B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin served as a consultant to the U.S. delegation, and was joined by President Moishe Smith and Chairman of the Executive Dennis Glick.

Mariaschin addressed the conference: “More than six decades after the end of the Holocaust, Jewish communities have made tremendous strides toward making themselves whole again. But this restoration cannot be completed until formerly Nazi-occupied and Nazi-allied nations embrace full restitution efforts.” [Click here to read his full remarks]

B’nai B’rith is a founding member of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, which is actively involved in negotiations for restitution of communal and private properties stolen during the Holocaust.

“There is a great urgency now to the task of returning stolen Jewish property,” Smith said as the conference was set to begin. “The survivors and in some cases, even their heirs, are now at an advanced age, and soon there will be no eyewitnesses left. It is imperative that this conference follows through on restoring property.”

During World War II, Mariaschin said, “[H]omes, synagogues, stores, hospitals, schools, and factories were stolen by the Nazis and their collaborators and then acquired by Nazi-allied and occupied nations after Germany’s defeat. This historic conference provides governments with the opportunity to report on what they have done in the last decade with regard to looted assets, including the return of property to Nazi victims and their survivors.”

Although property restitution can never make amends for the loss of 6 million human lives, it’s a moral obligation, and this powerful acknowledgment of loss cannot be completed without government intervention.

“For too long, too many nations have not followed through on their commitments to restoring property stolen by the Nazis,” Mariaschin said. “It is time to return stolen property, or to make fair compensation to the owners or their heirs.”