Holocaust congress signs accord

Delegates from 46 countries pledged to increase efforts to return confiscated property of Holocaust survivors and their descendants by signing the Terezín Declaration June 30.

As part of the declaration, which is nonbinding, all participating countries also agreed to back the foundation of the European Shoah Legacy Institute, a nongovernmental organization that will be based in the former Terezín concentration camp, which aims to monitor restitution claims for Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

The declaration marked the end of the five-day Prague Holocaust-Era Assets Conference, the biggest of its kind since the 1998 Washington Conference, and the final event of the six-month Czech EU presidency.  

"It is the first declaration in which there is an institutional follow-up mechanism," Stuart Eizenstat, head of the U.S. delegation, told reporters June 29, estimating the value of all looted Jewish assets to be about $15 billion in 1939, and could potentially be as much as 10 times that amount today. "[The European Shoah Legacy Institute will be] a centralized repository database where all developments related to the Holocaust ? can be placed."

Conference organizers called the declaration's signing "a resounding success," and said they expected the institute could begin regular operation as early as September.

"It was a really easy process to negotiate between all 46 countries," said Jiří Schneider, the conference's program and media coordinator. "In many restitution cases, there are no points of reference, so it's the first comprehensive document that endorses the idea of a follow-up." He went on to note that he was unclear as to how the new institute would function. "It won't be a government institution, but the Czech government will have to decide on what form it takes exactly."

Still, other Holocaust authorities - some of whom had been critical of the conference from the get-go - were skeptical of the new declaration's implications.

"It's a nonbinding document, so the government hasn't truly committed to improving how these cases are handled," said Tomáš Jelínek, vice chairman of the Czech Committee for Nazi Victims. "They chose to focus only on Jewish issues and neglected other victims, including Roma and political dissidents, of the Holocaust entirely. So, to me, it looks as if there will be no visible change." 

Curtis Wong can be reached at
cwong@praguepost.com