§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville):My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Hewitt) has made the following Statement.
The UK Government scheme to pay compensation to victims of Nazi persecution whose property was confiscated during the Second World War under the trading with the enemy legislation will close on 31 August 2004. Lord Archer of Sandwell, the chairman of the Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel, has reported to me that the panel is nearing the end of its work and at my request advised on how the scheme should be wound up. After consulting with the various interested parties, he has recommended that 31 August would be an appropriate date to wind up the scheme. He has also recommended that the panel should continue to advise on an ad hoc basis on any claims received after that date. I am pleased to accept all his recommendations, and I have placed a copy of his report in the Libraries of both Houses.
Under wartime legislation, the Government confiscated all assets in British territory owned by residents of enemy countries. The enemy countries included Nazi Germany and its allies, as well as countries occupied by them. After the war, the assets of the occupied countries were released from British Government control but the assets of the belligerent countries were distributed to British creditors whose assets had been confiscated by the enemy countries. An exception was made for victims of Nazi persecution, and soon after the war Nazi victims or their heirs could claim the return of their assets.
In Spring 1997, following public concern that there were still many assets belonging to victims that had not been returned, the British Government published research on the history of the administration of enemy property and placed on the Internet at www.enemyproperty.gov.uk a database of the assets seized from residents of belligerent enemy countries. A major problem was that many of the individual files had been destroyed and it was not obvious which of the assets had been returned. However the Government believed that the injustice had to be addressed and asked Lord Archer of Sandwell in June 1998 to advise on the 45WS design of a compensation scheme. The Government subsequently accepted Lord Archer's recommendations and the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry announced in December 1998 a compensation scheme administered by an independent Enemy Property Compensation Advisory Panel (EPCAP).
EPCAP launched the Enemy Property Payments Scheme in April 1999 under the chairmanship of Lord Archer of Sandwell, sitting with two teams of assessors expert in finance and ethnic minority issues. They have considered nearly 1,100 applications for compensation and 377 claims have been assessed as qualifying for payment and a total of £16.2 million paid to claimants for assets that were confiscated. Claims have been submitted from all parts of the world and oral hearings were convened for those cases that proved difficult to resolve. A separate adjudicator, 46WS Sir Christopher Staughton, was appointed to consider appeals against EPCAP's decisions. He considered 52 appeals, and found in favour of 15.
Some 220,000 assets were confiscated and either sold or returned to the original owners. The only material asset that remains is a gilt bracelet and diamond tie-pin. We know that these belonged to Marck Kellermann, a brush salesman from Bratislava in the former Czechoslovakia. Despite the best efforts of the panel, it remains unclaimed. I am pleased to announce that the Imperial War Museum is in discussions with my officials about the safekeeping of the jewellery until such time as Mr Kellermann's heirs come forward or are found.
I am very grateful to Lord Archer and his team of assessors and to the appeal adjudicator for their work in resolving a long-running difficult issue that has previously been neglected by successive governments.