The Jewish community has long been pointing out the importance of the return of property that was stolen after World War II, including the rather high-profile case of Moskovič’s villa, which is currently owned by the SD party. The European Jewish community has also called on the SD party to return the villa in which the party’s headquarters are located, but the party never listened to them. The Jewish Community of Slovenia warns that the SD party is referring to the revolutionary Yugoslav legislation when citing the reasons why they refuse to return the stolen villa; however, the Jewish community believes that the conduct of the SD party is not in line with today’s view of justice. A few days ago, the SD party emblem was removed from the villa, but this was clearly nothing more than empty hope for the Jewish community, which still hopes that it will get the villa back, as the SD party was only renovating the façade of the building and not its moral values.
Many are pointing out that the state is extremely slow in finding the owners of the nationalised and stolen property, while also hiding behind legal details which claim that former owners can unimpededly claim their property, but if ownership is not entirely clear, the state does not have to do anything about it. This means that often, the current poor beneficiaries cannot afford the costs of making claims and therefore do not receive any compensation. This story also applies in the case of Moskovič’s villa, in which the SD party’s headquarters are located, and which the Jewish community has been trying to persuade for some time in a peaceful manner to return the villa to its original owners.
The European Jewish Association has joined the efforts of the Jewish Community of Slovenia (Judovska skupnost Slovenije – JSS), which has, for more than two decades now, tried to make sure that the community gets at least some symbolic compensation for the Jewish property that has been confiscated during the Second World War. “However, there seems to be no real political will for this,” they wrote. They say that there are many cases similar to this one and that data on this are collected in a research study currently being prepared by the Ministry of Justice; however, the ministry has denied that anyone wants the said villa to be returned. We have not received any additional information on who is avoiding taking responsibility in the case in question.
“Since there were no heirs who would inherit property from those who were killed in concentration camps, the solution to this issue that was created at the European level, is that for moral reasons and due to special historical circumstances (the Holocaust), the property is returned to the destroyed Jewish communities,” the Jewish Community of Slovenia explained. This process was particularly encouraged by the USA with the adoption of the JUST Act of 2017, and the process is now almost complete in most of the EU Member States, with the exception of Poland and, of course, Slovenia. As they noticed, any serious interest in returning the stolen property so far was shown by the first Janša government, even without the intervention of the USA. “Now it seems that there is a real possibility to end the process in the regular mandate of this government.” They hope that the injustices could be corrected in Slovenia, just like they were in the other European countries.
The ownership is legal, but according to the Jewish Community of Slovenia, it is not in line with today’s morals
On its website, the Jewish Community states that the takeover of Villa Moskovič was carried out legally but following the principles of the revolutionary law of post-war Yugoslavia, which does not match today’s view of justice. The Social Democrats, led by Tanja Fajon, do not want to return the villa, and in this case, are referring to the law that was in force in post-war Yugoslavia at the time, and they themselves received the villa due to a contract exchange that happened then. It is also worth mentioning that even under the legislation, which was in force in Yugoslavia, the villa should be owned by the state and not by private interests, which is what the party is.
“I am wondering if Slovenia feels any shame, since Italy has finally fulfilled its promise and returned the National Hall to the Slovenian minority, but Slovenia has not yet done anything to return some property to its small Jewish Community, which is now even struggling to restore some old building which would become its cultural centre. President Pahor – you attended the ceremony in Trieste. What if you took the initiative and took care of the rights of Slovenian Jews?” Keith Miles wrote in an article for Portalplus some time ago.
His words give this matter an even deeper meaning – the SD party could actually follow the example of the Italians and their honesty and return what is not theirs, but in contrast with the Italians, it does not take into account the aspect of moral social norms – which also happened in the case of post-war massacres in Slovenia. In this case, too, this was only a matter of renovating the façade, while the moral values are still lost. This is certainly not a good image of one of the largest Slovenian parties before the election next year.
Sara Rančigaj
