35 municipalities won't investigate WWII looting of real estate owned by Jews

Of the Dutch municipalities in which real estate was stolen fro Jewish people during the Second World War, 35 will not investigate this matter, Pointer reports after surveying the cities.

Pointer used the Verkaufsbücher for its survey. It is the German administration in which they recorded over 7,000 real estate transactions worth almost 100 million guilders. According to Pointer, the Germans made hundreds of millions of euros in profits from these transactions and used that money to finance concentration camps, among other things.

Of the Dutch municipalities in the Verkaufsbücher, 73 municipalities are investigating the robbery of Jewish people's property during the war. Another 21 are considering an independent investigation, and 95 municipalities did not disclose their position.

The 35 that said they wouldn't be investigating had various reasons for not opening an investigation. Some said the Pointer survey was the first they heard of this matter, some see no need to investigate, and some said they've searched the regional archives and found nothing to prompt an investigation.

The Central Jewish Consultation regrets this. "They looked away enough during the war," chairman Ronny Naftaniel said to Pointer. "Now, let's not look away again from the suffering that has been added to the already existing suffering people went through then."