by Roland Binet (Braine-l’Alleud)
On November 17, 2013 I was invited and participated as a guest speaker at the Yizkor memorial event organized by the “Jewish Survivors of Latvia, Inc.” (New York). The event was held at the Park East Synagogue at 163 East 67th Street in Manhattan.
The really important speech, though, was given by Douglas Davidson, the US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues. He dealt with the results of his numerous visits to Latvia pertaining to that specific issue: due restitution to the Jewish victims or their heirs. Their properties were stolen or requisitioned during the war and the massacres.
Mr. Davidson’s speech was interesting and gave the hundred or so listeners gathered in that beautiful synagogue a rather gloomy view of the chances that Jewish survivors, or entitled members of their families, would ever get back their stolen communal properties, or receive fair compensation.