The Hindu : International / Globescan : Jewish family wins Nazi seizure claim

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 06, 2005

International

International - Globescan

Jewish family wins Nazi seizure claim

Berlin: A Berlin court on Friday ruled that a Jewish family who had their property confiscated by the Nazis were entitled to be compensated by Germany's biggest retail chain. The Wertheim family's claim to a large chunk of land in Berlin's glitzy Potsdamer Platz was justified, the court said, rejecting an appeal by the department store Karstadt Quelle that bought the site after the second world war. Though the store said the purchase was legitimate, and it might appeal, the ruling is likely to lead to the Wertheims receiving millions of euros, and has implications for thousands of other such claims. The family had owned what was one of Europe's biggest department stores in the 1920s, in central Berlin's Leipziger Platz, but in 1938 were forced by the Nazis to sell up. Most of the Wertheims fled Germany or perished in Auschwitz. After the war another department store, Hertie (later swallowed up by Karstadt) bought the site, with the Wertheims receiving only a few thousand pounds from the sale proceeds. ``Obviously we're very pleased by the court decision,'' said the family's lawyer, Gary Osen, on Friday. ``It's not the end of the story, but it's a tremendous step forward and a victory for the Wertheim family.'' Barbara Principe (72), the granddaughter of original co-owner Franz Wertheim, brought the case.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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