Russia Returns Belgian Files Stolen by Nazis
EUROPE
Russia returned thousands of Belgium’s military files that had been stolen by the Nazis during World War II and taken by Moscow after the fall of Berlin in 1945.
After a decade of negotiations, the Russian parliament made a return legally possible only in 1999, approving the hand-over of the documents in December 2001.
Belgium has agreed to pay Russia $130,000 for having stored and looked after the files. Most of the 20,000 documents belonged to the Belgian Defense Ministry.
Other material belonged to Jewish, freemasonry, socialist and liberal organizations.
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