The annulment of the anti-Jewish laws by the Allied Military Government in Rome and the return of property to Jews there is hailed in the Hebrew press in Palestine today, but exception is taken to the reported AMG specification that their property will be restored to Jewish owners “if they return to their homes.”
“It is unacceptable that expelled Jews who are unable to return to their homes should lose their looted property,” the influential Hebrew newspaper Davar writes. “We assume that it is not the intention of the United Nations to dispossess orphans of their inheritance. This declaration may serve as a precedent for other countries wherein a greater number of Jews lived and a larger amount of property was pillaged. We cannot imagine that the United Nations will permit the heritage of murdered Jews to be taken over by local authorities.
“The Jewish victims,” the paper continues, “have a right to demand that the United Nations establish a principle applying to all countries, under which any Jew is to get back his property, or its equivalent, without being compelled to return, even temporarily, to the land where his brethren have been murdered. This principle should provide that property of murdered Jews be handed over to their heirs, or be placed at the disposal of the Jewish nation for assistance to refugees.”
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