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Achieving Justice Through Property Restitution in Former YugoslaviaJDC held its second regional property seminar in Belgrade on June 13-15, 2006. The seminar brought together 40 Jewish leaders from the Former Yugoslavia to discuss opportunities and challenges of property restitution in their respective countries. Participants included members of the ten Jewish communities in Serbia, as well as Jewish leaders from Bosnia-Herzegovina; Croatia; Macedonia and Slovenia. The U.S. Ambassador to Serbia and Serbian government officials also presented their perspectives. Relative to their neighbors in Central and Eastern Europe, the countries of the Former Yugoslavia have not made much headway on the property restitution front mainly because the Balkan Wars of the 1990s and the challenge of organizing independent states delayed the passing of such legislation. "If we want justice, then we must prepare all the research and documentation it takes to make the case" declares Yechiel Bar-Chaim, the JDC Country Director for the countries concerned. Most of the countries are busy identifying potential properties to be restituted. Following the first JDC-sponsored property seminar held in Belgrade in February 2005, participants returned to their home communities equipped with the tools to survey potential properties to restitute. This past year, in Serbia, for example, 600 properties were identified and because the Serbian government rushed through a law to restitute religious and church property this past May, the Jewish communities in Serbia were ready to file claims. Macedonia is the one success story in the Former Yugoslavia. The Macedonian Jewish community succeeded in restituting communal properties, an achievement that has paved the way for the community’s self-sufficiency. Members of the 200- strong Macedonian community shared their story of how they restituted properties that sustain their community and created a Holocaust Fund for heirless property that is now financing the construction of a Holocaust Memorial Center in downtown Skopje. The Croatian Jewish community, as well has seen some successes in receiving its communal property back. Most of the seminar focused on issues concerning restitution, rather than property management. The laws in these countries generally cover properties taken after 1945 when they were nationalized by the Tito regime. The leaders of the Muslim, Roman Catholic, Serbian Orthodox, and Jewish communities all have extensive claims on property nationalized after World War II, much of which has not been returned. However, the Jewish communities have a unique case because their properties were confiscated in April 1941 when the Nazis entered the region. JDC is committed to continuing to provide the know-how and support for Jewish communities in the Former Yugoslavia to restitute properties and eventually, when appropriate, turn them into revenue producing entities that will help support and sustain Jews in the region. "Together with the various communities, JDC will be backing all the communities in their efforts to collect materials from the archives, negotiate the return of properties even before general restitution laws are passed, file lawsuits where necessary to contest illegal confiscation, and ready claims where procedures for official restitution are in place", Bar-Chaim concluded. August 2006 |
