Nearly 1,000 Jews are asking for compensation for property illegally expropriated in Lithuania in the last century.
The Good Will Foundation told BNS that it had received 951 applications for monetary compensation for real estate, except land, illegally expropriated during the totalitarian occupations.
“The applications are currently being assessed,” the Foundation said in a comment sent to BNS.
According to the Foundation, the evaluation consists of three stages: first, the administrative eligibility of the applications is checked, then the applications are discussed by the Restitution Committee and finally a decision is taken by the Board of the Good Will Foundation.
“The plan is to complete the assessment of the administrative eligibility of the applications as well as the assessment of the applications in the Restitution Committee by November 1, and then to forward the applications to the Board of the Foundation for a final decision,” Indre Rutkauskaite, the Foundation’s Acting Director, said in the comment.
As the applications have not yet been evaluated, the Foundation is not in a position to indicate how much money will be needed for compensation.
According to the law, a total of at least 5 million euros, but no more than 10 million euros, can be allocated for individual applications for compensation submitted by Lithuanian Jews or their heirs to the Foundation.
Applications and supporting documents had to be submitted by the end of the last year, and the compensation must be paid to the Lithuanian Jew or his heirs in equal shares no later than July 1, 2025.
The possibility of compensation for the personal property of Lithuanian Jews expropriated by the Nazis and Soviets was opened up by the Seimas last year.
In 2023, Lithuania completed the payment of 37 million euros for the expropriated property of Jewish religious communities.
Around 90 percent of Lithuania’s pre-war Jewish population of about 208,000 was killed by Nazis and local collaborators between 1941 and 1944.
Source: BNS
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