"Repeat Performance"

Economist and Holocaust restitution expert Sid Zabludoff has published a new op-ed in New York Jewish Week, providing some critical analysis of the recent Prague Conference on Holocaust Era Assets.

An excerpt:

This conference placed much greater priority on the fact that the bulk of the stolen property will end up being “heirless” assets and these amounts should be mainly used to provide needy survivors with an adequate standard of living and necessary health care. This “new priority” has been understood for some time.

The conference’s minimal accomplishments thus include many thoughtful words on the issues. Its final pronouncement, the Terezin Declaration, acknowledges that “only a part of the confiscated property has been recovered or compensated,” that there are many difficulties ahead and that it is important to move swiftly since most remaining survivors are in their 80s. In addition, the European Shoah Institute in Terezin was formed to “promote developments in the areas covered by the Conference and this Declaration, and to develop and share best practices and guidelines in these areas ... of Immovable (Real) Property.”

At the same time, the Conference failed to take specific actions despite months of preparation work on the five key issues needed for success.