‘Over the last 25 years, thousands of works of art, books, and cultural objects have been restored to their rightful owners.’

By JNS

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke via video on Tuesday for the 25th anniversary of the Washington Principles on Nazi-confiscated art and best practices event, announcing a new effort by the U.S. State Department to repatriate artworks stolen by Nazi Germany from Jewish families.

Blinken started by thanking the World Jewish Restitution Organization for organizing the program, as well as those in attendance, before stating that “the Holocaust was not only the largest genocide in history. It was one of the largest mass thefts in history.”

He said that “the Nazis seized and exploited Jewish businesses, bank accounts and property, including art and cultural property, as a part of a systematic campaign to physically eradicate all vestiges of Jewish life.”

The Washington Principles began to change the international community’s understanding of artworks stolen by the Nazis, Blinken said.

“Over the last 25 years, thousands of works of art, books and cultural objects have been restored to their rightful owners. Several countries established claims commissions. Major auction houses and museums hired full-time staff to examine art that passed through European hands in the run-up to, and during, World War II,” he explained.

Still, Blinken called these efforts “not nearly enough.”

“Today, too many governments, museums, dealers, galleries and individuals still resist restitution efforts … while heirs confront staggering legal and financial barriers as they go up against opponents whose resources vastly outmatch their own,” he said.

Blinken concluded by announcing a new State Department program called Best Practices, which more precisely defines “what is considered Nazi-looted art. They identify solutions when provenance research is lacking.”

“I thank every country that has endorsed the Best Practices,” he said. “And I encourage every government that has not yet endorsed these principles to join us.”

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Jordan transferred documents to the PA regarding the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, which Jordan occupied prior to the 1967 Six-Day War.

By World Israel News Staff

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi paid a surprise visit to Ramallah Wednesday to discuss documents supplied by Jordan to the Palestinian Authority relating to claims of Palestinian ownership of property in Jerusalem, Channel 20 reported.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry announced that it had provided the Palestinian embassy in Amman with historic documents that Jordan says prove ownership and rights of the residents of properties and homes in the the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the capital.

Jordan controlled the eastern part of Jerusalem until the 1967 Six Day War and the Ministry said it forwarded historical documents to the PA including the leases for residences in Sheikh Jarrah, contracts, correspondence, records and statements on behalf of the residents.

At least one of the homes was owned by Jews who fled when Jordanian forces captured that part of the city during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948.

Jordan also provided the Palestinian embassy in Amman with a copy of an agreement signed between the Jordanian Ministry of Construction and Development and the United Nations (UNRWA) in 1954, after workers searched the archives in the Jordanian capital looking for 60-year-old documents.

“As early as 2019, copies of all the documents found in this matter were provided to the Palestinian Embassy in Amman, at the request of the Palestinian Authority,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Daifallah Al-Fayez.

The statement added that “the official records of the Ministry of Construction and Development in the Kingdom of Jordan prove, after an in-depth examination, that in 1956 leases were signed for housing units with some of the residents of Sheikh Jarrah.”

The Jordanians claim that Israel is trying to “expel Palestinians from their homes and lands and violate their rights,” and the documents are intended to help the Arab residents fighting the Jerusalem municipality’s development plans.

According to Jordan, 28 families were given homes in 1956 with tenancy for 33 years, adding ownership of the land remained in the hands of the Jordanian guardian. However, the Jerusalem District Court recently rejected several appeals against eviction orders for eight Palestinian families still living there.

The report noted that several months ago, Turkey passed a microfilm containing what it claimed were hundreds of documents of ownership of Muslim property in Jerusalem’s Old City. Turkey, in the form of the Ottoman Empire, controlled the area until it was defeated in World War I, although Turkish President Erdogan recently claimed that Jerusalem is “our city.”

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Polish nationalists demonstrated at the US embassy in Warsaw against a bill passed in Congress supporting Holocaust victims and their families in recovering property owned before WWII.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The American embassy in Poland’s capital was the scene of a small rally Wednesday as dozens of the country’s nationalists gathered to protest the issue of compensating Jews for properties lost during the Holocaust.

US legislation was the target of their ire as the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill the previous day to support Holocaust victims and their families in recovering or being compensated for assets owned before World War II. This follows a unanimous vote for the JUST (Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today) Act in the Senate last December, and now goes to President Trump for his expected signature to turn it into law.

The bill requires the State Department to report what progress certain European countries, including Poland, are making on returning assets confiscated during the Holocaust or compensating former owners in general – and American citizens in particular.

Although there are no sanctions anywhere in the bill for countries that do not have a restitution process, the nationalists were angry. It is admittedly a difficult legal issue, as the Communists took over where the Nazis had left off, nationalizing property left and right, disregarding the original owners. And yet, according to the World Jewish Restitution Organization, Poland is the only major European country without legislation regarding such properties.

While some of the nationalists took a broad view, objecting to the “interference of another state in our internal affairs,” National Movement lawmaker Robert Winnicki used ugly terminology with anti-Semitic overtones.

‘The Jews will not get a penny from us’

He said that the goal was to protest “against extortion of money and Polish national assets rebuilt after World War II by Polish people,” as if Jews were not Poles, adding, “The Jews will not get a penny from us.”

Back in October 2017, the Polish legislature did formulate a restitution bill. However, Israel lodged an official complaint with Poland’s foreign ministry when the bill was first introduced in October, as it was considered from the start to be discriminatory against Jews. This is because, according to the criteria for returning stolen or Communist-era nationalized property state, the claimant must be a Polish citizen and a direct descendant or spouse of the original owner. Considering the fact that 90 percent of Poland’s Jewish community was wiped out in World War II and very few Jews live there today, this means that in practical terms, almost nobody would be eligible to receive compensation from the government.

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