II.2. What was taken? (Categories of property and income)
If one intends to study Nazi looting, one has to distinguish between various categories of property and income. The following categories seem meaningful, and each of them requires a different evaluation:
2.1. Business capital and business current assets
2.2. Real property and rights connected to land
2.3. Leases and tenancies
2.4. Movable property (such as household furniture and equipment, jewellery, works of art and religious objects, books etc.)
2.5. Life insurances and all other types of insurance policies
2.6. Securities
2.7. Savings deposit passbooks and bank accounts
2.8. Cash
2.9. Other claims
2.10. Industrial property rights and copy rights
2.11. Positions and entitlements under public law
2.12. Unlawfully withdrawn or unhonoured entitlements under employment contracts
2.13. Claims under annuity and pension schemes
2.14. Assets of trusts and foundations
Also to be taken into account are material losses sustained as a result of forced labour. Basically, what should be done is to draw up a total inventory and estimate of the assets taken by the Nazi regime. This should show the amount and extent of these assets, their type, the percentage which they represented of total possessions of the depredated groups (total confiscation, partial or insignifcant expropriation, including the question of compensation in money or kind), and the proportion of these assets in terms of total national product and national wealth. It will, however, only become clear as the Commission's researches progress whether or not this aim can be achieved in any adequate proportion.