Esch-sur-Alzette

Confiscation of Jewish businesses

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During the Nazi occupation of Luxembourg, many Jewish-owned businesses in Esch-sur-Alzette were confiscated. After the war, it was very difficult for the pre-war owners to get compensation for what was taken from them, or to get their businesses returned to them. Racial persecution was not recognized as sufficient to get a rightful compensation.

Most victims had to wait for years until the German-Luxembourg treaty was signed in July 1959. However, those marked stateless before the war or those who were identified as not being from Luxembourg, were not able to receive compensation, even if they continued to live in Luxembourg.

The text below is from the above image.

‘CONFISCATED PROPERTY ALREADY RETURNED TO LUXEMBOURG JEWS BY GOVERNMENT DECREE’

‘The problem of return of confiscated Jewish property is much simpler here than in other occupied countries, since the government has decreed that persons who bought such property from Nazis - in good faith or otherwise - may demand from the Germans that the purchase to be refunded, but have no rights to it.

The occupation authorities did not succeed in selling a good part of the property they seized, since most Luxembourgers steered clear of buying confiscated Jewish homes or businesses. The Nazis even tried to sell the site of the old Liebfrau Strasse Synagogue, which they razed to the foundation, but there were no takers.

The Germans did succeed, however, in driving practically all Jews out of Luxembourg. Of the pre-war Jewish community of 3,600, only 70 persons remained when the Allies entered.’


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