According to press reports, one finding of the commission concerns stolen artwork, among other assets. Having acknowledged the presence in Czech museums of formerly Jewish owned artwork, the head of the commission has stated that the government will have to return or pay compensation for those works in public collections taken from Jews during the Holocaust. In this connection, the National Gallery in Prague has announced the transfer to the Jewish Museum of works known to have been owned by Jews. In April 1997, the Czech Interior Ministry announced that it would assist the Czech Jewish community in finding valuables stolen by the Nazis between 1939 and 1945, the bulk of which appears to have ended up in Germany, Russia and Switzerland. This gold had been transferred to Prague from Slovakia in the 1950s.
Czech archives are open to researchers and claimants.
The government in late 1998 objected to the country's listing by Israel as having hampered access to Holocaust-related documents. The Defense Ministry also came under fire in 1997 over its decision to tighten access to its files about wartime actions of Nazi SS units. Prepared by Andrej Divis, Research Associate, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division, Congressional Research Service. Slovakia was a quasi-independent state from 1939 until 1944, when it too was occupied by the Nazis. Natalia Berger, ed.