Serbia becomes first to return to remaining Jewish community the property that belonged to Jews murdered in the Holocaust.http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/210085#.Vvto_OKLTVQIn 1945, Aleksandar Lebl returned to Serbia after escaping the attempted genocide of all Jews in World War II and reclaimed his family's confiscated house. But the 93-year-old is one of the very few of Serbia's Holocaust survivors who came back to recover their homes.
Many thousands of others were murdered or left no heir and their property, seized by the Nazis or the puppet government in Belgrade, was incorporated into the Communist state after the war. Today, more than seven decades later, Serbia has passed a law offering some belated redress to its now tiny Jewish community.
One of the first of its kind in eastern Europe, the "heirless property restitution law" passed in February will see thousands of previously Jewish-owned buildings handed to the country's Association of Jewish Communities. The association plans to rent out most of the properties, and from 2017 Serbia will also pay an annual 950,000 euros ($1.1 million) for 25 years in financial support to the community.
The funds will be spent on education, fighting prejudice and preserving the memory of Holocaust victims, along with supporting survivors, said its president, Ruben Fuks. Lebl is one of the last of Serbia's Jews who remembers the war.
Topic: Late justice for Serbia's Jewish Holocaust victims (Read 536 times)