Any delay in completing the West German indemnification legislation to cover claimants now excluded would do harm to West Germany’s reputation abroad, a Social Democratic member of Parliament and chairman of its Commission on Indemnification, told a press conference here today.
Martin Hirsch, the indemnification chairman, discussed the new legislation plans at the press conference which was called after the commission completed its deliberations here. He predicted that a law to complete the legislation would come into force at the earliest not before the end of 1963 and that additional final legislation on compensation would be unlikely to become operative before the middle of 1964.
He added that all outstanding applications under the proposed closing legislation might be settled by 1968-69. The delay of the West German Government in providing such additional compensation legislation has been strongly criticized by Jewish organizations in the field. The principal change would be to make valid claims of victims of Nazism who were in Iron Curtain countries at a 1953 cutoff date and could not therefore apply for compensation.
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.
