The Law on Goodwill Compensation for the Immovable Property of Jewish Religious Communities of the Republic of Lithuania has designated that LTL 3 million (approximately US$ 1.1 million) shall be paid “to persons of Jewish nationality who resided in Lithuania during the Second World War and suffered from the totalitarian regimes during the occupations.” The Goodwill Foundation, established jointly by the Lithuanian Jewish Communities and the World Jewish Restitution Organization, has the responsibility of distributing this money, which is likely to mean 'symbolic' payments of several hundred dollars to individual recipients.
Those eligible to receive these payments must demonstrate they meet the necessary criteria by providing the following:
- A document confirming that the person is of Jewish nationality via a birth record or other personal document stating that he/she is Jewish or that one parent was Jewish.
- A document confirming that the person resided in the current territory of Lithuania during the Second World War or was forced to leave Lithuania after the outbreak of the Second World War (It is presumed that all Jews who resided in the current territory of Lithuania as of June 22, 1941 were victims of totalitarian regimes).
- Those who were exiled or in other ways oppressed by the Soviet regime prior to 22 June 1941 must submit evidence of this fact.
All Lithuanian Nazi victims whose names are already in the database of the Claims Conference will be notified directly by that organizationbefore 31 December 2012 that they may be eligible for this payment. They need only agree to the release of information and the Claims Conference will provide all the necessary documentation to the Goodwill Foundation for approval.
Other Lithuanian Nazi victims who are not in the Claims Conference database, or victims of the Soviet occupation, will need to submit an application form along with the documentation enumerated above. This application form will be available online from the Goodwill Foundation as of January 2013.
The deadline for submitting applications is 30 June 2013. Based on the number of eligible claimants, the Goodwill Foundation will determine the exact amount of individual payments with the goal of distributing them by 31 December 2013.
A person applying to the Goodwill Foundation may not be charged any additional fee.
