The federal budget for 1957-58, which sets aside $60,000,000 for Israel reparations and more than twice that amount as compensation, restitution or pension payments for Jewish victims of Nazism, received final approval today from the West German parliament.
After allowance is made for the benefits devolving upon non-Jewish applicants, well-informed observers consider it likely that the individual Jewish victims of Nazism, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims and the State of Israel will together receive between 175 and 200 million dollars from the West German Treasury in the coming year.
This is the first time that indemnification payments from the Bonn Treasury will outrank reparations and all other categories for Jewish claims, without even taking into account the funds which Germany’s individual states are obliged to contribute for indemnification purposes.
With regard to reparations to Israel, the Federal Republic is for the fourth time in succession resorting to an escape clause in the reparations pact permitting her to restrict payments for reparations shipments to the contractual minimum, which is $60,000,000 per year. The $74,000,000 designated in the Reparations Agreement as the “normal” rate has never been made available, Germany’s unprecedented economic prosperity notwithstanding.
In the last two budgets, large amounts were provided for the restitution of identifiable Jewish property confiscated by the former German Reich, Although duly appropriated, these funds were in fact hardly touched, the necessary legislative frame of reference having been delayed for many years. Now that the Federal Restitution Law has been passed by the Bundestag and is expected to enter into force in July, the $35.700,000 allotted for this category will soon be exhausted. By 1962, a total of $357,000,000 is required.
The Federal Republic some time ago assumed liability for the pensions due to nearly 3, 000 former German rabbis or erstwhile officials of Jewish communities, institutions and organizations. The 1957-58 budget allocates $6.800,000 for this purpose, as compared to $7,600,000. last year. The pertinent lump-sum back payments show a sizeable drop, since only a few hundred new applications are still pending.
A residual $50,000 have been allotted to crippled victims of Nazi medical experiments who, because of technical or legalistic reasons, are deemed ineligible for regular compensation. Further, the International Tracing Service (ITS), which maintains the Arolsen concentration camp archives on behalf of the International Red Cross, will receive $420,000. The aggregate total of payments appropriated for all categories of the indemnification, restitution and reparations program is $245,000,000.
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.
