As the Nazis attacked and occupied countries across Europe, they looted cultural and religious items and pilfered property from Jewish communities. By the end of the war, the Reich had carried out one of the greatest mass thefts in human history. Much of this stolen property was trapped behind the Iron Curtain, out of reach to those who sought to restore it to Jewish survivors and their heirs.
The World Jewish Restitution Organization was founded in 1992 to pursue restitution of these materials, as many former communist countries have yet to return this property to its original owners or their heirs, or to offer compensation for these losses.
Mark Weitzman, chief operating officer of the WJRO, will discuss the ongoing fight for Holocaust restitution in Central and Eastern Europe and his work to make this happen through advocacy and negotiation.
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Image info: Chaplain Samuel Blinder examines a Torah scroll stolen by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the main German organization charged with seizing Jewish and other cultural properties during World War II, and stored in the basement of the Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage (Institute for Research into the Jewish Question) in Frankfurt am Main, July 1945.
As the Nazis attacked and occupied countries across Europe, they looted cultural and religious items and pilfered property from Jewish communities. By the end of the war, the Reich had carried out one of the greatest mass thefts in human history. Much of this stolen property was trapped behind the Iron Curtain, out of reach to those who sought to restore it to Jewish survivors and their heirs.
The World Jewish Restitution Organization was founded in 1992 to pursue restitution of these materials, as many former communist countries have yet to return this property to its original owners or their heirs, or to offer compensation for these losses.
Mark Weitzman, chief operating officer of the WJRO, will discuss the ongoing fight for Holocaust restitution in Central and Eastern Europe and his work to make this happen through advocacy and negotiation.
---
Image info: Chaplain Samuel Blinder examines a Torah scroll stolen by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the main German organization charged with seizing Jewish and other cultural properties during World War II, and stored in the basement of the Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage (Institute for Research into the Jewish Question) in Frankfurt am Main, July 1945.
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