United Kingdom

In September 1939, the United Kingdom declared war against Germany. During the war, London was home to a number of governments in exile. Jewish property in the United Kingdom was not looted or seized, and British Jews, with the exception of those in the German-occupied Channel Islands, were not persecuted. In the decade after the war, the United Kingdom offered an ex gratia scheme to compensate victims of Nazi persecution whose assets had been frozen during the war because they were from countries who had been invaded by the Axis powers. The treatment of possible unreturned assets was revisited in the 1990s. In 1999, a new compensation program was established. The United Kingdom endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

Sweden

Sweden maintained a policy of uneven neutrality throughout World War II. While the Swedish government initially maintained a strict anti-immigrant policy, attitudes changed once World War II began. When Swedish authorities learned in 1942 that the Germans sought to deport Jews from Denmark and Norway, they aided in the rescue of thousands of Jews from the two neighboring countries. Throughout the war, Sweden maintained diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany. The Nazis sought to have Aryanization policy carried out in Sweden with respect to German-controlled companies operating in Sweden and also for Swedish companies with links to Germany. In the end, however, efforts to Aryanize property in Sweden were not very effective and did not have a major impact on the economic well-being of Swedish Jews. Sweden endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

Spain

Spain is typically described as having been a neutral country during World War II. However, during the war, the Fascist ideology of Spain’s General Francisco Franco was closely aligned to that of the Nazis’ National Socialism. Unlike Hitler’s Germany, however, Franco’s Spain did not enact anti-Jewish policies or engage in the persecution of Jews. More than 25,000 Jews were able to escape Nazi-controlled Europe to Spain during the war. No immovable property—private, communal, or heirless—was taken from Jews or other targeted groups in Spain during the war. As a result, no immovable property restitution laws were required. Spain endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

Russia

In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, in violation of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The invasion marked the beginning of what Russia would later call the Great Patriotic War during which the Soviet Union suffered tens of millions of civilian and military losses. Private property in the Soviet Union was earlier confiscated through Lenin and Stalin’s nationalization programs. Nazi-occupied territories of the Soviet Union suffered property confiscation by the German forces, with most of the confiscation taking place in the Soviet Republics of Belarussia and Ukraine and western Russia. Russia does not have any private or communal property restitution and/or compensation laws relating to Holocaust-era confiscations, or return of property confiscations dating back to the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Russia also does not have any special legislation dealing with heirless property. Russia endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009, but declined to endorse the 2010 Guidelines and Best Practices.

Netherlands

The Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany in May 1940 and remained at least partially occupied in the north through May 1945. A key feature of the German occupying administration was implementing what has come to be described as “looting by decree” of Jewish property and possessions. Of the more than 100,000 Jews who were deported by the German occupiers and Dutch collaborators, only roughly 5,000 survived. After the war, laws were passed annulling the wartime German confiscation decrees, and a council was created to return stolen property. In the late 1990s, various commissions of inquiry were tasked with examining different aspects of the postwar Dutch restitution process. The Van Kemenade Commission found that, with respect to the postwar restitution framework, Jews were treated like any other group, even though they had generally suffered and lost far more. The Commission also found that, while the restitution process was carried out in a lawful manner, it had many unfair consequences. The Netherlands endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

Macedonia

Yugoslavia (which included present-day Macedonia) was invaded by the Axis powers in 1941 and immovable property was confiscated. After the war, Yugoslavia enacted a property restitution law, but it was short-lived. As Yugoslavia fell under Communist rule, widespread nationalization—which this time occurred irrespective of race, religion, or ethnicity—resulted in a second wave of property confiscations. Macedonia gained its independence in 1991. In 2000, Macedonia passed its primary denationalization law, which addressed the restitution of private, communal, and heirless property. It was the first law in any of the Balkan countries to address heirless property. Macedonia endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

France

Germany invaded France in 1940. A month later the countries entered into an agreement, by which 80 percent of France was occupied by Nazi Germany. Competing property expropriation laws were enacted in both Occupied and Unoccupied (Vichy) France. More than 20 percent of France’s Jewish population was killed during World War II. Restitution and reparations measures—particularly with respect to private and heirless property—took place in two phases. The first occurred in the immediate postwar years and ended around 1954, and the second commenced in the late 1990s and early 2000s and is ongoing. In the late 1990s, a government commission (Matteoli Commission) was established to examine the conditions under which property was confiscated by the occupying or Vichy regimes. A compensation commission (Drai Commission) was subsequently established to provide payment to those not previously compensated for damages resulting from legislation passed either by the occupying or Vichy regimes. France endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

Estonia

The independent Republic of Estonia was attacked and formally annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. It was subsequently invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941 until Soviet troops re-entered the country in 1944. At the end of the war, virtually every member of Estonia’s small prewar Jewish community had been murdered, deported, or had fled the country. Estonia’s independence was restored in 1991, and post-Communist Estonia passed restitution laws that applied generally to private and communal immovable property confiscated during the Communist era. Estonia endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

Czech Republic

During World War II, Nazi Germany occupied the territory comprising the modern-day Czech Republic (previously part of the independent country of Czechoslovakia), creating the Protectorate of Moravia and Bohemia. All Jews in the Protectorate became subject to German jurisdiction and anti-Jewish laws, including German laws on expropriation of Jewish property. Immediately after the war, Czechoslovakia enacted legislation invalidating property transfers made during Nazi occupation. The measures were short-lived, however, because the country fell under Communist rule that resulted in a second wave of confiscations from all persons. It was not until after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 that new immovable property restitution laws were enacted for private and communal property. The Czech Republic endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

Cyprus

Cyprus was a British Crown colony during World War II. Cyprus was a haven to refugees escaping Nazi persecution during World War II, and after concentration camps in Europe were liberated, detention centers were set up on the island by the British in an effort to curtail survivors from entering British Mandate Palestine. No immovable property—private, communal, or heirless—was confiscated from Jews or other targeted groups in Cyprus during the war. As a result, no immovable property restitution laws were required. Cyprus endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.