American High Commissioner John J. McCloy’s speech in Stuttgart Monday in which he told a German audience that the United States Government supported restitution of property and indennity for sufferings of victims of the Nazis was welcomed in Jewish circles here.
Dr. Philip Auerbach, Bavarian Commissioner for Persecutees, said today that the speech “cleared the atmosphere,” adding that the Cermans are unwilling to return Jewish property, that denazification has been sabotaged and that even American officials have avoided taking decisions that would break the Nazi hold on German industry. Commissioner Auerbach announced that he will propose that the restitution statute in effect in the American Zone be extended to all of West Germany, since the American zone measure is the best one.
(In New York, Rabbi Irving Miller, president of the American Jewish Congress, welcomed Commissioner McCloy’s statement, and expressed the hope that it constituted “a turning away from our deplorable and inept handling of the Germans, which permitted the emergence of German nationalism.” He expressed gratification with the High Commissioner’s warning that, should the necessity arise, ultra-nationalistic forces in Germany would be checked.)
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.
