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Chronology of Key Events

4/10/40	USA	The U.S. begins issuing "freezing" orders to protect assets in the U.S. belonging to nationals of occupied countries in order to prevent their use by Axis powers. Executive Order 8389 establishes Foreign Funds Control (FFC) in the Treasury Department.
5/10/40	Germany	Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
5/10/40	USA	The FFC extends freezing controls to cover assets of foreign nationals from the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
5/15/40	Poland	Decree forbids Jews to withdraw more than 500 zlotys from post office accounts.
5/40-6/40	Bohemia- Moravia	Prague ghetto laws are strengthened.
6/3/40	USA	Treasury Department issues General Ruling 3, extending freezing control to prohibit acquisition, transfer, disposition, transportation, importation, exportation, or withdrawal of securities registered by a national of blocked countries.
6/6/40	USA	Treasury's General Ruling 5, Control of Imported Securities, prohibits sending, mailing, or importing securities into the U.S.
6/17/40	USA	The FFC freezes accounts of nationals of France and Monaco.
7/10/40	USA	The FFC freezes assets of nationals of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
7/25/40	Slovakia	Jews aged 18-50 are drafted for forced labor.
8/8/40	USA	General Ruling 6 allows impounded securities to be moved from the Federal Reserve Bank into special blocked accounts in U.S. banks.
8/10/40	Romania	Anti-Jewish laws are enacted.
9/7/40	Luxembourg	Jews are barred from professions. Registration of Jewish property required. Jewish businesses are expropriated by Aryans. Nuremberg Laws introduced.
9/16/40	Slovakia	Registration of all Jewish property required.
9/40	Poland	Jews in Warsaw are forced into ghettos surrounded by ten-foot wall and prohibited from entering German and Polish districts.
10/3/40	Vichy France	Anti-Jewish laws are enacted.
10/3/40	Norway	Jews are barred from all professions and from state employment. Jewish shops are required to bear distinctive signs.
10/17/40	Poland	Official order forces Jews into Warsaw Ghetto, which is sealed on November 15. 450,000-500,000 Jews compelled to live within 100 city blocks.
10/21/40	Netherlands	Registration of all Jewish property is required.
11/17/40	Occupied France	Jewish artists are barred from exhibiting works.
12/24/40	Belgium	40,000 Jews from Antwerp and Flanders are interned in concentration camp at Hesselt.
12/40	Bohemia- Moravia	Jewish bank accounts above 3,000 crowns blocked.
1941-42	Belgium	Jews concentrated in four cities--Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, and Charleroi.

1/30/33	Germany	Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
3/33	Germany	Nazis establish a concentration camp at Dachau to intern communists, Social Democrats, and trade unionists.
4/1/33	Germany	Nazis launch boycott of Jewish businesses with demonstrations in streets of Berlin.
4/7/33	Germany	Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service and a series of laws exclude "non-Aryans" from employment as instructors in all public educational institutions; as officials of public works, public banks, and insurance companies; as employees of other public or semi-public agencies; and as police officers and civil employees of the army.
5/6/33	Germany	Licenses of non-Aryan tax consultants, judges, professors, instructors, and lecturers in universities or colleges are revoked. Jews are subsequently barred from professions, trades, and educational institutions.
7/26/33	Germany	German citizenship of Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe is revoked, except World War I veterans on the German side or those who rendered special service.
1/34	Germany	Citizenship laws divide the population into four categories. Jews are placed in category 4 as "aliens."
5/34	Germany	Decree permits only "Aryans" to serve in army.
8/31/35	USA	President Roosevelt signs the first of several Neutrality Acts.
9/15/35	Germany	Nuremberg Laws officially recognize two categories in Germany's population, Aryans and non-Aryans. Jews denied German citizenship and reduced to status of "subjects." Concept of "race defilement" introduced in criminal law.
7/2/37	Germany	Jews are forbidden to teach Aryans, whether in schools or privately.
3/12/38	Austria	Austria is annexed to Germany in the Anschluss. Anti-Jewish laws apply henceforth, though some laws and regulations are specially promulgated.
3/28/38	Germany	Jewish communities are deprived of legal status. Status of "church organizations" is denied to Jewish congregations, compelling them to pay full taxes.
4/26/38	Germany	Jews required to declare property valued over RM 5,000.
5/20/38	Austria	Nuremberg Laws introduced.
8/17/38	Germany	Jews are required to adopt Jewish middle names, Israel for men and Sarah for women.
10/1/38	Germany	Czechoslovakia surrenders control of the Sudetenland to Germany.
10/28/38	Germany	12,000 Polish Jews expelled to Poland.
11/9-10/38	Germany	Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass). Following the assassination of Ernst vom Rath, Nazi supporters throughout the Reich attack Jewish synagogues and businesses.
11/12/38	Germany	Jewish community is required to pay atonement fine (20% levy on Jewish property) for Kristallnacht destruction. Should the total be less than RM 1 billion, the levy would be raised.
11/12/38	Germany	Decree prohibits Jews from owning retail businesses or mail order houses, from owning export businesses or handcraft concerns. Jews are forbidden to display wares at markets or fairs or to act as business managers for Aryans.
11/17/38	Italy	Mussolini's decree, "Measures for the Defense of the Italian Race," is modeled on German laws and bans Jews from public service and universities, and prohibits a significant amount of Jewish economic activity.
11/19/38	Germany	Jews are denied public relief.
12/3/38	Germany	Jews are compelled to sell all agricultural property and real estate within a given period.
12/5/38	Germany	Ghetto is set up in Berlin. Jews are banned from certain sections of the city, particularly amusement and recreation areas.
12/13/38	Germany	Aryanization decree transfers Jewish property to Aryans.
2/16/39	Germany	Jewish patents and industrial copyrights are expropriated by Aryans.
3/15/39	Germany	Czechoslovakia ceases to exist as Germany occupies Bohemia and Moravia and establishes the puppet state of Slovakia.
4/19/39	Slovakia	First of series of laws modeled on anti-Jewish laws of Germany are promulgated.
4/30/39	Germany	Jews are deprived of protection from summary notice by landlords.
8/11/39	Bohemia- Moravia	Jews are ordered to leave provinces and concentrate in Prague; ghettos are established in other towns.
8/39	Slovakia	Nazi Pogroms occur throughout the country.
9/1/39	Germany	Germany invades Poland and WWII begins.
9/2/39	Germany	Jews aged 16-55 are drafted for forced labor.
10/12/39	Austria	Deportation of 8,000 Jews to Lublin, Poland begins.
10/12/39	Bohemia- Moravia	Deportation of about 45,000 Czech Jews to Lublin, Poland begins.
11/15/39	Poland	Decree blocks all Jewish bank accounts and credits, ordering Jews to deposit funds in a single bank by December 31, 1939.
1940-42	Slovakia	Tens of thousands of Jews are arrested and sent to concentration camps.
1940-41	Poland	Tens of thousands of Jews are expelled from smaller towns and sent to larger cities, especially Warsaw.
1/24/40	Poland	Registration of all Jewish property is required.
1/40	Bohemia- Moravia	Jews are forbidden to maintain any business enterprises.
2/8/40	Poland	Ghetto is set up in Lodz; over 150,000 Jews are concentrated there.
4/9/40	Germany	Germany invades Denmark and Norway.

1941-42	Hungary	Hundreds of Jews are sentenced to long prison terms for alleged sabotage. 50,000 Jews are sent to concentration camps.
1941	Poland	Ghettos are set up in Lublin, Cracow, Kielce, Bialystok, Lvov, and smaller towns.
1/1/41	Occupied France	Liquidation of all Jewish businesses valued at over 25,000 Ff.
1/21/41	Romania	Anti-Jewish riots--vandalism, looting, murder.
2/41	Austria	10,000 Jews interned; 1,100 sent to Poland.
2/41	Netherlands	12,000 Amsterdam Jews sent to concentration camps in Austria.
2/41	Slovakia	Liquidation of 3,000 Jewish firms.
2/41-5/41	Netherlands	Waterloo Square in Amsterdam is closed off as a ghetto. Ghetto set up in Rotterdam.
3/3/41	Netherlands	Fine of fl 15 million imposed on City of Amsterdam. Jews required to pay 1/3 of the fine by May 1; rest of population given six months in which to pay.
3/41	Slovakia	Jews are ordered into ghettos.
3/41	USA	The U.S. passes the Lend-Lease bill, allowing the U.S. to lend Great Britain food, weapons, and other goods.
4/6/41	Germany	Germany invades Greece and Yugoslavia.
4/41	Greece	Wholesale arrest of Jews in Salonika.
5/15/41	Romania	Jews drafted for forced labor.
5/20/41	Occupied France	Jews completely eliminated from economic life, barred from all trades and professions.
5/28/41	Norway	Nuremberg Laws introduced.
6/14/41	USA	Executive Order 8785 extends the "freezing" control for foreign national assets to cover all nationals of continental Europe, including aggressor nations, annexed or invaded territories, and neutrals.
6/14/41	USA	Comprehensive census of foreign-owned assets in the U.S. as of this date reveals foreigners own $12.7 billion of U.S. property, of which $8 billion is blocked.
6/22/41	Germany	Germany invades the Soviet Union.
6/41-8/44	USSR	Nazis kill over one million Jews during invasion and occupation of territory of the Soviet Union.
7/41	Belgium	Declaration of Jewish real estate holdings is required. Nazis demand closing of 7,600 Jewish firms. Jews are forbidden to make bank deposits.
7/41	Hungary	125,000 Jews machine-gunned after having been deported to Galicia.
7/41-2/42	Lithuania	30,000 Jews are massacred in Vilna.
8/8/41	Netherlands	Decree centralizes all financial transactions by Jews and requires deposit of their financial assets in a Nazi- designated bank.
8/21/41	Occupied France	6,000 Paris Jews are seized and taken to Drancy.
9/1/41	Germany	Jews throughout Reich are required to wear yellow Star of David.
9/41	Belgium	Curfew imposed on Jews of Brussels. Jews forbidden to travel outside specific areas in Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, and Charleroi.
10/41	Austria	5,000 Jews are sent to Polish ghettos.
11/41	Germany/ Poland	The Nazi regime starts building the first extermination centers in Chelmno and Belzec.
12/7/41	USA	Japanese attack Pearl Harbor; the U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan on December 8, 1941.
12/11/41	Germany	Germany declares war on the U.S.
12/18/41	USA	The First War Powers Act gives the President the power to vest or take over the title to the property, including businesses, of any foreign country or national.
12/41	USA	President Roosevelt issues three proclamations placing restraints on aliens of German, Italian, and Japanese nationality.
1/20/42	Germany	Nazi leaders meet outside Berlin to coordinate "A Final Solution to the Jewish Question."
2/23/42	USA	Treasury's General License 42 declares that any individual residing in the U.S. as of February 23, 1942 (including stateless refugees) is a generally licensed national.
3/1/42	Poland	Extermination begins at Sobibor, two weeks later at Belzec.
3/11/42	USA	Roosevelt establishes the Alien Property Custodian to vest enemy assets in the U.S.
3/42	Netherlands	All Dutch Jews are forced into the Amsterdam ghetto.
4/30/42	Germany	The Nazis instruct camp officials to exploit prisoners as slave labor without regard to health and life in policy of "extermination through work."
5/42	Belgium	Liquidation of Jewish enterprises and real estate.
6/42	Norway	Registration of Jewish businesses is required; businesses are subsequently confiscated.
6/42-8/42	France	35,000 Jewish-owned businesses are expropriated. Value of total property taken from Jews of France Ff 10 billion.
7/14/42	Netherlands	Beginning of deportation of over 100,000 Jews to Auschwitz.
7/22/42- 9/12/42	Poland	Over 300,000 Jews are deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to the extermination camp at Treblinka.
8/42	Belgium	Jews with special skills are sent to Germany for forced labor. 35,000 foreign Jews are sent to Belgium for labor.
9/24/42	France	4,000 Romanian Jews are arrested and sent to Drancy.
9/42	Netherlands	Five-sixths of Jewish-owned property in German hands.
10/1/42	France	145,000 Jews are arrested. Orphaned children seized as hostages.
10/42	Germany	All Reich Jews concentrated in Berlin in preparation for deportation.
10/42	Norway	Quisling orders all Jewish property in Norway confiscated.
12/7/42	USA	The President directs the Alien Property Custodian to seize all patents controlled by the enemy, regardless of nominal ownership, allowing patents to be freely available to U.S. industry.
12/9/42	Vichy France	All Jews aged 18-55 are arrested in Clermont-Ferrand and sent to labor camps.
12/20/42	Vichy France	10,000 Jews are deported.
1942	Greece	Ghettos are established; all Jews aged 18-45 drafted for forced labor; 8,000 Jews from Salonika deported to unknown destination in Macedonian mountains.
1942	Italy	5,600 foreign and Italian Jews are confined in Italian concentration camps.
1942	Latvia	24,000 Jews are machine-gunned in Riga.
1942	Lithuania	60,000 Jews are executed in Vilna province; most Jews are concentrated in ghetto of Slobodka.
1942	Poland	By the end of year Jews are concentrated in 55 towns and cities, of which 13 have ghettos; 500,000 Jews are deported to concentration camps and labor camps; 1,000,000 Jews are massacred.
1/5/43	Great Britain	Inter-Allied Declaration Against Acts of Dispossession Committed in the Territories Under Enemy Occupation or Control (London Declaration), in which the Allies reserve the right to declare invalid transfers of property in occupied countries, even if they appeared to be legal.
2/3/43	Yugoslavia	Most Croatian Jews exterminated; government-in-exile announces that 1,000 remaining Jews were interned.
2/43	Slovakia	Value of confiscated Jewish property is said to amount to 17 million crowns. Total of 19,771 hectares of Jewish-owned land is expropriated by Aryans. All insurance policies held by Jews are confiscated.
4/19/43- 5/16/43	Poland	Destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto follows a month-long uprising by its Jewish inhabitants, most of whom are deported.
7/25/43	Italy	Mussolini is arrested and his fascist government falls.
7/43	Germany	Remaining Jews in Cologne and Munich are sent to Terezin. Last 400 Jews in Hamburg are sent to Poland.
9/3/43	Italy	The new Italian government signs an armistice; the surrender is announced on September 8 as the Allies invade the mainland. Germany controls central and northern Italy.
10/2/43	Denmark	Danish population smuggles 7,200 Jews to safety in Sweden. Five hundred Jews are deported to Theresienstadt, of whom 450 survive the war.
10/16/43	Italy	Persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied northern Italy begins, including deportations to Auschwitz.
10/43	Italy	Rome's Jewish community is forced to pay ransom of 50 kg of gold and 2.5 million lire in currency. Thirty-five percent of Jewish property in northern Italy confiscated.
11/1/43	USSR	Allies sign Moscow Declaration stating their intention to regard Austria as the "first country to fall victim to Hitlerite aggression," and to see "re-established a free and independent Austria." They declared, however, that Austria still had a "responsibility, which she cannot evade, for participation in the war" at the side of Nazi Germany.
11/30/43	Italy	Nazis order Italian Jews sent to concentration camps.
2/22/44	USA	The U.S. declares it will not recognize the transfer of looted gold from the Axis and will not buy gold from any country that has not broken relations with the Axis.
3/44	Vichy France	More than are 1,000 Jews arrested and deported in Dordogne region.
4/10/44	USA	The memorandum "Recommendations on Restitution" suggests that "no attempt should be made to make restitution to the original owners individually."
4/44	Hungary	After Nazi occupation of Hungary in March, entire Jewish population of Carpatho-Ruthenia (60,000-80,000) is deported to extermination camps.
5/26/44	USA	General Eisenhower demands preservation of centers and objects of historical and cultural significance in Europe.
5/44	Poland	Liquidation of Lodz ghetto begins with deportation to extermination camps; completed by August.
5/44	France	Special tax on Jewish property rises to 20 percent.
5/44-7/44	Hungary	Nearly 450,000 Hungarian Jews are deported to Auschwitz.
6/5/44	Italy	Allies capture Rome.
6/6/44	France	D-Day. Allied forces land in Normandy.
7/24/44	Poland	Soviet troops liberate the extermination camp at Majdanek.
8/1/44	Poland	Warsaw uprising against Nazi occupation begins; resistance ends on October 2.
8/4/44	USA	The Executive Committee on Economic Foreign Policy approves a revised "Report on Reparation, Restitution, and Property Rights--Germany."
8/9/44	USA	The U.S. Group Council, Germany (USGCC) is established.
8/25/44	France	Paris is liberated.
10/9/44	USA	FFC Director proposes to defrost foreign funds.
1/26/45	Poland	Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
2/45	Germany	25,000 Jews are transferred from Terezin to slave labor camps in Germany.
4/8/45	Germany	U.S. troops discover the Merkers mine in Kaiseroda. The contents are moved (April 15, 1945) to the future U.S. Zone of occupation.
4/12/45	Germany	Allied troops liberate Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, and later, Dachau.
4/29/45	Germany	Major H. M. McBee finds suitcases of looted assets near the Buchenwald concentration camp.
5/7/45	Germany	Germany surrenders unconditionally. Allies ban the Nazi Party, confiscate assets, and supplant authority over Germany and Austria.
5/16/45	Germany	Seven truckloads of assets found at Buchenwald are moved to Frankfurt.
5/30/45	USA	State Department, Treasury, and the Office of Alien Property Custodian (APC) recommend to President Truman the complete elimination of German ownership of property in America.
5/31/45	Germany	MG Law 53 requires persons in Germany to deposit foreign currency in the Reichbank.
6/8/45	USA	Executive Order 9567 provides that liquid assets of Germany and Japan can be vested.
6/30/45	USA	The U.S. controls 46,442 patents, patent applications, and inventions from nationals of enemy and enemy-occupied countries.
6/45	Germany	322 UNRRA teams help Allied forces administer displaced persons camps.
9/2/45	Japan	Japan unconditionally surrenders; WWII ends.
11/9/45- 12/21/45	USA	Paris Reparation Agreement is negotiated.
12/7/45	USA	General License (GL) 94 unblocks all current transactions and all new dollar assets all blocked countries (except Germany, Liechtenstein, Japan, Tangier, and the four European neutral countries).
12/29/45	USA	Treasury's General License 95 stipulates that once foreign countries certify that blocked property of their nationals contains no enemy ownership, the property is no longer blocked. GL 95 agreements with France, Belgium, Norway, and Finland.
2/13/46	USA	GL 95 agreement with the Netherlands.
3/8/46	USA	Congress amends the Trading With The Enemy Act (TWEA) by Section 32 to permit claims from friendly nationals for the administrative return of property vested by the APC.
4/26/46	USA	GL 95 agreements with Czechoslovakia and Luxembourg.
6/14/46	USA	Five-Power Conference on Reparation of Non-Repatriables leads to agreement signed by the U.S., Great Britain, France, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia to provide reparations from certain assets found in Germany and neutral countries to "non-repatriable victims" for Jewish resettlement and rehabilitation.

6/14/46	USA	GL 95 agreement with Denmark.
6/28/46	USA	The four powers recognize an autonomous Austrian National Government.
7/25/46	USA	OMGUS introduces a draft law proposing the establishment of indemnification agencies.
8/8/46	USA	Congress amends Section 32 (a) of TWEA so that "technical enemies" deprived of life or liberty because of laws discriminating against political, racial, or religious groups can regain their property.
9/27/46	Belgium	The Tripartite Gold Commission (TGC) meets in Brussels to discuss the distribution of monetary gold among claimant nations and to open gold accounts in New York, England, and France.
10/14/46	USA	The APC is terminated. Functions are transferred to Attorney General.
11/20/46	USA	GL 95 agreement with Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
1/16/47	USA	GL 95 agreement with Austria.
5/15/47	USA	The Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. (JCR) is created as a charitable organization in New York.
8/5/47	USA	Congress passes a law permitting return of all vested Italian property to Italy under procedures of Section 32 of TWEA.
8/12/47	USA	OMGUS approves the return of envelopes filled with personal belongings of Holocaust victims to national governments. On July 2, 1948 it begins to release the envelopes to Belgium, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.
9/15/47	USA	Vesting program for Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Italy ends with signing of peace treaties with each former enemy.
9/15/47	Hungary Romania	Peace treaties with Hungary and Romania specifically provide for heirless assets.
11/10/47	USA	General Clay promulgates Military Law 59.
2/2/48	USA	Treasury Secretary Snyder-Senator Vandenberg Letter announces that information on dollar holdings of nationals of Marshall Plan countries will be shared with those countries and that the U.S. might vest remaining blocked assets.
2/27/48	USA	General License 97 removes freezing controls from blocked accounts whose total value on February 1st was not more than $5,000 and were not held for persons in the five enemy countries.
5/15/48	USA	OMGUS deadline for individuals who suspect that their possessions had been looted to report them.
6/23/48	USA	Recognition of the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization.
7/3/48	USA	War Claims Fund is created. It provides that vested German property is not to be returned and proceeds of liquidated German property is to go into Fund.
9/15/48	USA	OMGUS deadline for submitting claims for restitution of cultural items.
9/30/48	USA	Treasury Secretary Snyder announces Treasury will cease to have jurisdiction over blocked foreign funds. Foreign Funds Control in Treasury ends; remaining functions are transferred to OAP in Justice Department.
12/31/48	USA	OMGUS deadline for filing claims for restitution; as well as the deadline for submitting claims for securities to be restituted.
1/19/49	USA	OMGUS deadline for claims to be accepted by U.S. officials.
2/15/49	USA	The JCR agrees to act as trustee of unidentifiable Jewish property.
6/21/49	USA	$25 million is the amount of first deposit into War Claims Fund, beginning series of deposits provided for in War Claims Act of 1948.
7/22/49	USA	The JCR is given the right of access to material from the Baltic States. It ships 214 cases with 29,000 books from the Offenbach Archival Depot (OAD) to the U.S.
9/21/49	USA	The Office of the U.S. High Commission for Germany (HICOG) replaces OMGUS, signaling a final shift of responsibility from military to civilian authorities.
3/10/50	USA	International Claims Settlement Act of 1949 is passed. It provides for lump sum payments to settle wartime claims of Americans for loss and damage to property in Europe.
3/15/50	USA	Additional $15 million is deposited in War Claims Fund.
8/30/50	USA	Justice Department announces intention to vest remaining uncertified blocked assets under the Snyder-Vandenberg program.
10/2/50	USA	Census on Form OAP-700 of remaining blocked assets reveals $140 million is still blocked. Of this, $15.8 million belongs to nationals of the Marshall Plan Countries, $2.2 million to Switzerland; and the rest to nationals of Eastern European countries.
2/51	USA	OAP begins to vest blocked accounts maintained by Swiss banks in the U.S. for persons whose names are unknown.
10/19/51	USA	Joint Resolution of Congress formally ends state of war between U.S. and Germany but authorizes continued vesting of all German property in U.S. that was blocked before January 1, 1947.
1/22/52	USA	Justice Department announces completion of the vesting of Swiss accounts of indirectly held, uncertified assets under the Synder-Vandenberg program. It also announces intention to unblock remaining assets of Marshall Plan countries, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.
7/52-4/53	USA	Senate Judiciary Committee investigates OAP. Hearings study handling of procedures governing claims for return of vested assets.
4/17/53	USA	Vesting of German property in the United States ends. Net equity of all vested property at dates of vesting totals almost $392 million.
6/1/53	USA	Treasury's General License 102 unblocks accounts not exceeding $100 in value.
6/27/53	USA	Treasury's General License 101 removes remaining controls on blocked property in the U.S. held by governments or nationals of the Marshall Plan countries, Sweden, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Japan, and West Germany. Only Eastern European countries remain subject to blocking controls.
7/1/54	USA	Congress creates the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission; transfers functions of abolished War Claims Commission to it.
8/54	USA	Total in War Claims Fund Reaches $225,000,000.
8/23/54	USA	Congress amends Section 32 of the Trading with the Enemy Act to allow the President to designate a successor organization to receive heirless assets.
1/13/55	USA	President Eisenhower appoints the JRSO as the successor organization to receive heirless assets (E.O. 10587).
9/2/58	USA	Congress passes P.L.85-884 authorizing the payment of $3,750,000 into the War Claims Fund; bringing the total to $228.8 million.
3/30/60	USA	Settlement of Claims Agreement with Romania provides for lump sum payment to compensate Americans for war damage as specified in 1947 Peace Treaty and for nationalization of property. Blocking of all Romanian property in U.S ends.
7/16/60	USA	Settlement of Claims Agreement with Poland provides for lump sum payment to compensate Americans for nationalization of property. Blocking of all Polish property in U.S ends.
10/22/62	USA	Congress passes a law to allow the President to pay $500,000 out of the War Claims Fund to a successor organization.
2/26/63	USA	President Kennedy designates the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission to pay the JRSO $500,000 authorized by Congress.
6/23/63	USA	The JRSO receives the $500,000 lump settlement, used in the U.S. for rehabilitation of Nazi persecutees.
6/30/66	USA	Office of Alien Property ceases to exist. Residual vested assets program transferred to the Civil Division, Department of Justice.
6/30/83	USA	Census of all remaining blocked WWII foreign assets in the United States by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control reveals an amount over $71 million, most of it gold bullion belonging to the governments of Latvia and Estonia. Private assets in the names of individuals in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia total $1.2 billion with $885,598 being in state abandoned property accounts.
5/13/92	USA	Settlement of Claims Agreement with Germany provides for lump sum payment to compensate Americans for war damage and for nationalization of property.
6/29/95	USA	Treasury ends all residual Foreign Funds Control regulations of World War II.
9/19/95	USA	Agreement between United States and Germany to settle claims of U.S. citizens interned in concentration camps, or who suffered loss of liberty or damage to health due to Nazi persecution.
9/9/98	Belgium	The TGC is closed.
11/30/98- 12/3/98	USA	44 governments and 13 non-governmental organizations attend the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets.

Sources:

Independent Committee of Eminent Persons, Report on Dormant Accounts of Victims of Nazi Persecution in Swiss Banks. Bern: Stampfly, 1999.

Staff Report of the President's Commission

U.S. National Archives, OSS files

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum website at http://ushmm.org

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