United Restitution Organization

The United Restitution Organization ( URO ) is an international organization under private law, those concerned legal aid and assistance in the application for the return of their confiscated in the period of National Socialism property and compensation payments for damage suffered.

History

As the occupying powers were able to agree on a uniform procedure for redress in Germany, the Military Government Law No. 59 was enacted in 1947 in the American zone, which was then taken over two years later in the British Zone, the French zone and the western sectors of Berlin. With the Germany Treaty 1952, the now sovereign Federal Republic of Germany received the obligation to adopt a corresponding federal law, which was not until shortly before the end of the legislative period in 1953 due to the resistances of the German civil society and its politicians against these " annoying, prescribed by the victors compulsory exercise ". The Federal Compensation Act had to be improved even in the next legislature.

The URO was established under British law in London in 1948 and has its headquarters there. It was initiated by the Council of Jews from Germany. Your sphere of activity was initially limited to the British Zone in Germany. Secretary in London was Kurt Alexander, however, who went to New York City and there built up a branch office, he was succeeded to 1964 Hans Reichmann, and Fritz Goldschmidt. In the UK, Leo Baeck was, who supported the project, win as chairman for the URO the Attorney-General Norman Bentwich. The URO set up offices in the countries in the European Holocaust survivors emigrated after 1945, as well as in Germany and Austria. As a particular clientele, people should be supported, which did not have the linguistic and financial resources to file a restitution claim before the German authorities and courts if necessary. The URO also wanted to provide and ensure that only those lawyers should represent the interests of the victims, who had not the persecution of Jews passively supported actively or tacitly in the era of National Socialism, thus came the mass of the German lawyers for legal advice to victims for the National Socialism is not in question. The organization should be financed with performance bonuses from the reparation cases and was the start-up support donations from the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Central British Fund for relief and rehabilitation. With the founding of the Jewish Claims Conference 1951, took over the pre-financing of URO what the Federal Republic of Germany had to provide funds. The actual business but was denied from success fees of restitution cases where the fee of the URO - lawyers was six to ten percent. There were also social tariffs for Israel - emigrants and there were also disputes because clients found themselves cheated by the URO.

Since some German dishes for formal reasons doubted the power of representation of the URO - Rechtbeistände, the British High Commissioner had in 1951 issued a regulation, after which special organizations for representation and legal advice of the refund proceedings could be allowed. The URO was consequently the only organization that has received this approval. In the American zone, a legal aid department ( Legal Aid Department) at the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization was established under the leadership of Benjamin Ferencz. As Fererencz 1957 returned to the U.S., took over Kurt May ( 1896-1992 ), the Frankfurt office. Both organizations worked closely together and merged their activities in 1955 in the Frankfurt Central Office of URO. In the Federal Republic of branches were set up in Berlin, Munich, Cologne and Hanover. The URO supported their clients even when claims against the Republic of Austria.

The number of represented clients and claims increased tremendously in, 65,000 / 121,000 in 1955 to 300,000 clients ( claimants ) with 450,000 claims ( claims) in the 1960s. At the time of their greatest use in the early 1960s had the URO 29 offices in 15 countries, it employs more than one thousand people, including more than 200 lawyers. The active half each in Germany and abroad personnel recruited primarily of former refugees from Nazi Germany.

Since the applicant often came in lack of evidence and the German authorities and courts did nothing for helping the applicants, the URO established a historical- documentary Research Centre. This comes in special studies to what extent the ghettoisation in European countries had been " caused " by the anti-Semitic policies of the German Reich. Such German " inducement " under § 43 of the Federal Compensation Act was a requirement of compensation. The laws formulation made ​​thereby indirectly for a historical relief of collaborating with the Nazis regime, such as the Vichy government in occupied France, or allied with the German Reich Romania In the studies of the URO to the M- action could the records of deported to Germany Furniture locate. Against massive regulatory and judicial resistors the URO - lawyers could enforce compensation for the non-German Jews who had been detained in the Shanghai ghetto. On appeal, the Federal Court URO - closed only in 1962 from Western Poland who fled to eastern Poland Jews into a compensation legislation. The URO funded the only magazine for this specialist area of ​​the law for redress ( rzw ).

After the benevolent critical opinion of Walter Black, an agent working also in reparation issues, but not in the URO lawyer, have in large organization URO bureaucracy in their daily work not prevailed, meanwhile they Federal Republic at the political level "of the permeated by former Nazis bureaucracy any change in the law in favor of the victims had to wrest much hassle ".

Members of the Board

  • Jakob Hirsch ( since 1995)

Writings (selection )

  • Federal law indemnification = ( Bundesentschaedigungsgesetz - BEG ) by Germany (West ). 1956
  • M- action: France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, 1940-1944. 1958
  • Documents concerning methods of persecution of Jews abroad. Presented by the United Restitution Organization. Frankfurt 1959 DNB
  • Persecution of Jews in Hungary. Collection of documents of the United Restitution Organization. 1959
  • Persecution of the Jews in Romania and other countries südosteuropäaischen during the Second World War. 1959
  • Documents: about the responsibility of the empire for the Jews measures in occupied and unoccupied France, especially in Algeria, Morocco, Tunis. 1959
  • Persecution of the Jews in France. 1959
  • Persecution of Jews in Italy, the Italian occupied territories and North Africa: Documents collection. 1962
  • On the concept of the concentration camp as an adhesion site for purposes of Section 31, paragraph 2, article 42, paragraph 2 BEG. 1967
  • Case files of the United Restitution Organization - Los Angeles office case files by the United Restitution Organization. Consists of Approximately 2,166 inactive case files of Jewish Holocaust survivors who Claimed restitution for suffering and damage Resulting from persecution by the Nazis falling on the period 1933 to 1945. Cases The containment information on life in Nazi occupied areas, conditions in concentration camps, and experiences of displaced persons and survivors falling on and Following the Holocaust. Among the documents are sworn affidavits of witnesses, testimonies of the survivors ( claimants ), and indemnity claims against the German government.
Wiedergutmachung Eva Gabriele Reichmann Benjamin B. Ferencz Federal Court of Justice of Germany Encyclopaedia Judaica WorldCat William Guglielmo Niederland Integrated Authority File
792741
de