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Jewish Colonial Trust Assets of
Porozow Holocaust Victims
Beginning at the end of the 19th
century, Diaspora Jews purchased
property and securities in the Land
of Israel (Mandate Palestine from
1918-1948), depositing money with
Jewish Zionist companies or
investing directly. Some intended
eventually to emigrate to Israel;
others were motivated by Zionist
zeal or the promise of financial
profit.
In 1899, Theodore Herzl established
The Jewish Colonial Trust to help
prepare the Land of Israel for
Jewish settlement and serve as a
financial instrument for the Zionist
movement. Early in the 20th century,
the Trust issued shares of stock,
many of which were acquired by Jews
in Europe in the period leading up
to World War II.
After war broke out, all “enemy
assets” assets in Palestine that
belonged to citizens of Germany, the
Axis powers and countries conquered
by Germany became the property of
the Mandate government of Palestine
under a 1939 ordinance designed to
prevent Germany and its allies from
seizing capital and property in
Israel. Many of these assets were
owned by Jews who would lose their
lives in the Holocaust.
After the State of Israel was
established in 1949, neither the
Jewish National Fund nor the Jewish
Colonial Trust publicly advertised
their possession of assets belonging
to Holocaust victims, nor did they
act to find heirs. Pressure to right
this wrong began in the late 1990s,
and an investigation into dormant
bank accounts and other Holocaust
assets held in Israel was conducted.
The result was the Holocaust Victims
Assets Law of 2006, which
established the Company for Location
and Restitution of Holocaust Victims
Assets. The Company’s main purpose
is to do justice to the victims of
the Holocaust and their heirs and to
return the assets, or their fair
value, to those entitled to them.
In 2007, the Company published a
list of these assets that included
27 former residents of Porozow, all
presumably deceased. The names,
together with a code number
referring to the specific asset, are
in the list below. All the assets in
question are JCT securities. Anyone
wishing to submit a request for
restitution of an asset should visit
the Company for Restitution of
Holocaust Victims Assets web page
here.
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