Restitution of Confiscated Property from Germany

Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass, saw the beginning of the tragedy when Jewish owned buildings were destroyed and businesses were burned. The breaking down of the Berlin Wall opened East Germany to the West. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was reminded at the time that one couldn’t take over East Germany’s assets without inheriting its part of the responsibility toward the Jews. Many Jewish leaders considered these approaches to the German government worthless with little chance of success. The efforts and claims against Germany after unification have been valuable. This led to the U.S. investigations of the stolen gold the Germans sent to neutral countries in 1997. Simultaneously an awareness of the issue of heirless property in Eastern Europe surfaced.

Vast Experience in Property Restitution from Germany

Joel Levi & Co. has been dealing with restitution of properties from Germany since 1990. The firm promotes the just and fair resolution of claims for properties confiscated by the Nazis and their sympathizers. The successful resolution of communal property disputes is used to build momentum in the restitution of confiscated property.

Facing a myriad of stumbling blocks, the Joel Levi & Co. team has been remarkably successful on behalf of their clients when overcoming the universal problem of bureaucracy that is encountered when dealing with any level of government. In light of these challenges and others along the way, Joel Levi & Co. has faced the courts in Germany and argued effectively.

Joel Levi & Company has successfully located a building ruined during WWII in the center of Berlin and litigated for a 1,600,000 €uros compensation for the heirs of the Jewish pre-war owners that had migrated to Brazil. Restitution has also been made to Jewish heirs whose family’s properties (business or real-estate) were confiscated during the Nazi regime.

Joel Levi & Co. had also managed to receive for its clients the ownership for real-estate properties reclaimed from Germany. The properties were sold for their client at the maximum market price.

In one specific episode, Joel Levi & Co waged a long legal struggle to see another confiscated building in the center of Berlin, restituted for the heirs and sell for 500,000 €uros.

These are the highlights of the Joel Levi & Co. efforts to reunite heirs with expropriated and seized Jewish businesses, warehouses, and property. Today’s efforts for restitution of assets and property plundered during the Nazis era and the return of Jewish real estate and other property confiscated or forcibly sold during the years of the Nazi regime, especially affecting owners whose property had been stolen between 1935 and 1945 are imperatives for acting upon injustice.