The Pensions Advisory Board of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany has approved, and forwarded to the German Ministry of the Interior for further action, the first group of 23 pension applications filed by former German rabbis and employees of Jewish congregations and communal associations or by their widows.
The applicants, most of whom are over 70 and six of whom are more than 80, were entitled to pensions by the terms of their pre-Hitler employment contracts. Since the German state dissolved all Jewish congregations and organizations, and confiscated their assets, the West German Federal Republic recently undertook, after negotiations with the Conference, to pay such pensions within certain limitations.
It is understood that approximately 1,000 applications have been received all of which must first be screened by the Pensions Advisory Board in Bonn, whose executive secretary is Dr. E.G. Lowenthal. The first back payments, covering the period since October 1952, are expected to be made in July.
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.
