Financial compensation for survivors?
צילום: אלי שמעוני
German court awards Holocaust claim
Family still seeking additional money amid concerns ruling could open door to more claims
Holocaust survivor groups are hopeful that a Friday ruling by a German court will open the door for further claims by heirs to a pre-World War II retailing fortune.
"We assume that this landmark decision will enable the (Federal Restitution Authority) to reach decisions soon on all other Wertheim properties," said Gideon Taylor of the Jewish Claims Conference, which is working with the family."The legal issues have now been clarified, so there is nothing preventing the speedy resolution of these cases and the rightful restitution of these assets."
The case is one of the largest outstanding Jewish Holocaust claims. The family of former German retailer Guenther Wertheim is believed to be seeking a total of about 145 million euros (USD 192 million) in damages from German retailing giant KarstadtQuelle, which now owns some of the family’s former real estate holdings in central Berlin. Barbara Principe, a New Jersey-based grandmother who is Wertheim’s daughter, has charged in a lawsuit that German department store chain Hertie - later acquired by Karstadt - committed fraud in 1951 when it convinced her father and his brother to relinquish claims to the property.
Karstadt ‘disappointed’
The Berlin court was ruling only on a small portion of that property - valued at about 17 million euros - and Friday's verdict will not result in Karstadt making a direct payment to the Wertheim family heirs. But the decision could open the door for the family to recover significant sums from the retailer at a later date.
"We are disappointed with this decision," said company spokesman Joerg Howe. He declined to predict how much the company could eventually be forced to pay in the Wertheim case, although Karstadt put the figure of 145 million euros (USD 192) in a recent prospectus.
Grand flagship store
The flagship Wertheim store on Berlin's Potsdamer Platz was once among the world's grandest, and the family's extensive holdings in the German capital included property that was later the site of the bunker where Hitler committed suicide in 1945. But in 1938 the family was forced to sell all its shares to a non-Jewish consortium, and in 1939 family members fled Germany.
