A consultative commission reporting to the Prime Minister, the CIVS is responsible for examining individual claims submitted by victims or their heirs for compensation for losses resulting from anti-Semitic spoliations that occurred in France between 1940 and 1944.

The CIVS also examines, on its own initiative or at the request of the person concerned, cases of anti-Semitic spoliation of cultural property committed between 1933 and 1945 in a country influenced by Nazi Germany, when the cultural property is now in France in public collections or similar.

The CIVS is not a court. It is responsible for drawing up and proposing appropriate reparation, restitution or compensation measures, which are forwarded to the Prime Minister.

The establishment of the Commission for the Restitution of Property and Compensation for Victims of Anti-Semitic Spoliation by decree no. 2024-11 on 1er February 2024 offered new developments to the policy of reparation for anti-Semitic spoliations implemented from the end of the 1990s.
 

What losses are eligible for restitution or compensation?

Losses resulting from the spoliation of material and financial assets give rise to a right to restitution or compensation, for example :

•    looting of flats and refuge accommodation,
•    professional and property spoliation,
•    confiscation of bank assets and deposit of insurance policies,
•    theft or forced sale of movable cultural property,
•    payment of smuggler's fees when crossing the demarcation line and borders,
•    confiscation of valuables during internment in a camp...

Spoliations may have been perpetrated by the State, but also by public or private entities. For example, insurance companies, banks and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations may be liable for claims. In the case of these latter bodies, specific procedures for investigating claims apply.

Moral injury is not eligible for compensation. Nor does the Commission propose compensation for the loss of earnings resulting from the spoliation of a business. Furthermore, spoliations for which the Commission can award compensation may concern the property of a craftsman, but cannot concern the loss of property following a bombing raid.