Sir Barnett Janner, Member of Parliament and president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews led a delegation of Jewish refugee groups to the West German Embassy today to submit a protest against the shortcomings of legislation now before the Bonn Parliament for compensation of Nazi victims.
The protest was in the form of a resolution approved at a meeting of the groups of Nazi victims held here last night. The resolution called the proposals in the pending legislation “grossly inadequate.” The resolution was presented to Dr. Rudolf Thierselder, the West German Minister.
Sir Barnett told the meeting last night that the substantial efforts by West Germany to eradicate the shame of Nazism were appreciated. “Jews,” he said, “cannot be unremindful of the fact that compensation and restitution by West Germany has helped to restore many broken homes and repair shattered lives, but there are still tens of thousands of helpless victims of the Nazi terror who continue to be deprived of remedies for their sufferings because of omissions in existing laws.”
He said that the pending West German legislation “fails to correct this.” He expressed hope that the “appeal which goes out from this meeting will strengthen and encourage those who sincerely wish to make amends and diminish the power of those who are anxious to put their miserable past into the background and out of the conscience of mankind.”
Groups represented at the meeting were the Association of Baltic Jews, the Association of Jews of Poland, the Council of Jews from Czechoslovakia, the Association of Jewish Refugees, the Council of Jews from Austria, the Federation of Hungarian Jews and the Polish Jewish Ex-Servicemen’s Association.
At issue is a decision of the West German Finance Ministry to ask for only $100, 000, 000 in additional compensation funds. The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany had recommended that a minimum of $250, 000, 000 be provided for those survivors who had not as yet received restitution in accordance with the “debt of honor” stands of the present Chancellor Ludwig Erhard and former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
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.
