Immediate passage of legislation providing compensation and indemnification for victims of Nazi persecution of all faiths was requested of the West German Parliament by the Board of Directors of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany which met here yesterday. New Parliamentary elections will be held in Germany this summer.
Provision for such legislation is contained in an agreement between the West German Government and the Conference signed in Luxemberg last September 10 by Chancellor Adenauer and Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the Conference.
The Board session, chaired by Dr. Goldmann, heard reports on two recent meetings involving the individual claims issue. During his recent visit to New York, Chancellor Adenauer met with officers of the Conference and promised he would bend every effort to bring about speedy passage of this legislation.
Similar assurances were received by representatives of the Conference in the course of consultations recently with legal experts of the German Government. The Social Democratic Party of Germany pledged its full support. The Board stressed that it is “a matter of great urgency” that these pledges be realized in law within the next few weeks.
ALLOCATIONS FROM GERMAN REPARATIONS MADE FOR GROUPS IN ISRAEL
In considering the allocation of funds accruing under the German-Israel agreement, the Board approved in principle that some of these funds should be earmarked for cultural rehabilitation. This point was stressed in a solemn statement unanimously approved by the Board, which emphasized that the vast cultural treasures of East European Jewries, “the spiritual repositories of many generations, ” must not be permitted to vanish as had been intended by the Nazis.
The meeting also approved a first allocation of funds in the amount of 685,000 Israel pounds for rehabilitation and resettlement projects sponsored by organizations working in Israel.
These funds will be applied in part towards the establishment by the OSE Association of seven-day nurseries of infants up to two years of age the vocational training of new immigrants in ORT institutions; the operation of a school for deaf-mutes by the Alliance Israelite; the expansion of student facilities at Yeshivoth maintained by Vaad Hayeshivoth and Mifa’al Hatorah, and, the care of aged Nazi victims in institutions sponsored by the Council of German Jews.
Funds remaining after allocations to organizations have been made will be transferred to the Jewish Agency for its colonization, irrigation and absorption programs.
In addition to members resident in America, the meeting of the Board of Directors was attended by the following members from abroad: Barnett Janner, vice-president, and A.G. Brothman, secretary, of the Board of Deputies of British Jews; Harry A. Goodman, chairman of the European executive of Agudath Israel; A. L. Easterman, political director of the World Jewish Congress; Oscar Joseph, treasurer of the Central Fund of British Jews; Jules Braunschweig, vice-president of the Alliance; Heinz Galinski, member of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland; and Michael Garber, member of the executive board of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
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.
