A special court at The Hague is expected to issue a decision tomorrow concerning property restitution which will have a farreaching effect on the economic welfare of Netherlands Jewry.
The issue before the court is whether Jewish victims of the Nazis who were forced to deposit their assets with the Zipman-Rosenthal Bank during the occupation shall receive all their property or only a portion. The bank, which is in the process of liquidation, offered the “depositors” 70 percent of their bank deposite, if they renounce their claims to securities and other negotiable property which the bank has since sold.
The bank’s offer, made at the suggestion of the Dutch Ministry of Finance, was sent to the “depositors” in the form of a circular. The court has been requested, by two prominent Jewish leaders here, to outlaw the circular, to endorse the principle that the Jews are entitled to full repayment and to order the immediate payment of half of all deposits.
It is estimated that the value of the property “deposited” by Jews with the bank is about 400,000,000 guilders. Twenty-five million of this sum was “paid” for the erection of a concentration camp from which Dutch Jews were deported to slavery and death. The government has recently offered to purchase the camp site for 5,000,000 guilders.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
