Lithuanian restitution plan angers Jewish groups

July 16, 2009

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/07/16/1006586/jewish-groups-express-outrage-at-lithuanian-restitution-plan

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Several Jewish groups expressed outrage at the Lithuanian government’s compensation plan for seized Jewish communal property.

Two of the groups, the World Jewish Restitution Organization and the Jewish Community of Lithuania, released a joint statement calling the restitution package “wholly inadequate and unacceptable.”

The Lithuanian government and the local Jewish community had previously agreed upon a plan that would have returned actual properties or paid full-value compensation on property taken by the Nazis and then the communists. However, the government has since backed out of negotiations and now proposes to pay a fraction of the estimated worth.

The letter urged the Lithuanian government to “correct and improve the current unacceptable bill as quickly as possible."