Yesterday, the Forward published this article on restitution for property confiscated from Jews by the Nazis and the Soviet Union.
“In a significant gesture this week, 46 countries signed a declaration at the close of a Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague aimed at easing the restitution process for Jewish property taken during the Nazi era. The Terezin Declaration is a nonbinding set of guiding principles aimed at faster, more open and transparent restitution of art and private and communal property taken by force or under duress during the Holocaust.”
The notion of financial restitution for the Holocaust makes me a little queasy. Mostly because the attempt to make amends for genocide with money seems not only petty, but insulting. The other thing that concerns me is the idea of justice throughout the ordeal. It seems that most of the people claiming lost property are those wealthy enough to sustain endless law suits. Sure, the property did legally belong to their ancestors, but is the goal here to return to the same economic inequality enjoyed by upper-class European Jews before the Holocaust? If the point is justice and not money, I fail to see the justice in restoring huge amounts of wealth to the already wealthy. There are plenty of poor Jews, in America and in Europe, who probably have legitimate claims as well, but more importantly, they actually need it. And if the point is money and not justice, then the Holocaust certainly makes for a deplorable pretense.
If stolen property is to be returned, and I agree that it would be in an ideal world, let it be where it’s really needed. Let there be an organized attempt to aid Jews in poverty, the ones who don’t have multi-million dollar law suits or a collection of priceless paintings. Otherwise, I don’t see the merit in any attempt at restitution.
