Holocaust Property Site Hits 2 Million Entries

By JTA February 1, 2012

A searchable database of Holocaust-era property records has reached more than two million records.

Project HEART-Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce, an initiative of the Jewish Agency for Israel in cooperation with the government of Israel, says it is the largest publicly available single-source database of lost Jewish property assets from the Holocaust era.

The online database was unveiled last May with 500,000 records. The records have been made available to help Jewish families identify personal property confiscated by the Nazis and to help victims seek restitution, according to the project.

The records include property addresses, lists of homeowners, professions, lists of known confiscated properties, business directories, insurance policies and other archival information.

“The public’s response to the Project HEART database has been exceptional,” said Project HEART director Anya Verkhovskaya. “Now that the database contains more than 2 million records, we are receiving over 500,000 hits each week, showing the tremendous need that Project HEART is filling.”

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky said, “We remain committed to achieving restitution for those whose plight has been ignored for too long. A searchable online database of 2 million property records allows us to give a piece of stolen history back to the Jewish people.”

Individuals can access the database on the Project HEART website at www.heartwebsite.org.

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