31 July 2003

"Nazi persecution" challenge to compensation refusal

Relatives of two men who were deported from Estonia to concentration camps
in 1941 have today won the right to challenge the DTI and the adjudicator
for a compensation scheme over a refusal of compensation for business
assets that were confiscated by the UK during the war.

Press release attached.

[Attatched Document]:

The High Court today (31st July) has granted permission to Jakob Kaplan to challenge the Government’s refusal to pay full compensation for assets confiscated from his family in Estonia during the Second World War.

Mr.Kaplan’s father (Moses Kaplan) and uncle (Boris Baksht) were deported from Estonia to concentration camps in Siberia in 1941, by reason of their identity as Jews. At the time, Estonia was governed by the Soviet Union, under the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact between the USSR and the German Reich.

Germany then invaded Estonia. As a result, from August 1941, the UK treated it as an enemy country. In 1942 or 1943, the UK government confiscated the assets of the Kaplan family and their business that were held in London. Compensation for the confiscation of the business assets has been refused on the ground that Mr.Kaplan and Mr.Baksht were enemy aliens.

However, the Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel Scheme allows compensation to be paid where people were technically enemy aliens but in fact suffered persecution by the enemy. Philip Engelman and Jack Rabinowicz – Mr.Kaplan’s lawyers – will argue that the two men were victims of Nazi persecution. They will argue that they were deported because it was the state policy of Estonia to pursue the Nazi policies of the German Reich.

Jakob Kaplan claimed compensation for the business assets in 1999. This was refused by the Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel, which is administered by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). He appealed unsuccessfully to the scheme adjudicator. At a hearing today, he was given permission to challenge the adjudicator’s decision by judicial review in the High Court. A hearing date is awaited.

Gerald Newman
Practice Director
Cloisters
Direct Line: 020 7827 4050
Mobile: 07798 604 851
geraldn@cloisters.com