Some 135 out of the 218 Dutch local authorities where Jewish properties were confiscated and sold on by the Nazis during World War II are investigating their own role in the the matter, but 53 refuse to do so, a survey by current affairs programme Pointer has shown.

The homes and other real estate, 7,000 in total, were registered in so-called Verkaufbücher files. Some 83 of the municipalities said they had not yet undertaken any action while 53 said they would not, although Jewish real estate had been confiscated within their boundaries. Some stated that no appeals to return the properties had been made.

The money earned from the sales was used to finance anti-Jewish measures, including train transport to concentration camps and the Dutch transit camp Westerbork.

Many councils were all but welcoming to Jewish citizens who returned to claim their property after the war, even requiring them to pay tax over the periods they had been in hiding or in a camp. Some 25 municipalities were involved in buying the real estate from the Germans themselves, and obstructed later attempts by owners to get their property back.

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Just over 70 municipalities have concluded their investigation, leading to ‘moral justice’ in the shape of donations to Jewish associations and remembrance centres, Pointer found.

Name and shame

The municipalities who are not prepared to look into their own role in the property theft must ‘consult their conscience’, professor of Jewish studies Bart Wallet told Pointer.

‘They have an obligation towards their citizens who were murdered,’ he said. ‘They must ask themselves if they handled the remaining property in a respectful way. Why run away from these questions?’

Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs said the 53 municipalities who refuse to investigate should be named and shamed. The fact that no one came for the property is particularly grating, he said. ‘Of course no one came, they were all murdered in the camps. The fewer Jews remain, the more pressing the need to investigate,’ he said.