The Lithuanian parliament Tuesday voted in favor of compensation to the amount of 37 million euros for private property looted from Jews by the Nazis and the Soviets.

Seventy-two MPs voted in favor, six against and two abstained in the ballot of a new redaction of the Law on Goodwill Compensation which will come into effect in January.

Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė proposed the new compensation package saying Lithuania has made compensation for Jewish religious community property, but hasn’t made compensation for private property nationalized.

“There are two kinds of property, and for one a solution was found, while the search for a solution to the second was sought, perhaps not entirely sincerely, perhaps sincerely… I believe the Government has succeeded in agreeing to and proposing such a solution, and today we consider this legislation,” she said.

Lithuania has almost completed payments to compensate seized Jewish communal and religious property which the country pledged to the amount of 37 million euros as well to be paid out over a decade. Those payments are scheduled to end in March.

As previously, the new compensation will go to the Goodwill Foundation which is responsible for making payments to the property owners and heirs. Applications for this compensation will be open till the end of 2023 with payments paid out from 2024 to 2030.

The amended law stipulates symbolic compensation will be allocated for property seized illegally or illicitly during the period of occupations by totalitarian regimes, property which belonged to people of Jewish ethnicity living in Lithuania before and/or during World War II.

Full story in Lithuanian here.