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Restitution of Holocaust-Era Assets: Promises and Reality
[Jewish Political Studies Review] Sidney Zabludoff - Less than 20% of the value of Jewish assets stolen by the Nazis and their collaborators has been restored. At least $115-$175 billion (2005 prices) remains unreturned despite numerous clear and explicit international agreements and country promises made during World War II and immediately thereafter. Even the highly publicized resurgence of restitution efforts since the mid-1990s resulted in the return of only 3% of Holocaust property. A key reason for these meager results was the failure to make a comprehensive, and timely effort to deal adequately with an event unequaled in the annals of modern history - the extermination of more than two-thirds of continental European Jewry and the confiscation of nearly all of its assets.