Social Welfare Database Development
Since many Holocaust survivors now live below the poverty line, the issues of social welfare provision are among our top priorities. In 2014-15, ESLI will create a monitoring database detailing social welfare programs available to Holocaust survivors and other victims of Nazi persecution in the 47 countries that have endorsed the Terezin Declaration. This database will consist of relevant country policies, legislations, and sources of financial support, and will analyze countries’ progress in relation to social welfare for Holocaust survivors and other victims of Nazi persecution. It will be used to monitor compliance by signatory countries to the principles of the Terezin Declaration, and to advocate for the better treatment of Holocaust survivors. The database will be prepared in cooperation with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the German Holocaust Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility, Future” (EVZ), who are the principle providers of assistance to Holocaust survivors and other victims of Nazi persecution. To facilitate gathering of the information, a meeting of experts and responsible state officials will be held in October/November of 2014. The database will be launched and best practices discussed at an international conference in March 2015.
Provenance Research Training Program (PTRP)
The Provenance Research Training Program (PRTP) is an advanced training program developed by ESLI in 2011 in response to the near-absence of programs in Europe and the Americas that develop and refine critical research skills in the discipline of provenance research and related issues concerning Nazi-looted art, judaica, and other cultural property. Since the creation of the program, PRTP workshops have been held in four countries (Germany, Croatia, Lithuania, and Greece) in close cooperation with their governments and cultural institutions. Through the workshops (attended by 148 participants to date), ESLI has established an ever-expanding network of individuals and institutions across nations, which has enabled advances in the field of provenance research. ESLI plans to increase the number of PRTP workshops to at least four per year. In addition, PRTP alumni are preparing the launch of the “Provenance Journal” to be hosted by ESLI on the PRTP website.
To further promote professional standards and the independence of provenance researchers, ESLI, in cooperation with the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament, advocates provenance research as mandatory for museums, galleries and other institutions in the countries that have endorsed the Terezin Declaration.
Restitution and Compensation for Immovable and Movable Property Database
ESLI in cooperation with Professor Michael Bazyler (Chapman University, USA) and the London School of Economics, will create a database reviewing legislation on restitution and compensation for immovable (real) property confiscated or otherwise wrongfully seized by the Nazis, fascists and their collaborators during the Holocaust era. The legislations of all 47 Terezin Declaration signatory countries will be reviewed to create a publicly accessible monitoring database to provide stakeholders with practical information, including, for example, whether an institutional body dealing with restitutions and compensations exists and whether foreign nationals can apply, but also to monitor these countries’ progress. The terms of reference for the research will be prepared in cooperation with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and the World Jewish Restitution Organization. This will be a two year project, spanning 2104 and 215.
Looted Cultural Property Database
ESLI, in cooperation with the London School of Economics, will create an accountability database to monitor and promote the adherence to the Terezin Declaration regarding cultural property. This database will compile and analyze the policy and legislation governing the restitution of art looted during the Nazi era in the Terezin Declaration member countries. The research team will compile countries’ policy and legislation and analyze each country’s progress. It will also look for the existence of provenance research and will then propose strategies to place provenance research at the center of the legal and policy-oriented discussions on restitution. This mechanism will be used for further advocacy work. This will be a two year project, spanning 2104 and 2015. This database will be publicly launched in London, United Kingdom, in the beginning of 2015.
