Overview
- Italy’s Court of Cassation ruled in early April that non‑Italian victims of Nazi crimes may keep enforcing claims in Italian courts against German state property located in Italy, including assets tied to state‑owned firms such as Deutsche Bahn.
- The dispute traces to the 1944 Distomo massacre in Greece and a 1997 Livadia court judgment that awarded the victims’ heirs about €28 million, which Greece did not enforce after a justice minister blocked seizures.
- Italy passed a law in 2022 that aimed to stop seizures of German assets and set up a state fund for compensation, but the fund only pays victims in Italy or Italian citizens.
- The court held that the enforcement freeze applies only to people who can use that Italian fund, so foreign plaintiffs may continue targeting German assets on Italian soil.
- Plaintiffs represented by the Region of Central Greece have filed actions in Rome that name Deutsche Bahn, which denies liability, while Greek officials praised the ruling and legal observers say Germany could ask the International Court of Justice to intervene or Italy could change its law as broader Greek claims total about €309.5 billion.