News Brief

The German government has been slow to process Nazi-era property claims, according to a Ha’aretz investigation. The newspaper’s probe noted that this was in sharp contrast to the government’s swift processing of compensation for victims of East Germany s communist regime. The German Federal Authority for Central Services and Pending Property Claims completed 99 percent of claims against East Germany, but has only completed 25 percent of claims for properties seized by the Nazis. German government officials told Ha’aretz that the slow processing was not deliberate, pointing out that the claims against the Nazis are more difficult to process given the approximately 70 years that has elapsed. “The complainants generally have very little documentation,” the officials said of Nazi-era complaints, adding that most of the parties involved have died. Hillel Cherny of Jerusalem has been in legal proceedings for 15 years to recover his grandfather s assets, which include dozens of commercial companies. “In the first years, the Germans showed a lot of good will, but this diminished over the years,” he told the Israeli newspaper. “Today, I’m afraid, treatment has been reduced to a snail s pace.”