The Lithuanian government decided Wednesday to create a compensation fund for Holocaust victims and Jewish victims of Soviet nationalism.

Lithuanian Treasury Minister Deividas Matulionis described the decision as a historic one that "might become a certain model for other states having historic conscience problems," reported the Baltic news agency BNS on Wednesday.

Open gallery view Jewish women being expelled from Greece during the Holocaust. Credit: Courtesy of the Ghetto Fighters' House

Compensation for Jewish people in several central European countries remains an unsettled issue.

The new fund means that 128 million litas ($48.6 million) will flow in the next 10 years to support religious, cultural and social Jewish projects.

Separately, 3 million litas is allocated this year for reparations to Holocaust survivors.

The total value of the fund is equivalent to about 30 percent of the value of property of Jewish communities in the Baltic country that was expropriated or nationalized by the Nazis or Communists.

Before World War II, some 200,000 Jews lived in Lithuania. More than 90 percent of them were murdered by the Nazis during their occupation. Today, around 5,000 Jews live in the country.

