A fund launched two decades ago by the Tony Blair government to compensate victims of the Nazis who had assets confiscated by the British government is set to close.
EPCAP (Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel) was set up to offer compensation to people who had money or property seized by the British government during World War II under the 1939 Trading With The Enemy Act.
The purpose of the law was to confiscate the British assets of people living in wartime enemy countries, such as Germany and Italy, so that they could not be exploited to help the Axis powers.
However, in practice, the legislation often ended up freezing assets that had been transferred to the UK by Jews stuck in Nazi occupied countries, who had sent their money to Britain to keep it safe.
After the war ended, Jews who survived and had sent their assets to Britain spent decades attempting to retrieve their money.
Now, the UK government is making a final call for claims for compensation.
“For more than 20 years the Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel has been compensating individuals whose assets were confiscated by the UK government where they had suffered Nazi persecution,” the British government said in a statement.
“Today, the government is launching a consultation on a final date for closure of the schemes, which have provided over £25 million ($34 million USD) of compensation over the course of their operation.”
Since it began, EPCAP has received over 1,200 compensation applications but the number of claims has "fallen substantially" in recent years.
“Those who have received compensation under the scheme have included a non-Jewish doctor who risked his life to help Jewish colleagues and was forced to flee his home, the family of an art collector who perished in the Holocaust, while his collection was sold off for profit, and Jewish people who fled from France to South America.”
Consultations have begun on a final claims date, which has been provisionally set for September 9, 2022.
“These schemes, universally recognized as among the most generous to operate worldwide, have offered hundreds of people rightful compensation for the horrors they faced during the Second World War, at the hands of Nazis and other totalitarian oppressors,” Business Minister Paul Scully said. “The Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel have done amazing work in the past two decades or so, but the scheme is now drawing to a natural conclusion. I would urge anyone who has yet to make their claim to do so now, to ensure everyone receives the compensation they are entitled to.”
EPCAP chair Arthur Harverd called the panel “a vitally important UK government initiative.”
The fund provided the descendants of those who were persecuted by the Nazis with a “sense that at long last justice has been done, the suffering endured by their forebears has been recognized and closure achieved,” he added.
“The overwhelming majority of the original owners of the assets concerned have of course now died and very few new claims are being received,” Harverd said. “We therefore believe that this is an appropriate time to consult on closing the schemes, while allowing for new claims still to be received up to the date of actual closure.”