Prague Holocaust Conference

The Conference on Holocaust Era Assets is scheduled to get underway in Prague, Czech Republic this Friday. Some early media coverage is beginning to appear and, as expected, reflects the priorities and desired spin of the main institutional players at the conference, primarily the Jewish Claims Conference, which has played a major role in shaping the goals and structure of the conference (and packing the speaker slots).

The priorities of the Claims Conference are art restitution and return or compensation of property -- particularly former Jewish communal property -- in eastern European countries like Poland and Lithuania, where open issues remain from six decades ago.

The formal sessions and speakers scheduled at the Prague conference reflect these priorities, but that really means issues of most direct concern to survivors are going to be given short shrift. The conference program does not bode well: a "special session" on survivor welfare was added relatively late in the process, without any working group of experts or stakeholders meeting over the last few months to consider ways to address the painful and tragic issue of survivor poverty, and to build consensus on practical solutions. It will likely mean symbolic talk, and no action.

Instead, we are going to hear a lot about stolen artworks and Judaica, and the need for more research and commemorative projects.

And many European governments, frankly, would like the conference to come & go with as little attention as possible, allowing them to duck potential public pressure to fulfill past promises or do more to address historic wrongs.

For most of the Holocaust restitution "establishment," survivors are a secondary concern, and even an annoyance at times. Just a handful have been granted speaking roles in Prague.

So, we will soon witness an international conference on the Holocaust play out with living survivors made to stand on the periphery, barely seen, with the pressing issue of survivor poverty relegated to the edges of the agenda.

It is a profound failure of leadership.