Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und offene Vermögensfragen (BADV), Referat C 2
About the institution
The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) and the Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues (BADV) recommend that “the archive documents from the National Socialist era administered by the BADV, Department C2, which have originated in connection with property seizures with regard to persecuted individuals, as well as the available case files are used for provenance research in accordance with the Federal Restitution Law (BRüG)” (see Implementation of the BRüG).
An inquiry to the BADV is made, on the one hand, to confirm whether the claims to the property of an individual persecuted by the Nazis are already on file there and, on the other hand, to avoid double compensation (in accordance with the Joint Declaration 1999, I), if there were already Federal government compensation payments.
After 1945, Holocaust survivors or their descendants submitted claims for compensation (non-material damages) and restitution (material damages) to the occupying authorities on a case-by-case basis; from 1949 onwards, these were submitted to the restitution offices in the federal states. In addition to information on whether and what compensation and other remuneration efforts have already been undertaken by the state, generally speaking the files mainly provide information on the process of loss of possession and the whereabouts of descendants, relatives and heirs.
For a remote examination, only the records of the Berlin restitution offices are available, and these only to a certain depth: the records are presented in summarized form and cannot be read digitally in their entirety. Research on site in each case is therefore essential.
The restitution records are generally located in the relevant archives at the victim’s last place of residence or, especially in the case of emigrants, at the place of seizure (e.g. international ports).
Address
Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und offene Vermögensfragen (BADV), Referat C 2
DGZ-Ring 12
13086 Berlin
Germany