Just in time for the holidays comes news that a theft of property case is getting resolved in Berlin about 70 years after the fact:

Heirs of a Jewish family that lost its German department store fortune under the Nazis have won a court verdict that advances their $193 million (U.S.) claim to property on a famous Berlin square, a lawyer said yesterday. Descendants of the Wertheim family have battled German authorities and the KarstadtQuelle retail chain for years to get back real estate that was part of their relatives' retail empire before the Nazis came to power in the 1930s.

Reminds me of my pal who I taught Englsh in Poland with. He had aristocratic roots there, every son of a Count being a Count this was no surprise, and when he gets back home, his grandfather asked if he had seen "the house". He had never been told about any house and was told that the SS took it over in 1939, followed by the Polish version of the KGB in 1945. After telling his grandfather no, he was told: "too bad...then you never found the gold we hid under the floor stones in the basement, eh?" Another pal I know received a forest back in Bosnia taken by Tito after WWII. All so good.

So, good for you, Wertheims. Go for a share of the profits reflecting the dandy central shopping location as well. Nothing like stripping totalitarians of their assets and freedom for Yule!