Linas Jegelevičius
The Lithuanian legislature, the Seimas, has greenlit this week 37 million euros for compensation for Jewish private property expropriated by the Nazis and Soviets in an overwhelming majority.
72 MPs voted in favour, six against, and two abstained when voting for the amendments to the Law on Good Will Compensation for the Property of Jewish Religious Communities. The law will enter into force in January next year.
Approached by BNN, Faina Kukliansky, the Chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, called the decision «symbolic yet important».
«No one can bring the lost lives back and revive the communities once we had. However, the approach the government shows in terms of restitution for the Lithuanian Jewish community devastated during the Holocaust is proper and is welcomed by our community,» she emphasized.
In 2011, Lithuania passed the aforementioned law, which embedded the right for a one-time direct payment to Lithuanian Holocaust survivors and allocated 37 million euros to be spread out over 10 years through the Good Will Foundation.
But, until now, no mechanism existed to provide private property restitution for persons who were only able to prove or reclaim Lithuanian citizenship after 2001 or who have not regained their citizenship. In other words, until now, Lithuania had no law for the restitution of Holocaust-era heirless property and, thence, the law implementation has stalled.
Under the new amendments, the money will be now allocated to the Good Will Foundation, which will pay it out to Jews whose private property was seized, as well as their heirs. The foundation will be able to allocate 5 million to 10 million euros to meet individual requests for compensation for lost property.
Compensation would be granted if individuals had no legal possibility of restoring their ownership of property. They will be able to apply for compensation until the end of 2023, with the money to be paid out between 2024 and 2030.
According to Kukliansky, the money planned to be disbursed to the Good Will Foundation by mid-2030 will not be a big financial burden for Lithuania, but also will have a positive impact on its international image.
«Considering how much the nation, the Jews, have suffered here during the dark periods of our history, no restitution can outweigh and compensate the loss of human lives and the property,» Mindaugas Skritulskas, a lawmaker of the ruling Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, told BNN.
Yet some high-profile MPs, like Saulius Skvernelis, former Prime Minister and, now, chairman of the Democratic Union For Lithuania Party, admitted he voted against the legislative initiative. According to him, the issue has been resolved.
«Our fraction did not support it. We believe that the issue is resolved. Neither the motives nor the real reasons for it are understood,» Skvernelis said.
Ex-premier noted that, in terms of compensation, the same can be said about the return of property to Lithuanian nationals who suffered from the Nazis and the Soviets.
«If we’d apply the same approach, then the story of compensations would be endless. If every government starts believing it has an exclusive right to pass decisions on restitution, then, to follow the logic, every new government can start thinking that it has right to compensate also all the Lithuanian nationals who lost their property in the 1940s and who haven’t seen any compensation,»
the MP said.
But Lithuania’s Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė firmly stands ground, claiming the bill amendments were necessary and will serve historic justice: «This symbolic sum is intended to restore at least partial justice and to ensure the fostering of Lithuanian Jews, their culture and heritage,» the bill’s explanatory note reads.
«This is also a moral debt that should be acknowledged and, as far as possible, not one hundred percent, resolved,» Šimonytė, who spearheaded the amendments to the Law on Good Will Compensation for the Property of Jewish Religious Communities, says.
She noted that her proposals had been coordinated with the Lithuanian Jewish community and some foreign Jewish organizations, like the American Jewish Congress.
According to the PM, the issue of expropriated private property had been raised by Lithuanian and international Jewish communities with previous governments, but it «was left hanging in the air».
Previously, the Prime Minister suggested that the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace could become a museum or memorial dedicated to the history of Lithuanian Jews. When asked this week how the implementation of this idea is progressing, Šimonytė said that the situation is not simple and the decisions are more complicated than regarding compensations for expropriated property.
The US government has already welcomed the Lithuanian Seimas’ decision.
«The passing of this legislation is an important step in recognizing the tragedy of the Holocaust in Lithuania,» US Ambassador to Lithuania Robert Gilchrist was quoted as saying in the statement.
«The United States Government strongly welcomes and endorses the Lithuanian government’s proposal to address longstanding issues of restitution for the Lithuanian Jewish community devastated during the Holocaust. This new initiative builds on the restitution work begun in 2011 by symbolically addressing heirless property and remaining individual claims, and providing resources to maintain Jewish communal life in Lithuania,» it said.
US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Ellen Germain said that by passing this bill, Lithuania has taken another important step in fulfilling restitution commitments.
Lithuania was a significant center of Jewish cultural, economic, and intellectual life before World War II (WWII). It is estimated that the pre-war Jewish population was approximately 160,000, or seven percent of the total population. Vilnius, which boasted 106 synagogues and a population that was 40 percent Jewish, was known by some as the «Jerusalem of the North».
Following the start of WWII in 1939 and the Soviet occupation and annexation of the country in 1940, Lithuania’s Jewish population swelled to approximately 250,000 persons due to the influx of refugees coming from German-occupied Poland. Once in control of the country, the Nazis and collaborators began the mass murder of the Jewish population, killing 90 percent of Lithuania’s Jews by the time Soviet troops reoccupied Lithuania in the summer of 1944.
Lithuania’s Jewish population as of mid-2022 was less than 4,000 and included many who came to Lithuania from other parts of the former Soviet Union.
However, Kukliansky believes Lithuania shall do more.
«I believe Lithuania has more reserves in ensuring historic justice towards our community. Many of the properties owned by Jews are returned now and are being supported not only by Lithuania’s Department of Cultural Heritage but also by the country’s Jew community, although there are no more local Jewish communities in the provinces anymore. So in that regard, more significant assistance from the authorities would be welcome,» she underlined.