This chapter discusses how the reclamation of citizenship, the restitution of property, and negotiations for reparations stretched across postwar Europe, with some activities continuing into the twenty-first century. In western and central Europe, Jews quickly regained citizenship. France, Italy, and Holland abrogated Nazi decrees to restore Jews' citizenship; Germany granted citizenship irrespective of religion. In east-central and eastern Europe, in contrast, Jews struggled to regain or retain rights. Stalin's and Khrushchev's governments discriminated against Jews throughout Soviet society; they effectively turned Jews into second-class citizens. In Hungary, Jews experienced a second “reverse emancipation.” Romania purged the state apparatus and arranged for Israel to ransom Jews for hard currency. Poland gave Jews citizenship de jure yet began to discriminate against them. Meanwhile, the governments of Holland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and France laid the legal foundation for restitution during the war by declaring Nazi expropriations illegal. Eighteen governments signed a declaration to restore property.
