Holocaust survivors in France came home to stolen apartments, looted furniture and bureaucratic hurdles
Holocaust survivors in France came home to stolen apartments, looted furniture and bureaucratic hurdles
Shannon Fogg, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Tue, March 31, 2026 at 9:04 AM CDT
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/holocaust-survivors-france-came-home-140410899.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAfDoMEBJvI1h9ZOCxu6wtnNmEEqMSY18omyPXqb6okJQgDI9UL73PY4iFoLzgh30swmLEMeGjDJ3lPsJoYCBAdnTuKQWUZ1QNqzpfBMCe_Hrut1bQA3mveVuOoxWenaUrEZeSqycBJumZAGq28S8HIVBA6mtlDmPHYhKHkYt57A
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They also reveal the limits of the government’s attempts to repair the past. French laws related to recovering apartments, looted furniture and war damages promised equality to all war victims. Instead, they created bureaucratic barriers and favored non-Jewish war victims. For many who tried to reclaim their property, the answer to Mizreh’s question was “no.” They would continue to “pay” for the war for years to come.
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With the aid of French citizens, the Nazis looted more than 38,000 private apartments in the capital, and as many as 25,000 empty apartments that had been home to Jewish families were rented to non-Jewish tenants. Social workers estimated that nearly 100,000 Parisian Jews had been evicted from their apartments during the war. For many surviving Jews, returning home was their first priority.
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These measures largely failed to meet Jewish survivors’ needs, however. The housing laws included exceptions that favored the new, non-Jewish tenants, such as Allied bombing victims and former prisoners of war. Additionally, only about 2,000 pieces of furniture were returned to survivors or heirs.
As a result, many survivors would rely on financial compensation for their losses. Jews whose apartments had been looted could file a claim under the War Damages Law of Oct. 28, 1946. But this long-awaited law proved to be a further disappointment.
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This struggle continues on to this day.