Germany Acts on Payments to “priority Groups” of Nazi Victims

The Federal Council, upper house of the West German parliament, has approved an implementation regulation to the 1953 Federal Indemnification Law authorizing certain disbursements to “priority groups” of Nazi victims-mainly those who are more than 60 years old or whose earning capacity is reduced by more than half because of sickness or injury.

These “priority groups” can, after they have complied with a variety of restrictive conditions, obtain the full amount due them for Nazi-inflicted injuries to health, for illegal detention in jails or concentration camps and, in the case of widows and minors, for death of the family breadwinner at Nazi hands.

If they were formerly residents of Germany, they can also obtain compensation up to $2,400 for damage to property, for example, when Jewish apartments and stores were systematically destroyed in the November 1938 pogroms. For impairment of economic and professional advancement or prospects through discriminatory Nazi action, members of the “priority groups” may seek compensation not exceeding $1,200.

The new regulation, issued 19 months after adoption of the Law itself, will enter into force upon publication in the Official Gazette, which is expected soon. Regular payments for damage to property and for impairment of economic prospects will now become possible for the first time. Advances and loans lave occasionally been granted in the past, but never before full and definite payments.

Compensation for illegal incarceration, which is computed at the rate of slightly more than one dollar a day, was heretofore limited to $715. Where a higher amount was awarded to a former concentration camp inmate, for imprisonment of more than 20 months, the German states in the past issued a sort of ICU certificate. These can now be redeemed at face value, provided the holder is elderly or an invalid.