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Expulsion of Jews from East Belgium in 1942. (Archive)
Last update - 00:00 11/03/2008
Belgian gov't, banks to pay 110M euros to victims of Holocaust
By The Associated Press
Tags: Nazi, Belgium, Holocaust 

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - David Susskind survived the Holocaust by fleeing to Switzerland, eventually joining the French Resistance. When he returned to Belgium after the war, he had nothing.

His mother, a widow, died in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. Strangers were living in his family home in Antwerp. The local grocer greeted him with shock, saying, You're still alive?

"We lost everything. There was nothing, said Susskind," now 82.
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On Tuesday, Belgium's banks and government sought to make material amends, announcing $170 million in restitution for the Jewish community and families of Holocaust survivors whose property and goods were looted by Nazi occupiers.

Overall, $54 million will be paid to individual claimants, with the rest going to a Jewish trust that will help the poor and keep the memory of the horrors of World War II alive.

"In a certain way, justice has been done. Unfortunately, there are people who never came back from the Nazi death camps," said Eli Ringer, the co-chair of the committee on the restitution of Jewish assets.

Some 50,000 Jews lived in Belgium in the 1930s and about half died in the
Holocaust.

Last year, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt apologized for the involvement of Belgian authorities in the deportation of Jews to Nazi concentration camps.

After the Nazi invasion in May 1940, the Belgian government fled to Britain, but instructed civil servants who stayed to work with the Nazis to keep services running and prevent the economic breakdown that occurred during the German occupation in World War I.

That often led to Belgian officials collaborating with the persecution of
Jews, though the resistance movement was also strong and underground networks to save Jews were more successful than in many occupied nations.

Belgium is facing 5,210 outstanding claims for restitution stemming from the Holocaust. From those, 162 amount to more than U.S. $30,000.

Of the total payout, U.S. $69.8 million will come from the Belgian authorities and U.S. $85 million from banks. Most of the remainder will come from insurance companies.

Susskind, who has worked for the Jewish cause since the war, did not file an individual claim.

The point is to rebuild a Jewish community like we had before the war, he said in a telephone interview. For suffering, there is no price.

The Belgian deal was the latest successful effort by Holocaust victims to win compensation. The German government has paid more than U.S. $60 billion to Jewish victims or their families since the first deal was negotiated by the World Jewish Congress in the 1950s.

In the 1990s, Swiss banks agreed to pay US$1.25 billion on dormant accounts left by Holocaust victims. A decade-long legal battle in the United States against European insurance companies, accused of refusing to pay on policies to victims or their beneficiaries, was settled this year for U.S. $175 million.

For Belgium, the compensation decision was another opportunity to come to
terms with a dark chapter of its history.

Last year, a government-backed report blamed Belgian authorities and the
ruling elite for collaborating with the Nazi persecution of Jews.

The head of the Senate condemned the cowardliness of our administration during the 1940-1944 occupation.

Jewish citizens were forced at first to be registered. Then they were
obligated to wear yellow stars, and schools and hospitals were segregated. Raids soon rounded up Jews in Belgian cities for deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Some cities helped with the deportations.

With the compensation, the primary objective was clearly to close a section of the past, which still seems half-open, more than 60 years after the events, the restitution commission said.

The commission, set up by the government, acknowledged that its offer fell short of some expectations, saying it was frequently confronted with the disappointment of rightful claimants who had plainly expected much bigger indemnification.

Related articles:
  • Jewish club reopens in Vienna 70 years after Nazis seized it
  • German intellectuals: Israel's creation made Palestinians victims of Holocaust
  • Greek historian convicted over book denying the Holocaust

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      1.   holocaust becoming holohoax, for profit 16:56  |  what you expect? 11/03/08
      2.   #1 #2 17:54  |  Michael 11/03/08
      3.   On the website of `De Morgen` someone... 20:06  |  Edith 11/03/08
      4.   Where is the money actually going? 20:24  |  Ben 11/03/08
      5.   The Jews of Belgium deserve reparations 20:34  |  Maki 11/03/08
      6.   #4, Ben 20:53  |  John Bull Capistrano 11/03/08
      7.   Part of the money goes to... 21:03  |  Edith 11/03/08
      8.   money returned to owners 21:28  |  mike 11/03/08
      9.   # 5 Maki of Brasil..Arab states should also take note 21:31  |  Lynn 11/03/08
      10.   Received reparations 22:00  |  Mike 11/03/08
      11.   Wasnt there an article 22:14  |  Ben 11/03/08
      12.   Returning $170 Mil 60 yrs late means Belgium pocketed $11 Billion 22:57  |  Dr. L. Brnd 11/03/08
      13.   I`m beginning to wonder.. 00:42  |  hollingsworth 12/03/08
      14.   the Arabs can also pay back for the money they stole 01:21  |  judith 12/03/08
      15.   hollingsworth, my advice: save your brain cells 02:05  |  Hannah 12/03/08
      16.   It`s way too Late 02:24  |  fritz 12/03/08
      17.   Good, now how about the Palestinians? 03:51  |  Denise 12/03/08
      18.   Judith, reparations 09:34  |  Maki 12/03/08
      19.   A lil` digression 20:18  |  Greg 12/03/08
      20.   hollinsworth 08:07  |  sweis Melbourne 14/03/08
      21.   fritz is right 08:10  |  sweis Melbourne 14/03/08
      22.   Deceit is a chronic kosher disease 09:55  |  Bonheur 15/03/08
      23.   Why? 14:31  |  Steven Grumman 15/03/08
      24.   Steven Grunman 22:59  |  sweis Melbourne 15/03/08
      25.   #1 WHAT TRASH YOU ARE 14:23  |  petra 01/04/08
      26.   # 3 EDITH THANK YOU. 14:24  |  petra 01/04/08
      27.   # 17 DENISE, THE PALS JUST REC`D 14:32  |  petra 01/04/08
      28.   Belgium reparation 06:33  |  Gary Schifris 11/11/08
      29.   Payout 18:39  |  Louise Ashcroft 31/03/09
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