Jewish family wins $117.5m from German firm in Nazi seizure case
BERLIN -- A leading retailer said Friday that it will pay $117.5 million to compensate a Jewish family for real estate that was taken by the Nazis and eventually resold to the German firm.
The Jewish Claims Conference said it will use an unspecified amount of the money from KarstadtQuelle AG to fund programs for Holocaust victims, and give the rest to heirs of the Wertheim family, which was been seeking compensation for 15 years.
The Wertheims once ran a grand department store at the best-known disputed property, known as the Lenne Triangle, on Potsdamer Platz in downtown Berlin. Under Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic "Aryanization" laws, which gave Jewish property to Germans, the family lost the business and several other properties.
The store was destroyed during World War II. After the war, the Hertie department store chain bought the seized Wertheim properties under disputed circumstances.
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The Jewish Claims Conference said it will use an unspecified amount of the money from KarstadtQuelle AG to fund programs for Holocaust victims, and give the rest to heirs of the Wertheim family, which was been seeking compensation for 15 years.
The Wertheims once ran a grand department store at the best-known disputed property, known as the Lenne Triangle, on Potsdamer Platz in downtown Berlin. Under Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic "Aryanization" laws, which gave Jewish property to Germans, the family lost the business and several other properties.
The store was destroyed during World War II. After the war, the Hertie department store chain bought the seized Wertheim properties under disputed circumstances.