We reported last week on the outrage over the decision by Germany and the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) to argue in their motion to dismiss my clients’ claims to the Welfenschatz that a commercial interaction between German Jews and a cabal instigated by Hermann Goering in 1935 “predated the Holocaust by several years.” As we noted last week, the suggestion that the Holocaust was a distant possibility in 1935 was an indefensible statement, factually, historically, and ethically. The initial reaction was swift and severe. As Germany gets ready to host the First Conference of the German Centre for Cultural Property Losses next week, its policies are hurtling in the wrong direction.
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Topics:
Jewish Week Mel Urbach,
Hermann Goering First Conference of the German Cen,
Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums,
Henning Kahmann,
Atlanta,
Simon Wiesenthal Center,
Varda Neumann Federal Administrative Court,
Yale University,
Marion Kaplan,
New York University,
Germany,
Nazi-looted art,
Hitler,
Kristallnacht Rabbi Abraham Cooper,
Deborah Lipstadt,
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum,
Markus Stoetzel,
Emory University,
Behrens,
Holocaust,
Bloodlands,
SPK,
Advisory Commission,
Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Restitution,
Los Angeles,
World War II,
Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil,
Washington,
Raubkunst,
Timothy Snyder,
Welfenschatz
Germany Runs Counter to 20 Years of International Commitments
As readers know, my clients Alan Philipp and Gerald Stiebel sued the Federal Republic of Germany and the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) in February for restitution of the Guelph Treasure (or Welfenschatz as it is known in Germany), assisted by my co-counsel Mel Urbach, Esq. and Markus Stötzel of Marburg, Germany. As my co-counsel speak to an event tonight hosted by Congresswoman Grace Meng on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, an event inextricable to the persecution of Jews in Europe, Germany’s response to the Complaint advances a stunning revisionism about the Holocaust and the international commitments that Germany has made. While paying lip service to the seriousness of Jewish suffering, the papers filed in court are nothing less than an attempt to move the goalposts to exempt a historical period from responsibility about which there can be no serious debate. Independent condemnation was not far behind the filing.
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Topics:
Grace Meng,
Simon Wiesenthal Center,
Shoah,
Adolph von Menzel,
Hans Sachs,
Washington Principles on Nazi-Looted Art,
1943 London Inter-Allied Declaration,
Dachau,
Holocaust,
Mel Urbach,
SPK,
George Eduard Behrens,
Nuremberg race laws,
Holocaust revisionism,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Marburg,
Restitution,
Los Angeles,
Gerald Stiebel,
World War II,
Markus Stötzel,
Saemy Rosenberg,
Deutsches Historisches Museum,
Reichskristallnacht,
Isaac Rosenbaum,
Lucie Ruth Hackenbroch,
Federal Republic of Germany,
Zacharias Hackenbroch,
Pariser Wochentag,
Rabbi Abraham Cooper,
Paris Weekday,
Alan Philipp,
Welfenschatz,
Military Government Law 59,
Frankfurt
