East German Jews Get Last Chance for Property
Jews who owned property in what would become East Germany have a last chance to receive compensation for it.
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany published on its website a list of Jews who owned property in eastern Germany before the beginning of the Nazi era. The list, which contains thousands of entries, includes the owner’s name, street address and city.
The Late Applicants Fund will accept applications through Dec. 31, 2014.
The German government recognized the Claims Conference as the legal successor of Jews or Jewish communities and organizations to property owned by them in the former East Germany that were left unclaimed after Dec. 31, 1992.
The Claims Conference sold the properties for some $2.9 billion and has paid out some $800 million to legal heirs who have proved their claims. It has allocated another $1 billion mostly to help needy Holocaust survivors, using money coming from properties whose owners died without heirs.
Germany has paid the equivalent of more than $70 billion to survivors and programs to help survivors.
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