Latvia’s parliament, the Saeima, has voted in principle to support a bill that would pay 40 million euros in compensation to Latvian Jews whose property was lost during the Holocaust, according to the European Jewish Congress.
The bill states that the 40 million euros will be allocated in 10 instalments over the next decade.
The measure was supported by 61 members parliament, with 13 voting against it.
The bill calls for 4 million euros to be paid out each years from the state budget between 2023 and 2032.
The amount allocated is based on the property value of all the Jewish owned properties lost by the community on June 16, 1940 and then factored for its worth in today’s currency.
A study released at the end of 208, found the communal property was today valued at approximately $47 million euros.
The bill also factors into the equation properties that were nationalized by the Latvian government during the Soviet era.
Latvia had a pre-war Jewish population of 94,000. During the Holocaust, most of the community was murdered, with only a few hundred Jews remaining in Latvia. About 1,000 Jews who had survived concentration camps returned to Latvia at the end of World War II.