More Germans leave their estates to Israel
In recent years it happens more often: a courier enters
the Israeli embassy in Berlin carrying a letter from an old German citizen who
recently died. In the letter he declares his wish that his estate be donated to
the State of Israel. Embassy officials estimate that sometimes these are people
who suffer from a guilty conscience over Germany's dark past.
This phenomenon has been going on for years with
increasing frequency and this year sees a peak in donations, Yedioth Ahronot
has learned.
About once a month a courier arrives at the embassy. He
hands the employees a letter sent via registered mail from a recently deceased
old German citizen. The letter, also signed by the deceased's attorney, states
that the deceased has decided to leave his money, home or jewels (in some cases
even gold bars) to Israel.
The letters do not reveal the donors' motives but the
embassy estimates that these are most likely Germans who witnessed the
Holocaust and harbored feelings of guilt for decades.
On their deathbed they probably wanted to clear their
conscience by bequeathing their estate to Israel, even though some of them have
families.
It's possible that some of the donors had ties to the
Nazi regime but this hypothesis is unfounded.
Thus far, a total of 200 donors aged 80-100 have been
recorded. The largest single donation is NIS 6 million. "We think these
people's conscience was burdened with the mass extermination of the Jews and at
the end of their days they decided to make amends by giving their estate to
Israel," said an embassy official.
In some cases the donor declares his decision in his
lifetime, in others it is revealed only at the reading of the will. An inquiry
shows that some of the donors are devout Christians who decided to transfer
their funds to the Holy Land on religious grounds. The list includes Jewish
donors, probably childless, who decided to transfer their estate to Israel.
The Israeli embassy hands the donations over to the
General State Custodian at the Ministry of Justice in Jerusalem. Government
sources say that lately there has been a rise in donations but this can easily
be explained by the higher mortality rates of the donors due to old age.
Comments
Post a Comment