A resolution requesting the U.N. Secretary General to transmit immediately to all governments the draft of an international convention under which missing Nazi and war victims would be declared legally dead was adopted here today by a special committee of the U.N. Social and Economic Council which began consideration yesterday of the recommendations contained in the draft.
The resolution was introduced by the representative of Denmark with the provision that all governments give careful consideration to the draft of the pact with a view that the agreement may be adopted at the next session of the U.N. General Assembly, which is to open in September at Flushing Meadows. The international pact, if adopted, will not only enable surviving relatives to claim the property of the missing persons, but will also make it legal for many to re-marry.
Appearing before the U.N. special committee, Israeli representative Dr. M. Kahany emphasized that several million Jews perished as Nazi victims in extermination camps and their surviving relatives cannot legally establish their death because of the lack of official records.
“The Israeli Government,” he pointed out, “is especially interested in the early conclusion of an international convention with regard to missing persons because of the large number of surviving relatives who are now residing in Israel.”
Dr. Julius Katz-Suchy, representative of Poland, proposed that the recommendations submitted by the special committee on the declaration of death of missing persons be postponed until the next session of the Economic and Social Council.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
