Appeal Over Holocaust Trust Rejected By Greek Court

This week, a Tel Aviv court rejected a demand by the Greek Jewish community that an Israeli organization turn over shares in the Jewish Colonial Trust (JCT)–the predecessor of Bank Leumi, which is worth up to a million Shekels in a quarrelsome case pitting two bodies engaged in Holocaust restitution against one another. 

Greece’s Heirless Property and Jewish Rehabilitation Fund (OPAIE), which is an independent arm of that country’s Jewish community to manage heirless property left behind by victims of the Nazi genocide.  The OPAIE asserted that the Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets had no right to the 512 shares of JCT as they had not been located in Israel at the time of the Holocaust and, consequently, should not be administered by the Israeli body.  Jews across the Diaspora put their money into the trust, with many of its investors perishing in the Holocaust. 

According to the OPAIE, Hashava, which was established to take charge of the disposition of the assets of Holocaust victims, has no claim to the contested assets, as the victims were Greek citizens who died in Greece while their shares in the trust were located in London. 

While Judge Gideon Ginat understood OPAIE’s arguments, he ultimately ruled that the shares remain with Hashava, citing the 2006 Assets of Holocaust Victims Law.  According to the law, “notwithstanding the provision of any statue, for purposes of the right to inherit the asset of a holocaust victim in order to receive it under this Law, that inheritance stature shall apply to the holocaust victim’s estate, which would have applied to him if he had been an Israeli subject, within its meaning in the Inheritance Ordinance.”

Despite losing this case, OPAIE will continue to “find our way with this issue.  We will not give up.” 

See Sam Sokol, Court Rejects Greek Appeal Over Holocaust Fund Held By Israel, The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 31, 2014.