Hans Deutsch was an Austrian Jewish refugee, lawyer and publisher who played a key role in Holocaust reparations and art restitution cases in postwar Germany, and was the target of a judicial scandal known as the Deutsch Affair.
12 Facts About Hans Deutsch
1.
2.
Hans Deutsch ended up in Palestine, where he worked as a lawyer.
3.
Hans Deutsch did not return to Vienna until 15 years later.
4.
Hans Deutsch ran the Hans-Deutsch-Verlag, a renowned literary publisher which published authors such as Dino Buzzatti, Jean Cocteau et John Dos Passos.
5.
On 3 November 1964, Hans Deutsch, the leading restitution lawyer in Germany, was arrested.
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Hans Deutsch's arrest caused intense concern on the part of Holocaust experts and advocates of victims of Nazi persecution in Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany and Israel.
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Hans Deutsch was well known for his role in obtaining compensation for victims of Nazi persecution in Germany and Austria, and had recently obtained a multimillion mark settlement for his clients from the Germany government and was expected at a negotiation to increase the limit on restitution payments to Jewish victims who had been looted by the Nazis.
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Jean Cocteau 8.
The nature of the charges and the manner in which they had been filed were criticized as "unusual" in numerous newspapers including Le Monde in France Hans Deutsch spent 18 months in jail and had his property confiscated and career destroyed.
9.
The police claimed that the Hatvany paintings had not been looted by Nazis, as Hans Deutsch asserted, but by Soviet troops.
10.
The witnesses against Hans Deutsch came from Nazi and SS circles and had a financial interest in the case.
11.
The police claimed that the Hatvany paintings had not been looted by Nazis, as Hans Deutsch asserted, but by Soviet troops.
12.
In 2003, El Greco's "Mount Sinai" reappeared in New York and was sold with a false provenance at Sotheby's in Greece, triggering a renewed discussion about whether Hans Deutsch had been deliberately denounced by former SS members and their heirs, who are in possession of the stolen pictures.