Dr. Nahum Goldmann said here today that improvements in West German indemnification laws were an urgent matter which should be approved at the current session of the West German Parliament.
To achieve this, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the amendment would have to be approved this month by the Government and in the Bundestag, the lower house, and at the beginning of June by the Bundesrat, the upper chamber.
He said he had not been able to persuade West German officials to remove the deadline for filing of individual claims for compensation by victims of the Nazi era. The present cut-off date is October 1, 1953. That deadline has barred filing of claims of thousands of Jewish victims who were trapped in Iron Curtain countries at the time, and who have since been free to file.
Dr. Goldmann said that he hoped the “hardship fund” West Germany has set up for compensation on a smaller scale to such victims would be a higher amount than the Government has suggested. The Government has proposed a fund of 700, 000, 000 marks ($175, 000, 000). Dr. Goldmann said he had asked for a much larger sum.
It was indicated that Finanee Minister Rolf Danigruen is reluctant to increase the amount. Dr. Goldmann said a decision would be made by the Government, that he believed that Chancellor Ludwig Erhard was a man of good will, and that an agreement would be reached.
Government press chief Karl-Guenther von Hase had announced after Dr. Goldmann’s talks with the Chancellor that the Chancellor had made no promises to Dr. Goldmann about indemnification. Dr. Goldmann confirmed that statement, but added that this did not mean that the Government would do nothing. Dr. Goldrann said that the necessary proposals would have to be put to the Government, and that the latter would then have to approve.
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.
