Liro Bank

Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co. or Liro Bank, originally a Dutch Jewish bank, was seized and used by Nazis for looting Jewish property during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II.[1]

At Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, in Amsterdam, the Germans used the bank's name for a separate branch for looting Jews at the Sarphatistraat.[2]

The branch was used for robbing the Dutch Jews living mainly in Amsterdam of their possessions.[3] Bank accounts at other banks were confiscated, and Jews were also forced to deposit their art collections, jewels, etc. at the bank.[4][5] If a Jewish family was deported from their home, their possessions were sold. The money was used for various purposes such as to finance the Westerbork transit camp. High-level Nazis could pick from the art collections. In addition, important artworks were sent to German museums.[6]

After the war, the original bank had lost its good name and was finally taken over by another bank, the Hollandse Koopmansbank.[7][8]

In 2003, a plaque about the Nazi robber bank was unveiled on the building of the ABN Amro Bank in Amsterdam.[9]

See also

• List of claims for restitution for Nazi-looted art
• Arthur Seyss-Inquart
• The Holocaust in the Netherlands
• List of banks in the Netherlands

Further reading

• The Perpetrators and Their Methods Katejan Mühlmann
• Nazi looting : the plunder of Dutch Jewry during the Second World War
• Reconstructing the Record of Nazi Cultural Plunder: A Survey of the Dispersed Archives of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR)

External links