Judging the Netherlands: the renewed Holocaust restitution process 1997-2000 PDF
Preview Judging the Netherlands: the renewed Holocaust restitution process 1997-2000
M a n Manfred Gerstenfeld has done a masterful job of describing the more than sixty-year f In the last years of the twentieth century, r cycle that began with the Nazis’ destruction of Dutch Jewry, and then continued e the many shortcomings of the postwar d with the woefully inadequate immediate postwar efforts by the Dutch government G Dutch Holocaust restitution became a n ma at restitution of property, insurance claims, and other attempts to compensate Dutch er major issue in the Dutch public debate. el Fish Hthoel obcealautsetd s ubruvt igveonrse raanldly f saumcicleiesss foufl vDicutticmhs e. fTfhorist, biono tkh ed elaaslst myeaairnsl yo,f h tohwe etvweern, twieitthh sten Tofh teh ien tSewrnisast iboannakllsy r peugabrlidciinzged d foarimluarnest Joht : caenndt userty a a pnods ietaivrely e xpaamrtp olef othf eh otwwe gnotyv-efrinrsmt ecnetnst cuarny, trtoy troe cptrifoyv itdhee bpealastt edde, faicltihenoucigehs feld bparonmk patcecdo iunnvtess tfirgoamti otnhse e wlseawr hpeerreio ads g yri imperfect, justice, and to try to rectify in some small way the pain of their citizens well, including in the Netherlands. p Co stemming from wartime in general and the Shoah in particular. Ju Judging the A further stimulus came when many d index cards of the Dutch looting bank Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury; g Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld is chairman of from the foreword in LIRO, listing the stolen possessions of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem g individual Jews, were found abandoned Center for Public Affairs. He has been th Ne th e rl an ds: in an Amsterdam attic. an international business strategist This book deals with the restitution of Jewish property that was looted during World e Reports of the commissions of inquiry for forty years. His background is in War II. Jews who returned after the war were often made less than welcome. The N revealed information about monies that e chemistry, economics, environmental postwar restitution process was felt to be cold, bureaucratic, hostile, and humiliating. t had belonged to murdered Jews and h studies, and Jewish studies. This process ended in the 1950s. In 1997, however, bank records were accidentally e The Renewed Holocaust were in the possession of the Dutch Ginetresrtneantfieoldn aisl ab ufosrinmeesrs d ciorencstuorlt iann acny dthisact owveerree dse tth uapt lteod d teoa al rweintehw theids dseecboanted. rTehseti btuotoiokn d. iIstc aulsssoe sc othneta vinasr iionutes rcvoimewmsi twteitehs rlan Restitution Process, 1997-2000 gboavnekrsn,m aenntd, inesxucrhaannceg ec obmrpoakneiress., the three ministers who were most involved. In the end the matter was settled and d Negotiations between these parties whose other shareholders included s four of the world’s largest banks. He apologies were made. Manfred Gerstenfeld has given a clear exposé of the various : and representatives of the Jewish T negotiations and written an important book that will always make very painful h community led to sizable restitution has worked in twenty countries and e his clients have included the boards reading for a Dutch public. R payments. American intervention forced e Manfred Gerstenfeld the Amsterdam Stock Exchange — of several of the world’s largest Frits Bolkestein, former Dutch Minister of Defense; former EU Commissioner n e which had been a major collaborator multinational corporations, as well as w with the German occupiers — to pay governments. He has also been a board e Foreword by Stuart E. Eizenstat member of several public companies This is oral history at its best. As a timely, well-documented, factual reconstruction d tens of times more restitution than it including a large investment firm. and in-depth analysis of the Dutch Holocaust restitution process, this revealing Ho was initially willing to. book is essential reading for everybody interested in the Holocaust-era restitution lo This book first gives the historical Gerstenfeld has authored fifteen books c campaign of the 1990s. a and edited five. Books of his have been u background of the wartime persecution s published in seven languages, including Johannes Houwink ten Cate, Professor for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, t of the Dutch Jews, their chilly reception the Italian bestseller Revaluing Italy. University of Amsterdam Re Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs in the Netherlands after the war, and the His recent book, The Decay: Jews in a st Institute for Global Jewish Affairs highly problematic postwar restitution Rudderless Netherlands, has sparked a itu process. t major public debate in the country and io The book then focuses on the reports of n has had an international impact as well. P the various commissions of inquiry in Gerstenfeld has also published articles ro the late 1990s, the development of the in leading newspapers and journals in ce negotiations, the reactions in the Jewish s various countries on political, economic, s community and Dutch society, as well , environmental, religious, and historical 1 as the emotional impact of the findings subjects. 99 on commission members, negotiators, 7 and journalists involved. - 2 0 The Epilogue describes developments 0 0 over the past decade since the negotiations were concluded. Books by the Same Author Revaluing Italy, with Lorenzo Necci (Italian), 1992 Environment and Confusion: An Introduction to a Messy Subject, 1993 Israel’s New Future: Interviews, 1994 The State as a Business: Do-It-Yourself Political Forecasting (Italian), 1994 Judaism, Environmentalism and the Environment, 1998 The Environment in the Jewish Tradition: A Sustainable World (Hebrew), 2002 Europe’s Crumbling Myths: The Post-Holocaust Origins of Today’s Anti-Semitism, 2003 American Jewry’s Challenge: Conversations Confronting the 21st Century, 2004 Israel and Europe: An Expanding Abyss? 2005 European-Israeli Relations: Between Confusion and Change? 2006 The Abuse of Holocaust Memory: Distortions and Responses, 2009 Anti-Semitism in Norway (Norwegian), 2010 American Jewry’s Comfort Level: Present and Future, with Steven Bayme, 2010 The Decay: Jews in a Rudderless Netherlands (Dutch), 2010 Books Edited The New Clothes of European Anti-Semitism, with Shmuel Trigano (French), 2004 Academics against Israel and the Jews, 2007 Israel at the Polls 2006, with Shmuel Sandler and Jonathan Rynhold, 2008 Behind the Humanitarian Mask: The Nordic Countries, Israel and the Jews, 2008 Israel at the Polls 2009, with Shmuel Sandler and Hillel Frisch, 2010 Monograph The Autumn 2005 Riots in France: Their Possible Impact on Israel and the Jews, 2006 JUDGING THE NETHERLANDS THE RENEWED HOLOCAUST RESTITUTION PROCESS, 1997–2000 Manfred Gerstenfeld Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Institute for Global Jewish Affairs The research and publication of this book was made possible in part by contri- butions of Kamer III of Stichting Marorgelden Overheid (SMO) and Stichting Collectieve Maror-gelden Israel (SCMI). This research project and publication of it has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Copyright © 2011 by Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) and Manfred Gerstenfeld All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system—except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews—without written permission from the JCPA, 13 Tel Hai Street, Jerusalem, 92107, Israel. Tel: +972 2 561 9281, Fax: + 972 2 561 9112. E-mail: [email protected], www.jcpa.org ISBN: 978-965-218-097-1 Set in New Times New Roman by Judith Sternberg, Jerusalem Printed at Hauser — Coop. Printing Press Ltd Cover design by Rami & Jacky Dedicated to the memory of Isaac Lipschits (1930–2008), the biographer of my late father, Dr. Rafael Gerstenfeld. Prof. Lipschits conveyed to me many initial insights into the new Dutch restitution process of the late 1990s. Table of Contents Acknowledgments 9 Foreword by Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat 11 Introduction 15 Chapter One: The Abandonment of Dutch Jewry 21 Chapter Two: The Postwar Years 29 Chapter Three: International Restitution at the End of the Twentieth Century 42 Chapter Four: Toward the Second Round of Dutch Restitution 54 Chapter Five: The Kordes Commission Reports 64 Chapter Six: The Scholten Commission Reports 73 Chapter Seven: Developments during the Van Kemenade Commission Investigations 90 Chapter Eight: The Van Kemenade Commission Report 107 Chapter Nine: Debates in the Van Kemenade Commission 123 Chapter Ten: Negotiations with the Insurers 136 Chapter Eleven: Negotiations with the Government 146 Chapter Twelve: The Debate during and after the Negotiations with the Government 160 Chapter Thirteen: A Major Defeat for the Banks and the Stock Exchange 170 Chapter Fourteen: Conclusion 183 Epilogue 192 Appendix: Interviews with Former Ministers 199 Index 211 Acknowledgments Thanks are due to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs for publishing this book, and appreciation is expressed to the Claims Conference, Kamer III of Stichting Marorgelden Overheid (SMO), and Stichting Collectieve Maror-gelden Israel (SCMI) for their financial assistance. Many people have provided insights for the book, either in writing or orally, for which I am very grateful. Their remarks have frequently been quoted. Memories of events on occasions differ to a significant extent between participants. Sometimes contradictory versions have been included in this volume. I want to thank in particular Barend Elburg for his many comments. Joop Sanders, who has extensive archives from the period discussed in this book, has been very helpful. I wish to thank Karin Dekker and the late Peter Lamboo of the Dutch Finance Ministry for their help in accessing part of the ministry’s archives. At the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs I want to express my gratitude to the director-general, Chaya Herskovic, as well as to Edna Weinstock-Gabay who was responsible for the production of this book. Many thanks are due to Wendy Cohen-Wierda whose assistance in many ways was indispensable. I am grateful to Fredelle Ben Avi, who typed many drafts before this book could be published. 9
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