Description
Physical description
delicate gold tie pin (L 6.8cm x W 1cm), decorated at the top with what appears to be a pearl framed in gold and precious stones.
Label
In the wake of increasingly anti-Jewish German legislation, and in order to protect belongings and assets against confiscation, many Jews deposited personal valuables in banks or purchased securities, life policies or even works of art in neutral or allied countries. When war broke out in 1939 all assets in Britain owned by anyone resident in enemy territory were frozen. By 1945 over 200,000 assets -with a value of £370 million -had been seized by the British government.
This tie-pin and bracelet (EPH 9328) were deposited in a branch of Barclays Bank in 1939 by one Marek Kellerman, a brush merchant from Bratislava, whose fate remains unknown. Hindered by the restrictions of the Communist era in Eastern Europe, the restitution of these frozen assets was delayed for many years until a major initiative in 1999. Marek Kellerman's bracelet and tie-pin are the Enemy Property Compensation Scheme's last unclaimed items.
History note
In the wake of increasingly anti-Jewish German legislation, and in order to protect belongings and assets against confiscation, many Jews deposited personal valuables in banks or purchased securities, life policies or even works of art in neutral or allied countries. When war broke out in 1939 all assets in Britain owned by anyone resident in enemy territory were frozen. By 1945 over 200,000 assets -with a value of £370 million -had been seized by the British government.
This tie-pin and bracelet (EPH 9328) were deposited in a branch of Barclays Bank in 1939 by one Marek Kellerman, a brush merchant from Bratislava, whose fate remains unknown. Hindered by the restrictions of the Communist era in Eastern Europe, the restitution of these frozen assets was delayed for many years until a major initiative in 1999. Marek Kellerman's bracelet and tie-pin are the Enemy Property Compensation Scheme's last unclaimed items.