GERMANY - Restitution to Jews
The case centers on an estate, located in a bucolic area about 20 miles from central Berlin, that functioned in the 1930s as a summer retreat for an orphanage operated by two Jewish women, Alice Donat and Helene Lindenbaum. To comply with Nazi laws meant to expropriate Jewish wealth, they sold the land, complete with a structure in poor condition, to Felix Moegelin in 1939 for 21,100 Reichsmarks, a relative pittance.
Now, the property will be seized by the state and transferred to the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the legal successor to unclaimed Jewish property in the former East Germany. No living heirs to the murdered owners were ever identified.
Whether and when the Lieskes will move out is not clear. The Claims Conference has offered to let Gabriele Lieske remain as a tenant in her childhood home for the rest of her life.
Restitution lawyer Olaf Ossmann, who today handles mostly looted art cases, still gets calls from people who found documents from their parents or grandparents and can’t make sense of them. “Fair and just” compensation is not really possible, he said. “The proper term I’m using normally is ‘the best you can get for the moment.’”
“The Lieske family feels that the return is an injustice. It is really hard for them. But what happened is what happened,” wrote columnist Gunnar Schupelius. “We who are alive today are not to blame for the genocide of the Jews, but we should take care of the survivors and their descendants. That is only fair.”
-www.jta.org, 31 January 2024
Arno's Commentary
The reparations agreement between Israel and the Federal Republic of (West) Germany was signed on 10 September 1952.
A Google search reveals, “German reparation payments total some 82 billion euros (2022).”
Real estate property opens a difficult and complicated legal can of worms.
While the Lieske family insists that injustice has been done, yet the truth remains: “…but we should take care of the survivors and their descendants. That is only fair.”
Eighty years is a relatively short time, so there is enough documentation in existence to return property formerly owned by Jews. Of course, much of it will remain hidden.
Not so when we consult Scripture. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works” (Revelation 20:12-13).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
