Announcement Regarding the Late Applicants Fund
In 1990, the new democratic government of East Germany introduced legislation to restitute property that had been nationalized by the former East German Communist regime – known as the Property Law 1990. Even before the reunification of East and West Germany was finalized, the Claims Conference was able to achieve in intense negotiations that this legislation included the restitution of Jewish property that was either sold after 1933 under duress or confiscated by the Nazis.
As a result, original Jewish owners and heirs gained the right to file claims for property in the former East Germany. The German government imposed an application deadline, which, under pressure from the Claims Conference, was extended twice to Dec. 31, 1992 for real estate claims, and June 30, 1993 for claims for movable property.
Following publication by the German government of the legislation, tens of thousands of owners and heirs filed claims and recovered assets as a result of these negotiations carried out by the Claims Conference.
The Claims Conference also negotiated to become the legal successor to individual Jewish property and property of dissolved Jewish communities and organizations that went unclaimed after Dec. 31, 1992. In the absence of a claim from an entitled heir, if the Claims Conference filed a claim and successfully proves the original Jewish ownership of the property, it is entitled to recover property. Before the deadline, the Claims Conference conducted a massive research effort to identify all possible Jewish properties.
Had the Claims Conference not taken this step, Jewish assets that remained unclaimed after the filing deadline would have remained with the “aryanizers,” the owners at the time, or reverted to the German government.
Although the Claims Conference became the successor to unclaimed Jewish properties under German law, it established the Goodwill Fund in 1994 in order to enable former Jewish original owners and their heirs to receive a payment even after the German deadline of 1992. Through the Goodwill Fund, certain former owners and heirs could apply for the proceeds of properties or compensation payments that the German restitution authorities had awarded to the Claims Conference net of an assessment for services.
In 1998, in a major advertising campaign, the Claims Conference informed the general public that owners or heirs who had failed to meet the legal deadlines of December 31, 1992/June 30, 1993 for filing claims for Jewish assets in the former East Germany may be eligible to participate in the Claims Conference Goodwill Fund. The Board of Directors of the Claims Conference established December 31, 1998 as the original deadline for applications to the Goodwill Fund (a deadline that was subsequently extended).
In September 2003, the Claims Conference published a list, to the extent available, of names of original owners of assets that were located in the former East Germany recovered by the Claims Conference or which related to such assets for which claims by the Claims Conference were still pending under the German Property Restitution Law. A total of 59,198 names were published on the internet. The final deadline for the Goodwill Fund was March 31, 2004.
At its Board meeting in 2012, the Claims Conference established a Late Applicants Fund (“LAF”) of €50 million to accept applications from certain natural persons, who are heirs of former owners of Jewish property/assets located in the former East Germany for which the Claims Conference received proceeds as Successor Organization under the German Property Law 1990.
This fund was established taking into consideration that the Claims Conference has full legal title to the unclaimed property/assets it received as a result of its filings under the Property Law and that the final deadline of the Goodwill Fund was March 31, 2004 – more than a decade after the Goodwill Fund was established to make ex gratia payments to certain heirs. The LAF accepted applications from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2014.
Under the original terms of the LAF, payments were to be made on a pro rata share of the €50 million in the fund, based on the value of each asset, which meant that no payments could be made until all claims had been resolved.
However, in 2015 the Claims Conference Board of Directors amended certain conditions, providing that approved applicants would receive an initial payment of 33% of the entitled value of the asset in issue, with the commitment that any remaining funds – after the initial payouts were completed – would be distributed proportionally to all approved claimants. This allowed the Claims Conference to distribute funds under the LAF as soon as the assets was returned to the Claims and the heir established the entitlement. Had the Claims Conference not made that change, no LAF payments would have been made over the past seven years.
As of June 2022, the Claims Conference had made initial LAF payments of approximately €45 million, with a remaining balance of some €5 million left in the fund. It was calculated likely further initial payments on open claims will aggregate €1.5 million and, therefore, after the last initial LAF payments are made, there will be an estimated balance of €3.5 million in the LAF.
The Board decided that, while the Claims Conference is under no legal obligation as LAF payments are ex gratia, second LAF payments be topped up such that all eligible applicants receive, in total, 50% of the value of their portion of the claim. As in the decision from 2015, this will enable the Claims Conference to make payments starting at the end of 2022.
The second payments under the LAF will commence to be paid in November 2022.
October 31, 2022
