After having read Pack of Thieves by Richard Chesnoff, I have attentively followed news about reparations. The brutality and single-mindedness with which the Nazis and their collaborators worked to steal from their victims is nothing short of stunning; the efforts to return that property generally less than enthusiastic.

The Belgians are standing up and doing what is right. Thanks to them.

The head of the Senate even condemned the “cowardliness of our administration” during the 1940-1944 occupation.

At first Jewish citizens had to be registered, then they were obliged to wear yellow stars, then schools and hospitals were segregated. Raids soon rounded up Jews in Belgian cities and they were deported to Nazi concentration camps. Some cities helped with the deportations that sent thousands to their deaths.

After the war, many cases were considered too delicate to handle by military courts and any involvement of the authorities in the persecution was rejected.

With the restitution, “the primary objective was clearly to close a section of the past, which still seems half-open, more than 60 years after the events,” the commission said.

Belgium Gov’t to Pay Holocaust Survivors [Breitbart.com]