Poor Lithuania agrees to pay $41 million for bogus Jewish property from World War II.

Lithuania to pay $41 million over Jewish property seized in WWII. Compensation to be paid in installments depending on state's financial situation.

Lithuania is planning to pay 113 million litai ($41 million) in compensation for Jewish property seized by the Nazis during World War II and subsequently kept in the state sector.

According to a Justice Ministry blueprint, the compensation will be paid to a special fund from 2011 until 2021 in installments to depend on the state's "financial possibilities."

The draft will be submitted to three Jewish social organizations for final agreement. Simonas Gurevicius, a representative of one of them, told the BNS news agency that he was not ready to make an appraisal of the draft until the property assessment method had been studied.

"We will look and compare if everything has been done in the same manner as during the assessment of the property of other faiths," he said.

Over 200,000 Jews lived in the Baltic country before World War II, and Vilnius was called "The Jerusalem of the North." There are currently around 5,000 Jews in Lithuania.

Synagogues were returned to Jewish communities several years ago, but claims have been laid to other buildings that previously belonged to Jews.

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