Belgium will pay $170 million in Holocaust restitution.
Belgium’s banks and the Brussels government agreed Tuesday to the payout to the Jewish community and families of Holocaust victims whose property was stolen by the Nazis.
Some $54 million will be paid to claimants. The remainder will go to a trust to promote Holocaust education and help poor Jews.
Of the total amount to be paid out, $69.8 million comes from the government, $85 million from banks and the rest mostly from insurance companies.
About half of Belgium’s 50,000 Jews died in the Holocaust.
Last year a government-sponsored report declared that Belgium had officially and unofficially collaborated with the Nazi persecution of Jews.
