16 July 2009
WJC President Ronald S. Lauder, who is also president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO), and Lithuanian Jewish Community President Simon Alperovitch have strongly criticized draft legislation adopted on Wednesday by the new Lithuanian government regarding the restitution of, and compensation payments for, Jewish property seized under the Nazis and never returned since. The Baltic state's center-right coalition government said it had agreed to provide a total of 128 million litas (US$ 52 million) for restitution.
Speaking on behalf of the Jewish Community of Lithuania and the WRJO, the two leaders declared: “I regret to say that this restitution package is wholly inadequate and unacceptable. The proposed legislation is lacking in several critical respects, including the terms and the amount of compensation offered, and the speed at which payments will be made. It also does not clarify how monetary restitution will be distributed, and how returned properties will be managed. These issues need to be clarified before Parliament considers the legislation this Fall.
Almost all of Lithuania’s estimated 160,000-200,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their local collaborators during World War II. Their properties were seized and never returned. However, it was only in 2002 and after long delays that negotiations with the Lithuanian Government on restitution began in earnest. At the latter’s request, the local Jewish Community and the WJRO researched archives and identified at least 438 former Jewish communal properties that should be returned. Six years later, the Government has now arbitrarily selected 110 of these properties, made a unilateral evaluation of their total worth, and decided to pay a mere fraction of the estimated amount. No payments are to be made before 2012.
Alperovitch and Lauder said that “a better plan was negotiated between the former Government and the Jewish Community. It would have led to the return of previously Jewish communal properties.” The local Jewish community and the WJRO urged the current government to adopt this agreed legislation, but it decided to break off negotiations and to introduce the present unilateral and arbitrary proposal. In most other countries where property agreements were reached, the actual properties are returned or full-value compensation is paid. Lithuania, however, only proposes to pay a fraction of a fraction.
The Foundation for Lithuanian Jewish Heritage was established by the WJRO, the local Jewish Community and the Lithuanian Jewish Religious Council to serve as the recipient of restituted property, to assist needy Holocaust survivors, and to ensure that it would be used to properly rebuild Jewish life in Lithuania. In contrast, the proposed legislation now reserves to the Lithuanian Government the right to determine who will receive the compensation funds and how the funds will be used. In no other country are conditions and restrictions of this kind being imposed.
In light of these serious deficiencies, the Lithuanian Jewish community and WJRO cannot support the current legislation, as proposed. The June 2009 Terezin Declaration, endorsed by 46 countries including Lithuania, encourages countries to ‘make every effort to provide for the restitution of former Jewish communal and religious property by either in rem restitution or compensation’. The Lithuanian Jewish community and the WJRO therefore urge the Government of Lithuania to correct and improve the current unacceptable bill as quickly as possible,” the two presidents declared.
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