An American appeals court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Holocaust survivors against the Vatican bank, who the survivors allege accepted millions of dollars worth of their valuables stolen by Nazi sympathizers during World War II. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a lower court ruling that said the Vatican bank was immune from such a lawsuit under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally protects foreign countries from being sued in United States courts.
Holocaust survivors from Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia had filed suit against the Vatican bank in 1999, claiming that it stole and laundered the looted assets of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies who were killed or captured by the Nazi-backed Ustasha regime that controlled Croatia at the time. The claimants sought an accounting from the Vatican, as well as restitution and damages. The court did not rule on the allegations directly but said that the Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, was a sovereign entity entitled to the protections of the foreign sovereign immunities act and that therefore outside the jurisdiction of American courts.
Holocaust survivors from Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia had filed suit against the Vatican bank in 1999, claiming that it stole and laundered the looted assets of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies who were killed or captured by the Nazi-backed Ustasha regime that controlled Croatia at the time. The claimants sought an accounting from the Vatican, as well as restitution and damages. The court did not rule on the allegations directly but said that the Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, was a sovereign entity entitled to the protections of the foreign sovereign immunities act and that therefore outside the jurisdiction of American courts.