Dr. George Shuster, American Commissioner for Bavaria, today urged Bavarian authorities to reach a settlement as soon as possible with the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization on payments for heirless Jewish property. The JRSO has asked for 25,000,000 German marks while the Bavarian Government has countered with an offer of 15,000,000 marks. Dr. Shuster, former president of Hunter College in New York, recommended that the figure be 20,000,000 Deutschmarks.
Addressing a press conference, the American official criticized the “standstill in compensating the persecutees.” He added that an international loan of 40,000,000 marks would aid greatly in paying the claims of persecutees living outside Germany. Franz Zdralek, head of the Bavarian indemnification office, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the budget for next year provides for only 8,000,000 marks for restitution. He added that he would seek to obtain a greater appropriation and that if he failed, he would resign.
The Bavarian Senate appealed to Federal German authorities to extend preferential treatment to the restitution claims of victims of Nazism who are more than 60 years of age and also to those who have been permanently disabled as a result of their suffering in Nazi concentration camps.
One deputy charged that of 100,000 compensation claims filed to date, only 12,000 have been processed. Dr. J. Spanier, newly-elected member of the Bavarian Senate, declared that “if Bavaria cannot meet its obligations under the restitution law, it would call on the Federal Government to provide the necessary funds.”
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.
