Project Heart Extended – Reclaiming Holocaust Property
The office of Israel’s Prime Minister has recommended that Project HEART extend the deadline for individuals to submit Questionnaires into 2012. This decision was made in response to the high number of inquiries it has received from Holocaust victims over the past few months as well as numerous requests from the families of Holocaust victims to participate in the program.
Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu
Launched in late February 2011 by the Government of Israel in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Israel, Project HEART seeks to identify Jewish Holocaust victims and their heirs worldwide who or whose families owned real estate or movable, immovable, or intangible personal property that was confiscated, looted, or forcibly sold in countries governed or occupied by the Nazi forces or Axis powers during the Holocaust era. Individuals can participate in the project if they or their families lost property and if restitution for that property has not been made after the Holocaust era. To participate in Project HEART, individuals only need to fill out the Questionnaire that may be found on the Project HEART website.
Project HEART’s Executive Director, Bobby Brown, stated that extending the deadline to submit Questionnaires “is necessary to ensure that all eligible individuals be allowed to participate in this important program.” Added Brown, “Project HEART may be the last restitution program of its kind. It would be unfair to Holocaust victims and their heirs to prematurely close the doors to this monumental and historic restitution effort.”
“Each week we receive dozens of inquiries from Jewish organizations located worldwide, specifically requesting that the deadline to submit Questionnaires be extended so that members of their communities can participate in Project HEART,” stated Anya Verkhovskaya, Project Director. According to Verkhovskaya, “Our goal has always been to be the most inclusive Holocaust era property restitution program ever. Extending the deadline to submit Questionnaires will ensure that we meet this goal by giving all eligible individuals the chance to participate in Project HEART.”
The new deadline to submit Questionnaires has not yet been established by Project HEART officials, but Project HEART intends to announce the new deadline as soon as it is determined. In the interim, individuals should visit the Project HEART website, www.heartwebsite.org, regularly to check for the announcement of the new deadline to submit Questionnaires. Project HEART officials are encouraging individuals to submit their Questionnaires as soon as possible.
