Every German Jew possessing frozen accounts in German banks will be able to draw up to 5,000 marks-approximately $1,200 – a spokesman for the Jewish Agency announced here today. He added that about 20,000 German Jews whose capital has been blocked in Germany are now residing in Israel.
These Jews, he said, will now be allowed by Germany to transfer to Israel goods valued at 5,000 marks. However, the commodities which they will be permitted to acquire will have to be for personal or household use only. The spokesman estimated that the Nazis had frozen Jewish accounts to the extent of 1,500,000,000 marks.
(An announcement in Germany today slightly differed from the announcement made by the Jewish Agency. The German statement said that persons residing abroad who are in possession of blocked accounts in Germany, may in certain cases and at the expense of these blocked accounts, be given permission to acquire and export furniture and personal belongings from Germany up to the value of 5,000 marks, provided they once resided in Western Germany or in West Berlin, and that the objects in question were lost through acts of expropriation, confiscation, or war, it being presently impossible to trace their whereabouts.)
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.
