Holocaust Survivors hold protest before Austrian bank

BELGRADE, Serbia – In a bizarre repeat of scandals that rocked the Hypo Alpe Adria bank of Austria (HYPO) in 2000 and 2003 linking them to neo-fascist money transfers from Libya and the sponsorship of Nazi-apologist Croatian skier Ivica Kostelic, the financial institution again faces charges of insensitivity to holocaust survivors.

Hundreds of protestors gathered before the Belgrade headquarters of HYPO Bank on Saturday to protest the Serbian government's lack of property restitution laws to return real estate expropriated by the Nazi and Communist parties to original owners.

On April 22 HYPO Bank announced a 20 million Euro acquisition of prime real estate in Belgrade, Serbia, the "Three Tobacco Leaves" site. This valuable property was nationalized in the 1940's from the Galich family, victims of Nazi brutality and persecution.

For the past five years, the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade has been working closely with Galich heirs to help them protect their claimed property from developers. Family members are American citizens, and the Embassy continues to offer help in this matter. Criticizing Galich family efforts to regain the property, HYPO board member Boris Ignatovic wrote to a U.S. State Department official for Special Consular Services in Belgrade, "…the USA Embassy has, in our opinion, needlessly been drawn into this situation."

Prior to World War II, a landmark Belgrade building stood on the site, owned for generations by the Galich family. In the spring of 1944, retreating German troops summarily executed two family members who attempted to stop Nazi S.S. incendiaries from destroying the property.

"We find statements such as the one saying that the Galich family has 'suffered much distress by the insensitive tenor of Hypo Bank involvement….due to the murdering of the Galich family by Grossdeutsche Reich troops in 1944' extremely tasteless. We fail to realize how this in any way could relate to the Hypo Alpe Adria Consultants since we actually started negotiations with "JINPROS" (the local partner) in December 2004, meaning five months ago, and the events mentioned… happened over 50 years ago," said Ignjatovic in his letter of response to the Galich family's complaints sent to the U.S. Embassy.

At Saturday's protest a contingent of heavily armed riot police stood between the sleek glass offices of HYPO Group and the hundreds of protestors who gathered nearby to support property restitution laws. Mile Antic, an organizer of the protest and head of the Network for Restitution (NFR), a local NGO fighting for property rights, responded to Hypo Alpe Adria's acusations:

"Mr. Ignatovic's eagerness to invalidate the past and develop property which was confiscated without compensation goes against all the principles of human and property rights supported by the European Union and the UN charter on human rights. Our organization feels he is 'tasteless' for making such personal attacks against the Galich family."

Mr. Antic chose May 21st to hold the protest since the European Bank for reconstruction and development opened its meeting on the same day bringing over 3000 attendees to Belgrade, including prime ministers, bank governors, and media.

NFR members are incensed by this latest attempt to build on the "Three Tobacco Leaves" property before the Republic of Serbia enacts a law on property restitution, scheduled for June 2006. According to Serbia's proposed restitution law, only property that has not been improved upon will be returned to original owners. Economic watchdogs see HYPO's bid to gain control of the confiscated site, before a restitution law is enacted, possible due to loopholes left in archaic communist laws still on the books.

"Basically, it's a sneaky attempt to avoid paying fair market value for the real-estate," stated civil rights activist Zona Stojanovic, a young Belgrade mother of two, who attended Saturday's protest with her children.

An octogenarian member of the Galich family who could not attend the protest released the following statement: "My father and uncle were killed by the Nazis while they were trying to save our building. The Milosevic government tore down our building, which we rebuilt with much sacrifice after the war – now this. An Austrian bank should know better after sixty years, shame on them."

Press Release Issued by
NETWORK FOR RESTITUTION NGO Belgrade Serbia

CONTACT:
Mile Antic
LawUnitedStates@aol.com
Tel.+(381)(64) 133-3043

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