CONFISCATION OF THE PROPERTY OF THE JEWS IN OSIJEK AFTER WORLD WAR II

After the end of World War II, the new communist government acceded to the procedure of confiscation of property. This procedure was implemented by applying the institute of confiscation, and the excuse was economic cooperation with the occupier. In this way, many factories and workshops were confiscated as well as private properties of wealthy individuals. In these proceedings, assets of a larger number of Jews in Osijek, who were the owners of a large number of companies before World War II, were confiscated. Paradoxically, the Jews were in fact punished twice, i.e. their property was confiscated twice. The first time was when their property was nationalized during the war in the NDH, and the second when after the war the new government instead of correcting the wrongs that had been done against the Jews, confiscated their assets once again. It is particularly ironic that the large number of former Jewish owners were taken in the German concentration camps and killed there, and the new government seized their property because of the economic cooperation with the German forces.