter (2004) [71] European Parliament (2003) [72] Jewish Virtual Library (2005) [73] Taylor (2004); Tishler (2004) (Hebrew). [74] Claims Conference (2007) [75]Claims Conference (2007) [76] Claims Conference (2008) [77] Taylor (2003). [78] Kaufman (2005). [79] Mor (2005) (Hebrew). [80] Jewish Virtual Library (2005) [81] Jewish Virtual Library (2005) [82] World Jewish Congress (2005) [83] Jewish Virtual Library (2005) [84] Claims Conference (2007) [85] Kol Israel (2009) [86] Claims Conference (2006) [87] Claims Conference (2008) [88] WJRO (2005). [89] Jewish Virtual Library (2005) [90] American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (2009) [91] Jewish Virtual Library (2005) [92] Claims Conference (2008) [93] Claims Conference (2007) [94] U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana (2008) [95] Claims Conference (2009) [96] Naamani-Goldman (2004). [97] The Claims Conference maintains a database of the list, at  HYPERLINK "http://www.claimsinfo.org/searchdb.asp" http://www.claimsinfo.org/searchdb.asp [98] Jewish Virtual Library (2005) [99] Claims Conference (2005) [100] Jewish Virtual Library (2005) [101] Vatican (2000).;Janner (2000). [102] World Jewish Congress (2005) [103] Swiss Banks (2004a), Pp F-1- F-9. [104] Bank of Israel (1965) (Hebrew). [105] Zweig (2001). [106] For the removal of doubts, billion = one thousand million dollars; unless otherwise indicated all figures with $ refer to US dollars. [107] Agreement (1952); Agreement (1952a). [108] Barzel (1997)(Hebrew); Horowitz,(2004) (Hebrew). [109] Bank of Israel (1965) (Hebrew); Sagi (1980). [110] Sagi (1980). [111] Swiss Banks (2000); Swiss Banks (2004a). [112]Eagleburger (2003); ICHEIC (2003); ICHEIC (2004); ICHEIC (2004a). [113] ICHEIC (2005). Pp 5. [114] Memorandum (2004). [115]Humanitarian (2003); Humanitarian (2004). [116] Humanitarian (2003); Humanitarian (2004). [117] Eagleburger (2004). [118]Generali (2000). Sharansky (2004); Eagleburger (2004a). [119]Teiltelbaum & Sanbar (2001). [120] Eizenstat (2003); Schneider (2005). [121]Zabludoff (1998a). [122] World Jewish Congress (2002). [123]Restitution (1999) (Hebrew)Pp15-16. [124] Attorney General (1999) (Hebrew). [125] Government Resolution (2003). [126] Government Resolution (2004). [127] Arnold & Porter (2004); Arnold & Porter (2004a); Swiss Banks (2004). [128] Barkat (2005). [129] Symposium (1999) (Hebrew). [130] Bechar (2004) (Hebrew); Levin (2004) (Hebrew). [131] Eizenstat (2003); Washington (1999). [132] Inquiry (2005). [133] Bank Leumi (2005). [134] Barkat (2005); Gilbert (2005). [135] Arnold & Porter (2004);(2004a) [136] Claims Conference (1952). [137] Claims Conference( 2002); Claims Conference( 2002a); Claims Conference( 2002b). [138] Claims Conference (1952). [139] Claims Conference( 2002); Claims Conference( 2002c). [140] Claims Conference( 2002); Claims Conference( 2002c). [141] WJRO(1993). [142] Memorandum (1993). [143] WJRO (2003). [144] WJRO (2004). [145] WJRO (2004). [146] Center (1999) (Hebrew); Flug (2005) (Hebrew). [147] Center (1999) (Hebrew). [148] Commission(a); Commission (b). [149] Claims Conference (2002d). 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[152] Commission (b) [153] Commission (2000). [154] Foundation (2003). [155] Zweig (2002). [156] Levin (2004a) (Hebrew). [157]Department of State, Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues [158] Foundations (2005). [159] National Fund (2003). [160] General Settlement Fund (2003). [161] Holocaust Denial(2005). [162] Holocaust Denial (2005a). [163] Holocaust Denial(2005b). [164] Anti-Semitism (2004). [165] Barkat (2004) (Hebrew). [166] Anti-Semitism (2004). [167] Bechar (2004) (Hebrew); Levin (2004) (Hebrew). [168] Task Force (2005). [169] World Jewish Congress (2002).      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