Historic Jewish artifacts seized from Brooklyn auction house
Nazis confiscated documents, scrolls originally in WWII Europe
Seventeen pre-World War II Jewish artifacts, including funeral scrolls and communal records from Jewish communities in Romania, Hungary, Ukraine and Slovakia, have been found through a Brooklyn auction house and have been seized by the Department of Homeland Security Investigations, according to the Department of Justice.
Three additional artifacts are believed to be in Israel, and in Upstate New York. The scrolls and manuscripts, which date between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, had been illegally confiscated by the Nazis during World War II.
Under the provisions of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, all unclaimed movable Jewish property was to have been returned to the communities of the survivors, according to an affidavit by Megan Buckley, special agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
According to authorities, the auction house, Kestenbaum and Company, located at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has been cooperative with the federal government. The firm, which sells many Judaica items (including Marilyn Monroe’s menorah), had planned to auction off the scrolls and manuscripts.