Nearly two million indemnification claims of victims of Nazi persecution in all parts of the world are still pending against the German Federal Republic, it was announced last night by the board of directors of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The Claims Conference, by formal resolution, appealed directly to Chancellor Adenauer of the German Federal Republic to speed up the lagging pace of indemnification payments to Nazi victims and their families. At the same time, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the Claims Conference, presented a report on the state of the indemnification program for individual Nazi victims, which was a primary responsibility assigned to the Conference under the agreement it reached with the Bonn Government in 1952.
“Claims pending at German indemnification offices have grown by half a million in the past nine months.” Dr. Goldmann stated. “Many will fail to reach adjudication in less than ten years at the present rate, a state of affairs that must be viewed in the light of the fact that a quarter of a century has elapsed since Hitler came to power.”
Payments to individual Nazi victims from the German Federal Republic reached $1,242,000,000, all told, by September 30, 1958. That sum represents, nevertheless, a mere fraction of the losses inflicted by Nazi persecution and the value of the claims submitted. “The great majority-of Nazi victims have failed to this very day to receive the compensation payments due them,” Dr. Goldmann stated.
Dr, Goldmann announced that he will shortly proceed to Bonn for discussions with Chancellor Adenauer and ranking German officials to discuss specific steps for speeding up the flow of indemnification payments. On the favorable side, Dr. Goldmann expressed satisfaction that deliveries of goods, materials and services, under the terms of the Bonn-Israel reparations pact of 1952, to which the Conference is a party, were continuing to move at a smooth and even pace.
A total of $391,666,667 in capital goods, materials and services were delivered to Israel from Germany since payments started on June 30, 1953. Of that sum, $65,476,190 in goods and services were provided in 1958, he reported. In addition, advance orders for capital goods, including ships and heavy equipment scheduled for delivery over the next four years have reached $83,000,000.
Dr. Goldmann pointed out that the reparations deliveries have left their mark upon the expansion and modernization of industry, agriculture and transportation in Israel, In the development of the Israeli merchant marine, in the expansion of the electric power system, and in supplying oil drilling, mining and related heavy equipment, the reparations deliveries have played a noteworthy role.
The former I. G. Farben Trust has provided a fund of $7,142,000 for distribution among the surviving Jewish slave laborers at Auschwitz, who were compelled to toil at its nearby synthetic rubber factory, during the war. The fund was set up by the terms of an agreement reached between the Claims Conference and the I.G. Farben Co. About 6,000 one time Jewish slave laborers at the Farben factory are expected to receive compensation.
JEWISH CLAIMS CONFERENCE AIDS 150,000 NAZI VICTIMS IN 19 LANDS
Mr. Moses A. Leavitt, treasurer of the Claims Conference, reported on achievements from allocations granted over the first five years of Conference operations, following a report on the expenditure of $10,234,283 in Conference allocations for 1958.
For relief and rehabilitation, Conference allocations over the years 1954-58 reached $37,300,000, Mr. Leavitt stated, and they have made their weight felt through-out the Jewish world. “Our funds are currently aiding over 150,000 needy Nazi victims per year, and the numbers have grown larger, year by year, ever since our operations began,” Mr. Leavitt said. The beneficiaries, in the overwhelming majority, are making their homes in continental Europe, above all in the lands that fell victim to Nazi occupation.
Allocations for cultural and educational reconstruction have exceeded $6,100,000 over the five-year period. Funds are currently going to 167 communities and institutions conducting activities in 19 lands. Over 1,800 Nazi victims are direct annual beneficiaries of the allocations, and thousands more are attending Jewish primary and secondary schools, rabbinical seminaries and other schools of higher learning and teacher training colleges, that received Conference allocations. “The Claims Conference has become the greatest single source of funds throughout the entire Jewish world for worldwide programs of cultural and educational reconstruction,” Mr. Leavitt stated.
A third major area of allocation, Mr. Leavitt said, is for legal aid extended via the United Restitution Organization and going to needy Nazi victim claimants under German restitution and indemnification laws. Allocations of $2,679,000 over the five year span have aided the URO to carry on operations in 15 lands.
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