Britain refusing to compensate Holocaust victims for seized assets

LONDON, March 31 (JTA) — Expectations that Britain will refuse to reimburse Jewish Holocaust survivors whose assets were seized have produced a chorus of protests against the British government. This could be particularly embarrassing for Britain, which convened an international conference on Nazi gold in December to press for more light to be shed on the assets of Holocaust victims which were never returned to their owners. Lord Greville Janner, a British Jewish leader who is head of the London-based Holocaust Educational Trust, which led the campaign for Britain to host the conference, met a senior government official last week and came away pessimistic about the prospects for compensation. “I got the impression that the government is not going to give compensation,” he said. “They are going to say no to those survivors and their heirs.” The British government has investigated the funds that were deposited in British banks before the war and was slated to publish a report on its findings April 3. The report was expected to include details of some 25,000 accounts that were seized as enemy property during World War II. It was also slated give details of payments that have already been made. However, it is not expected to include a recommendation that any of the remaining claimants be compensated or reimbursed. Neville Nagler, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the umbrella organization of the British Jewish community, said it would be “shameful” if the government refuses compensation for those whose assets were confiscated. “They and their descendants have waited more than a half-century for justice,” he said. The assets, estimated at up to $500 million in current values, had been deposited in British commercial banks for safekeeping by European Jews who feared that their countries — Germany, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary — would fall under Nazi rule and that their assets would be seized. When the war started, the British government seized the assets. In 1948, Britain made a token payment to about 1,000 survivors who were able to provide proof that they had been “deprived of liberty” during the war, had left their home countries, had not acted against the Allies and had not enjoyed full rights of citizenship under Nazi rule. Heirs of Holocaust victims were entitled to make claims if they could show that the original depositors of the assets had died as a result of the war, but death by suicide to avoid Nazi persecution rendered some heirs ineligible. After 1956, the remaining assets were used to by the British government to compensate British citizens who had lost assets in enemy countries as a result of the war. Officials have hinted that the British government will now attempt to deflect criticism by announcing the establishment of a $3 million “hardship fund.” But this is likely to engender even more anger among campaigners, who insist that the victims and their heirs must be compensated in full. “If Britain turns away these claims now,” Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal wrote this week in a letter to the Times of London newspaper, “it will give a painful and damaging message to the few remaining survivors in their final years and will give other countries the signal that Britain does not care.” Janner predicted that Britain would “run into a shower of outrage” if it does not compensate the account holders. It would leave “Britain as the last country to hold out against compensating Holocaust victims,” he said. “Even the Swiss banking system has begun to crack,” referring to last week’s announcement that Switzerland’s three largest banks are ready to negotiate a global settlement with international Jewish groups.