Fondation du Judaïsme de Belgique / Stichting van het Jodendom van België

The Jewish adults and children who left the clandestinity in which they had been hiding to escape deportation, and the rare survivors of the Nazi camps, tried to start a family and to rebuild their community, which had been decimated and destroyed at all levels. From then on, little attention was paid to the plundering and injustice suffered by the Jewish community in Belgium.

A number of Jews received compensation from Germany under the BrüG law. In the 1950s, Belgium introduced several statutes of war victims, but most people who had come to live in Belgium before the war had not been able to obtain Belgian nationality and were therefore not entitled to anything.

Even today, they are excluded from the law on pensions and compensation for civilian victims of war.

It was not until after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of archives in Eastern Europe that new light was shed on the appropriation and dispossession of property belonging to Jewish communities in both Western and Eastern Europe.

A commission was set up representing all sections of the Jewish community: National Commission of the Jewish Community of Belgium for the Restitution (N.C.J.G.B.R.) formerly operating under the name of W.J.R.O. Branch Belgium (World Jewish Restitution Organization).

The N.C.J.G.B.R. carried out its mission exclusively with the aim, on the one hand, of defending the rights of Jewish victims (deportees, children in hiding, adults in hiding) as best it could by enforcing a status for them, and on the other hand, of returning the looted amounts to their rightful owners.

The law of 15 January 1999 set up a joint (government + Jewish community) commission, known as the Buysse I Commission, to investigate the robberies. The historical investigation into the robberies led to a report, which was submitted in 2001. The day after the completion of the work of the Buysse I Commission, the government set up by law on 20 December 2001 a Commission for the compensation of members of the Jewish Community of Belgium for the goods they were robbed of during the Second World War (called the Buysse II Commission), with two members of the Jewish community appointed as observers. The commission registered 5,620 applications.

Each application was thoroughly and individually investigated by the Buysse II Commission.

Compared to the results obtained in other European countries, Belgium applies the highest revaluation rates. The Commission granted around €35.2 million in compensation based on criteria set by law.

In particular, the government assumed

• that the non-refunded balance be paid to the Foundation of Judaism of Belgium. With the exception of a reserve that will remain at the disposal of the Buysse II Commission until the completion of the disputed cases.

• That there is a derogation from the law on confiscated goods: the Jewish community is designated as the sole legal heir of goods that could not be returned to their owners or entitled parties by means of a foundation of public utility to be established by the Jewish community; that the goods returned to their rightful owners are not subject to inheritance tax. The total sums returned, excluding the sum paid in restitution of non-monetary gold, amount to EUR 110 million.

The Foundation wished first and foremost to support a project that fulfils a social purpose, in the broadest sense of the word, of solidarity with and support for the survivors of the Shoah. In the name of justice and to the extent of its financial possibilities, the Foundation wanted everyone who lived in Belgium during the Second World War and who from then on was discriminated against and persecuted because of belonging to the Jewish people or to the gypsies to receive 3,000 Euros as restitution, regardless of their nationality and current place of residence.

The Foundation did take into account the compensation that may already have been paid personally to the victims within the framework of the German (BrüG) or Dutch (Maror) restitution laws and/or by the Buysse II Committee.

The Foundation registered 5,175 applications. By the end of 2009, it had already responded positively to 3,807 applications for a total amount of EUR 9,418,092 and had to reject 1,330 applications.

The Foundation of Belgian Jewry was established to collect the balance of the oiled-up possessions of the members of the Jewish Community during the Second World War, of which no rightful claimant could be found.

Among others contains restitution- and/or compensation-related materials: Archives of Jewish representatives in the Belgian Restitution Commission