Law Passed US Senate, Serbia Should Take Advantage of this Circumstance
Nearly a decade ago, on June 30th 2009., the so-called The Terzine Declaration, of which 46 countries are signatories, including the Republic of Serbia.
That Declaration was symbolically made in the town of Terzin (Czech Republic) where thousands of European Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution during World War II were sent to and sent to the death camps.
It has never happened in the history of civilization that a nation was so physically destroyed and that today throughout Europe there is Jewish property that has been seized from the executed and now there is no one to return to because entire families have been killed and no living heirs and descendants.
Everywhere the Nazi administration was misled, so called The Nuremberg Laws (over 400 laws and acts) to which the Jewish people were exposed and on the basis of which it was listed, isolated, physically destroyed and from which all movable and immovable property was confiscated.
The declaration called on the signatory countries to consider proposed or alternative national measures to mitigate the effects of the Holocaust and preserve the memories of the history and heritage of the Holocaust, during which three quarters of European Jewry were destroyed.
One of the mentioned measures is precisely the restitution of immovable property confiscated in connection with the Holocaust from 1933. to 1945., that is, the restitution of former Jewish communities and religious property either through in-kind restitution or compensation, as well as private immovable property of former owners, heirs or followers.
The Republic of Serbia, as one of the signatories of the declaration, adopted the Law on Elimination of Consequences of Dispossession of Holocaust Victims with No Living Legal Successors in 2016., thus making it the first European country to adopt such law.
The law allows Jewish municipalities to recover property still owned by the state of the Republic of Serbia, which has been confiscated from members of Jewish communities who have no legal heirs.
For now, the state of Serbia is one of the few countries to pass such law at all, and certainly its law is a pioneer among world laws, and time will tell if our law will become a beacon to others.
The United States is one of the signatories to the Terzin Declaration, and it is little to say that under its overwhelming influence the Declaration was made, of course, with the tremendous and immeasurable influence of the World Jewish Congress.
What is important to note is that the US itself is in the process of passing a law called the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act of 2017. The said law was recently passed by the U.S. Senate and has yet to pass Congress, after which the procedure goes to the President of the United States for signature when it effectively enters into force and becomes law.
The State of Serbia has the opportunity to take diplomatic advantage of this international circumstance, as US law provides that States Parties to the Terzine Declaration draw up an annual report on the state of human rights, religious freedom, an assessment of national laws regarding the identification, return and restitution of confiscated property during the Holocaust, and respect for the objectives of the Terzine Declaration by its signatories.
We have the opportunity to represent the Jewish Municipality of Belgrade in the process of repossession of property under our law, and we were indeed surprised to learn historical data on the suffering of Jews in our Serbia.
That is why the Serbian law on the return of this property is especially important for all citizens of Serbia, because it attempts, though partly, to try and justify the injustice that has lasted for almost 70 years.
As the Republic of Serbia is one of the few countries to pass such a law at all, in complex international relations it is necessary to diplomatically exploit any and all circumstances.
