http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75 More than sixty years after the fact, a group of people calling themselves WWII victims are seeking legal redress.  No, these aren't the survivors of the Nazi killing machine in the  Holocaust.  And they're not the rightful owners of pre-WWII artwork and fortunes confiscated by the Germans during the war.  These are descendants of Germans - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Germans_after_World_War_II">Germans who claim they were expelled from their homes</a> at the end o en-us Sat, 6 Jan 2007 08:29:35 EST Mon, 15 Jan 2007 03:08:08 EST http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75#10 Great link, but not "ironically" a Jew, since most German Jews considered themselves German, even after the war. Mon, 15 Jan 2007 03:08:08 EST http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75#9 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Gollancz">Victor Gollancz</a> (ironically a Jew) wrote extensively of how Germans were being "cleansed", starved, killed, raped, and begged in his book "In Darkest Germany" to help the Germans. <p> In 1945, Sovi Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:48:11 EST http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75#8 Woah! Maybe we're related.<p> I guess it varies from country to country.  The Czech Republic has gone a long way in returning most if not all of Jewish communal property.  There are efforts to do so in Poland, but that's not working so well - I r Mon, 8 Jan 2007 18:12:05 EST http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75#7 But since Jews couldn't own property in much of the Eastern Block this is relatively easy.  I had a grandfather who had a store, and it and all of its contents were confiscated.  He didn't own the land (because Jews couldn't own land), so compens Mon, 8 Jan 2007 17:30:51 EST http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75#6 <i>Because to date the haven't done jack.</i><p> Not totally true. The Czech Republic has implemented compensation plans for those who were disenfranchised of property during Soviet rule.  I think other Eastern European countries have had similar prog Mon, 8 Jan 2007 09:37:05 EST http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75#5 Does this mean that the Eastern Block countries will also give compensation to the Jews they expelled?  Because to date the haven't done jack.  And after we're done with this cycle, my family had businesses that were taken away by the communists Mon, 8 Jan 2007 06:21:54 EST http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75#4 The reality is that war is a horrible thing and that in war injustices are invariably committed by all sides.  Is it just to expel non-collaborative citizens of German extraction? No, it is not.  Should these people be compensated in some way? &n Sat, 6 Jan 2007 19:35:50 EST http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75#3 In my mind, the biggest problem is that these various countries went after all ethnic Germans, regardless of their citizenship.  If they had only expelled Nazi party members or German citizens, I'd be a lot less bothered.  <p> While I understand Sat, 6 Jan 2007 17:35:38 EST http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75#2 Are the justices of the ECHR allowed to laugh out loud at the claim that those who were responsible for starting the bloodiest conflict in the history of mankind are victims?  I mean, even in the slightest?  If the ECHR returns a verdict in favor Sat, 6 Jan 2007 16:08:59 EST http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2006/12/19/163140/75#1 The Polacks should use this as a pretense to invade Germany. How funny would that be? <p> In all seriousness, that this is litigable in the ECHR is yet another illustration of the grotesqeness of the new  unaccountable political/legal/beuracracy &nbsp Sat, 6 Jan 2007 15:58:53 EST string http://www.treesandthings.com/search/