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Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference)

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International Conferences

Title
Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference)

Description
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany has worked since 1951 to secure compensation and restitution for survivors of the Holocaust and heirs of the victims. The Claims Conference offers assistance with compensation claims and obtains and distributes funds to Jewish community organisations. Holocaust victims, and institutions which engage in Holocaust research, education and documentation.

Restitution of Looted Cultural Property
The Claims Conference has identified over 1,000 looted works of art in public collections in the former East Germany and France, some with the names of original owners attached. The full list of objects is published here on the Central Registry in the Object Database. All objects can be accessed by typing in 'Claims Conference' in the 'Name' line of the Provenance section in the Search facility.

Under the German Vermögengesetz (Property Act) of 1991, all claims for such property had to be filed by families by December 1992. The Claims Conference, in its legal capacity as the successor organisation, and in order to meet the deadline for recovery, has filed claims for all the objects. With the aim of clarifying the situation and so as to express its commitment to enabling the heirs to recover their looted property, in July 1999 the Claims Conference Board issued a statement regarding the recovery of these looted works of art:

"The internal Goodwill procedure of the Claims Conference was created for those heirs who did not meet the legal deadline of the Vermögengesetz law. The Goodwill Fund's regulations regarding works of art provide for them to be restituted to the legal heirs. Fees or costs incurred will not be claimed by the Claims Conference, that is, legal heirs will recover their property free of charge."

Heirs may therefore make a claim for their own property to the institution currently holding it and, if the claim proceeds, will subsequently need to apply to the Claims Conference for a waiver of its claim.

The list of looted items of cultural property provided by the Claims Conference includes the names of a number of original owners. These are set out below. To find which objects these are associated with, please type the name into the 'Name' line of the Provenance section in the Search facility.

Frida Levy
Hanna Herz, nee Levy
Henri Hinrichsen
Fanny Steinthal of Dresden
G Steindorf of Leipzig
Josephine Winter of Vienna
Baronin Ferstl of Vienna
K Israel Boer of Sondershausen
Professor Mennung of Satzelmen
Geheimrat Walter of Halle
Hermann Gesenius
Professor Frank of Halle
Herr Praechter of Halle
Geheimrat Dobschutz of Halle
Professor Mitscherlich of Halle
Fraulein Arndt of Halle
Professor Dr von Lippmann of Halle
Justizrat Volkmar of Halle
Frau Pauline Class of Halle
Family Leistikow of Halle
Dr Wilhelm Baake of Wiesbaden
Family Buchbinder Strauch
Family Grunfeld of Halle
Family Kampffmeyer of Halle
Family Sarki of Halle
Family J J Meyer of Halle
Family Jacob of Halle
Samuel Meyoshes of Halle
Dr F Mainzer of Berlin
Dr Morat of Berlin
Busch-Friedlander of Berlin
Dr Paul Linke of Dresden
Viktor Schick of Dresden
Emil Fischl of Dresden
Dr Berolzheimer of Weimar
Karl Sachs of Breslau
Else Smoshewer of Breslau

Contact Information
Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany
15 East 26th Street, Room 906
New York, NY 10010
Tel.: +1 212 696 4944
Fax: +1 212 679 2126
Email: info@claimscon.org
www.claimscon.org

Source
Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany<www.claimscon.org/>, accessed 1 November 2002
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