Restitution

Closing Remarks by Amb. Stuart Eizenstat, Prague, June 9, 2010

REMARKS
AMBASSADOR STUART E. EIZENSTAT
SPECIAL ADVISER ON HOLOCAUST ISSUES TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
JUNE 9, 2010

Because of the leadership of prime minister Fischer and the Czech government and the support of well over 40 countries, we have made a major advance in providing belated justice to victims and their families of the Holocaust (Shoah) and other victims of the Nazis, Fascists and their collaborators. For the first time in sixty-five years since the end of World War II and for the first time since we began a series of five international conferences in 1997 in London, nations have come together to provide Guidelines and Best Practices for the Restitution and Compensation of Immovable (Real) Property Confiscated or Otherwise Wrongfully Seized by the Nazis, Fascists and Their Collaborators during the Holocaust (Shoah) Era between 1933-1945, Including the Period of World War II.

There is a reason why it has taken so long to address this set of issues. They involve complicated questions and balancing of a variety of interests of those victims from whom property was taken and those currently using those properties. But that is what makes these achievements so very special and welcome, and helps complete the circle of dealing with a major unfinished piece of the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II. This will be a benefit not only for Jewish victims of Holocaust (Shoah) and for other victims of persecution by Nazis, Fascists and their collaborators. But countries who chose to adhere to these Guidelines will also benefit. Following these Guidelines and Best Practices will strengthen property rights, which are an essential component of a democratic society and the rule of law; bring greater stability and value to immovable (real) property markets by settling and regularizing title clouded now by property claims; and make it easier to obtain property insurance and convey property without threat of claim or law suits.

The Guidelines and Best Practices to which over 40 countries have agreed provides specific and detailed guidelines to states on restituting or compensating these properties. They deal with three categories of property – One set consists of property owned by religious or communal organizations and includes building or land used for religious purposes like synagogues, churches, cemeteries and other immovable religious sites, as well as buildings and land used for communal purposes like schools, hospitals, youth camps or for income generating purposes.

The second type of property involves private individuals or legal entities who themselves or through their families owned homes, buildings, apartments or land, or had other legal property rights, recognized by the national law. While restitution in rem is a preferred outcome, especially for properties owned by state or other public entities, where an actual return of property is not feasible or possible without disturbing the current owner’s property rights, compensation programs may often be more feasible if they provide genuinely fair compensation, or substituting property of equal value. Privatization programs should not compromise claimants’ rights.

The nations agreed that the property restitution and compensation processes should be accessible, expeditious and non-discriminatory, and encourage solutions to overcome citizenship and residency requirements. We also recognized that to give vitality to these Guidelines and Best Practices claimants should have unfettered and free access to archives to confirm their right of ownership or other property rights. We also set forth the positive role NGOs and states can play assisting the process of restitution and compensation of property.

The third type of property is heirless property, which was confiscated or wrongfully taken by the Nazis, Fascists and their collaborators but whose owners died without leaving a living inheritor. These properties offer an excellent opportunity to states to meet the top priority of the Terezin Declaration - helping to satisfy the needs of elderly, poor Holocaust survivors. There are 500,000 Holocaust survivors in the world, roughly half of whom live at or below poverty level – some 25% in the US, 35% in Israel and 85% of survivors in some countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It is unacceptable that those who suffered so grievously in their youth should live out their declining years in deprivation. States can assist the needy Holocaust (Shoah) survivors by creative use of funds from heirless property, and can also use these funds for purposes of remembering destroyed communities and for Holocaust education. Austria has set an example in using heirless property proceeds for survivors. The Czech Republic has separately allocated funds for survivors based upon communal properties that could not be returned.

Having led the U.S. delegation to each of the five international conference since 1997, I want to make clear that these Guidelines and Best Practices are voluntary, legally non-binding and recognize that states have different legal system and act according to their own laws. This by no means diminishes the value of our agreement. Quite the contrary. As we found with the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi Confiscated Art of 1998, which were likewise non-binding and which profoundly changed the art world, these Guidelines and Best Practices create a moral impetus to bring a measure of justice to an area of immovable (real) property which has seen precious little of it. We are not working on a blank slate in encouraging implementation of these morally important Guidelines and Best Practices. Countries like Germany and Austria offer positive examples on private property restitution and compensation, and the Czech Republic has taken some steps as well. On communal property, the Czech Republic has taken the leadership, and Poland has made an important beginning on restituting communal property, returning hundreds of pieces of religious communal property and land, with many more now being processed.

There is another reason why these Guidelines and Best Practices have a potential to make a significant contribution to Holocaust and World War II justice. For the first time since the end of World War II in 1945, again due to the great leadership of Czech government and Czech people, a follow-up institution has been created: the European Shoah Legacy Institute in Terezin (ESLI) to promote developments in all the areas covered by the Prague Conference and the Terezin Declaration of 2009 and to share best practices and guidelines for restitution and compensation of wrongfully seized property. To help assure that these Guidelines and Best Practices are being taken seriously, ESLI has offered to host a conference in 2012 to review progress achieved on restitution and compensation of immovable (real) property.

Permit me to make another point. As with the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, our goal is not to foster individual law suits, but to encourage states to develop fair and transparent processes to handle such claims to immovable (real) property outside of litigation and through national programs and frameworks they design.

No agreement is perfect. This one depends heavily of the good will of states to follow these Guidelines and Best Practices, and a strong moral compass. But more than 40 countries of widely different histories and interests have come together in Prague to make a maximum effort for justice for Holocaust survivors and other victims of Nazi aggression, before the time runs out on them, and on us. In this spirit and on behalf of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has long been deeply interested in justice for Holocaust survivors and other victims of Nazi and Fascist persecution, and on behalf of the United States, I am proud to strongly support these Guidelines and Best Practices for restitution and compensation of immovable property, and to urge that countries adhere to them.

Let me close on a personal note, Mr. Prime Minister. We would have never achieved this without a support of the Czech people and dedicated and visionary leadership of Ambassador Milos Pojar, Ambassador Tomas Pojar, Jiri Cistecky, Senator Sasha Vondra, Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, Petr Kubera, and you, Mr. Prime Minister. On the U.S. side Ambassador Christian Kennedy has been a driving force from the start working with the Czech government to create the Prague Conference on Holocaust Era Assets, and helping to shape this final document. The U.S. Embassy staff in Prague has been a great assistance, including Mary Thompson- Jones who has been the Charge, John Ordway, the current Charge, Cob Blaha, counselor for political and economic affairs, and most especially Jana Kernerova, political specialist and Czech national at the Embassy who has been a central ingredient to our success.

Citizens of each of the more than 40 countries that have supported our final agreement can be proud of what their governments have achieved to advance justice in a troubled and often unjust world. And Holocaust survivors and other victims of Nazi aggression can see that they have not been forgotten.