The robbery and restitution of Jewish property are two inextricably linked social processes. It is not possible to understand the lawsuits and international agreements on the restoration of Jewish property of the late 1990s without examining what was robbed and by whom. In this volume distinguished historians first outline the mechanisms and scope of the European-wide program of plunder and then assess the effectiveness and historical implications of post-war restitution efforts. Everywhere the solution of legal and material problems was intertwined with changing national myths about the war and conflicting interpretations of justice. Even those countries that pursued extensive restitution programs using rigorous legal means were unable to compensate or fully comprehend the scale of Jewish loss. Especially in Eastern Europe, it was not until the collapse of communism that the concept of restoring some Jewish property rights even became a viable option. Integrating the abundance of new research on the material effects of the Holocaust and its aftermath, this comparative perspective examines the developments in Germany, Poland, Italy, France, Belgium, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Martin Deanis a Research Scholar at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). He is the author ofCollaboration in the Holocaust, published in association with the USHMM in 2000, and of several articles on the confiscation of Jewish property. From 1992 to 1997 he worked as Senior Historian for the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit.

List of Abbreviations
Preface

Part I: Introduction

Introduction:A History without Boundaries: The Robbery and Restitution of Jewish Property in Europe
Constantin Goschler and Philipp Ther

Part II: The Robbery of Jewish Property in Comparative Perspective

Chapter 1.The Seizure of Jewish Property in Europe: Comparative Aspects of Nazi Methods and Local Responses
Martin Dean

Chapter 2.Aryanization and Restitution in Germany
Frank Bajohr

Chapter 3.The Looting of Jewish Property in Occupied Western Europe: A Comparative Study of Belgium, France, and the Netherlands
Jean-Marc Dreyfus

Chapter 4.The Robbery of Jewish Property in Eastern Europe under German Occupation, 19391942
Dieter Pohl

Chapter 5.The Robbery of Jewish Property in Eastern European States Allied with Nazi Germany
Tatjana Tönsmeyer

Part III: The Restitution of Jewish Property in Comparative Perspective

Chapter 6.West Germany and the Restitution of Jewish Property in Europe
Jurgen Lillteicher

Chapter 7.Jewish Property and the Politics of Restitution in Germany after 1945
Constantin Goschler

Chapter 8.Two Approaches to Compensation in France: Restitution and Reparation
Claire Andrieu

Chapter 9.The Expropriation of Jewish Property and Restitution in Belgium
Rudi van Doorslaer

Chapter 10.Indifference and Forgetting: Italy and its Jewish Community, 19381970
Ilaria Pavan

Chapter 11.Why Switzerland? Remarks on a Neutrals Role in the Nazi Program of Robbery and Allied Postwar Restitution Policy
Regula Ludi

Chapter 12.The Hungarian Gold Train: Fantasies of Wealth and the Madness of Genocide
Ronald W. Zweig

Chapter 13.Reluctant Restitution: The Restitution of Jewish Property in the Bohemian Lands after the Second World War
Eduard Kubu and Jan Kuklík Jr.

Chapter 14.The Polish Debate on the Holocaust and the Restitution of Property
Dariusz Stola

Part IV: Concluding Remarks

Conclusion:Reflections on the Restitution and Compensation of Holocaust Theft: Past, Present, and Future
Gerald D. Feldman

Notes on Contributors
Select Bibliography
Index