Twenty municipalities will investigate how Jewish homeowners were treated in and after World War II, according to a tour of Monday The Monitor in Pointer along the municipalities that appear in the real estate administration of the German occupier.
During the Second World War, deported Jews were expropriated and their real estate was resold. The municipalities will investigate whether taxes have been levied while the Jewish owners did not have access to their homes. It is also investigated what the municipalities have done with expropriated buildings that they have purchased.
Little is known about how municipalities have acted with regard to the robbery of Jewish real estate. Twenty municipalities will investigate their role. Arnhem, Deventer, Assen, Groningen, Zaanstad, Leeuwarden, Hilversum, Amersfoort, Apeldoorn and Zwolle, among others, are planning to dive into the archives.
Amsterdam (2016), The Hague (2019), Rotterdam (2020) and Utrecht (2020) have previously conducted such research.
Four major cities paid millions to duped Jews
Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam have paid a total of 14.6 million euros to individuals and Jewish organizations as a result of the research.
The investigations revealed a cold and businesslike attitude towards Jewish homeowners who returned from concentration camps and from hiding places after the war. The suffering the Jewish population endured during the war was not taken into account.
In Amsterdam and The Hague, returning Jews were asked to pay their leasehold and street taxes retroactively for the period that their houses were not in their possession.
– .
