World Jewish News

Euro 88 million payment of KarstadtQuelle to Wertheim family – to become one of the largest compensation to Holocaust victims.

Settling the last big property restitution case from the Nazi era, Germany's largest retailer agreed Friday to pay the heirs of a once-Jewish-owned department store nearly $120 million for the confiscation of what is now prime real estate in Berlin.
The company, KarstadtQuelle, will pay ?88 million, or $118 million, to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a group in New York that filed suit on behalf of the Wertheim family, which founded the elegant Berlin emporium that still bears its name.
The 1.5 hectare, or 5-acre, parcel of land in question lies on the edge of Potsdamer Platz, and is now the site of a glittering complex that includes a Ritz-Carlton and a Marriott Hotel as well as luxury apartments and offices.
"We've battled this case for 15 years," said Gideon Taylor, executive vice president of the claims conference. "Despite the length of time and despite the difficulties we encountered, there is clearly the recognition in Germany that historical injustices must be corrected."
The settlement is a vindication for the far-flung Wertheim heirs, not least Barbara Principe, the 74-year-old daughter of Gunther Wertheim, who fled Berlin with his family in 1939. Her father settled in southern New Jersey, tending a chicken farm not far from where Principe still lives.
She spearheaded the long quest for restitution, traveling to Berlin in September with two grandsons to raise the pressure on KarstadtQuelle, which inherited the Wertheim family's expropriated businesses in 1994 through its acquisition of another German chain.

Источник: iht.com; svobodanews.ru