Luxembourg Signs Restitution Agreement for Holocaust Victims January 28, 2021
LUXEMBOURG The Luxembourg government signed a deal Wednesday with the World Jewish Restitution Organization to pay reparations and to restitute dormant bank accounts, insurance policies as well as looted art to Holocaust survivors.
The deal announced on International Holocaust Remembrance Day will also provide financial resources to promote remembrance, education and research of the Holocaust in Luxembourg.
“The agreement today is a profound statement by Luxembourg of its abiding commitment to preserving the memory of Jews who were persecuted and murdered during the Nazi occupation of Luxembourg,” said Gideon Taylor, the World Jewish Restitution Organization chair of operations.
(JTA) The government of Luxembourg, which for decades has avoided paying Holocaust restitution to most of its survivors for property they lost, has agreed to pay $1.2 million in symbolic compensation.
On Wednesday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the grand duchy signed an agreement with the World Jewish Restitution Organization and the local Jewish community that will “provide one million Euros as a symbolic acknowledgement of support to Holocaust survivors from Luxembourg,” the restitution group said in a statement.
The government also said it will allocate about $30 million toward the construction of a Holocaust memorial and educational center at Cinqfontaines, a site where Luxembourg’s Jewish victims were gathered before being transported to death camps.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. Picture from the Government of Luxembourg.
“Hate speech cannot be accepted, not against Jews, not against gypsies, gays or the disabled,” says Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, after signing a landmark agreement to compensate his country’s Holocaust survivors.
By Eldad Beck, Israel Hayom via JNS
Following an agreement signed on Wednesday by the government of Luxembourg to compensate Holocaust survivors, return looted art and restitute dormant bank accounts, Prime Minister Zavier Bettel told
Israel Hayom that the fight against anti-Semitism is not over.
“It wouldn’t be right to say that Luxembourg is protected against anti-Semitism and racism now,” he said in the wake of the deal, which was also signed by the World Jewish Restitution Organization, the Jewish community of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah.
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The Cinqfontaines Monastery: Soon after Nazi Germany occupied Luxembourg, the Cinqfontaines Monastery was converted into an internment and collection point for Jews being deported from Luxembourg. Men, women and children of all ages were held here in appalling conditions until deported to death camps. [Photo: Luxembourg Tourism]
U.S. Embassy Congratulates Luxembourg for its Historic Agreement on Outstanding Holocaust Issues
The United States Embassy in Luxembourg congratulates the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg for signing an historic agreement today with the Jewish Community of Luxembourg, together with the World Jewish Restitution Organization and the Luxembourg Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah.
It is only fitting this historic agreement is being signed on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day where Governments and Jewish Communities around the world remember the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
The origins of this agreement date back to 2009, when the United States, Luxembourg and 45 other countries committed to rectify the consequences of the Nazi-era wrongful asset seizures and to promote the welfare of Holocaust survivors around the world by endorsing the Terezin Declaration.