3rd Reich Relics Still Held in Germany.

[Glenn66]

Sure beats "choochoo puff puff...wheee i'm pulling into the station...all aboard!" all spoken whilst wearing leather pants...alone...in your attic...hmmm

[Adrian]

Sure beats "choochoo puff puff...wheee i'm pulling into the station...all aboard!" all spoken whilst wearing leather pants...alone...in your attic...hmmm

Ahhh!

You've been round Ned's house on a Saturday night too then?

[bigmacglenn]

Apparently they do make great efforts to research the original owners and return the items to their rightful owners, but as stated in the article, many items come with little or no documentation...making positive ID difficult.
I should also say that the Federal Republic of Germany has and continues to make restitution-payments for the crimes of the Nazi regime...which is more than other countries with a history of ethnic persecution can say for themselves...in my opinion.
cheers, Glenn

[big ned]

Ahhh!

You've been round Ned's house on a Saturday night too then?

Everyone's welcome.....

[HPL2008]

Regards to Zed, Ned.

[big ned]

Regards to Zed, Ned.

Zed's dead baby...Zed's dead.

[StefanM]

I guess there would be little documentation in many cases as many of the previous Jewish owners were simply turfed out and exterminated and their property looted without regard for proper document trail. There are still numerous court cases ongoing whereby Jewish heirs are struggling to regain what is rightfully theirs. I think it is correct to say that the German Federal government was dragged kicking and screaming into making any restitution payments in the first place, it was not the willing initiator.

[bigmacglenn]

Actually they were referring to the lack of documentation from the Allies who recovered the items before being shipped off to the art collection center...not even information as to where they were found...
I don't recall the US or the UK for that matter offering restitution/reparations out of the goodness of their hearts for the "collateral damage" of their Empire-creation...But I can respect postwar Germany's efforts to do what they can...I won't be joining the Germany-bashing, either...
cheers, Glenn

[Wagriff]

If what BigNed writes is true "... But the largest amount of items are those things like art, paintings, sculpture, books, manuscripts and rare coins looted from the Jews and countries that the Nazies invaded." then this is a disgrace!

After 70 years this shameful plunder extracted from the exterminated Jews of Europe should have been handed back to the Jewish people decades ago! The trading of Holocaust era assets is I believe banned by International law so should never be in the collectibles' market.

For once, you and I agree! However, at the 70+ years past mark, finding Any surviving member of some families is nearly impossible in many cases. I would imagine that the government would be extremely reluctant to give a significant and heavily valuable object to an unrelated person or group. It would be akin to saying "Well, he was a Catholic, so since his total family is extinct, we'll give it to the Catholic Church". And, not to forget the fact that when valuables are involved, out come the greedy fringe all hoping to "put in a claim for the treasure" for themselves. This all involves endless court proceedings and rulings. And, unfortunately, there are limits to even museum acquisitions, so the problem is considerable. As for the law banning all sales of memorabilia, laws can, of course, be changed, amended or abolished outright by the people who made them. Perhaps there will come a day when enough time has passed and all of those personally involved are deceased so it may be possible To amend the laws? Who knows? It seems senseless to simply sit back and allow everything to be destroyed by the ravages of Time rather than get Some Good from an object from a terrible time.

[StefanM]

The persecution and wholesale extermination of the Jews of Europe by Germany can hardly be described as "collateral damage"!