THE Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce (Project HEART), an Israeli government initiative, aims to bring some measure of justice to Holocaust victims whose property was confiscated or looted by the Nazis.

Project HEART is a project of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), funded by and in cooperation with the Government of Israel. The project is focusing, at this stage, on identifying individuals with potential claims regarding the following types of private property:

• Private property that was located in countries that were controlled by Nazi forces or Axis powers at any time during the Holocaust era;
• Private property that belonged to Jewish persons as defined by Nazi/Axis racial laws;
• Private property that was confiscated/looted/forcibly sold by Nazi forces or Axis powers during the Holocaust era.

The ultimate aim of Project HEART is to provide the tools, strategy, and information to enable the Government of Israel, the project, and its partners to bring about a small measure of justice to eligible heirs of Jewish victims, the victims themselves, and the Jewish people.

The project is reaching out to eligible persons, Jewish Holocaust victims and their heirs worldwide, who or whose families owned movable, immovable, or intangible personal property that was confiscated/looted/forcibly sold in countries governed or occupied by Nazi forces or Axis powers.

TYPES OF ELIGIBLE PROPERTIES

Eligible properties for the Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce include private properties of all kinds:

1. IMMOVABLE PROPERTY (an item of property that cannot be moved without destroying or altering it)such as real estate: land, including buildings thereon, and land without buildings;
2. MOVABLE PROPERTY (any property that can be moved from one location to another) such as art, Judaica, livestock, professional tools, precious metals, precious stones, jewelry, and other movable property;
3. INTANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY (personal property that cannot actually be moved, touched, or felt but instead represents something of value) such as negotiable instruments (for example, stocks, bonds, insurance policies, savings accounts, registered patents, dowry policies) and other intangible personal property, including debts and liabilities (negative assets such as outstanding loans and mortgages).

WHO IS ELIGIBLE

For the Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce (Project HEART), you may submit the Questionnaire if:

1. You are an heir of a Jewish person who was subject to persecution under Nazi/Axis racial laws during the Holocaust era;
2. You are a Jewish person who was subject to persecution under Nazi/Axis racial laws during the Holocaust era;
3. You or your Jewish relatives owned or have a claim to private, movable, immovable or intangible property that was (i) located in the countries governed/occupied by Nazi forces and Axis powers and (ii) confiscated/looted/forcibly sold during the Holocaust era;
4. No restitution was made to you or your relatives for that property after the Holocaust era.

WHO IS NOT ELIGIBLE

Applicants will not be considered if their property was located in areas including, but not restricted to:

1. Regions and territories governed/controlled by the former Soviet Union prior to August 23, 1939;
2. Regions and territories governed/controlled by/allied with Imperial Japan.

If you wish to participate in Project HEART, you need do nothing other than fill in the Project Heart Questionnaire which is stored on this website, and follow the instructions to either fax, email or post the form to the project's English language administrators in the USA. The forms must be filed before December 1, 2001. It may take up to three months before you receive a response from the project.