WWII History Haunts Attempts to Seize Russian Assets

BERLIN—The specter of World War II is haunting Western attempts to seize Russian assets and funnel them to Ukraine’s defense against Moscow.

Berlin has emerged as one of the fiercest opponents of the U.S.-led push to commandeer some of the nearly $300 billion of Russian central-bank assets that were frozen at the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Germany fears that seizing, rather than freezing, the funds could create a precedent and inspire new claims against them for WWII-era crimes.