7,000 Jews in Italy to Benefit from German Payments to Nazi Victims

Plans to distribute to victims of Nazi deportations the $10,000,000 West Germany agreed to pay Italy were advanced today by promulgation of regulations for the distribution by presidential decree.

The beneficiaries will be Italian citizens who were deported for reasons of race, anti-Nazi activities or political reasons, Victim of Nazi persecutions in general also will be indemnified. Claims must be submitted to the Italian Treasury by July 20 this year. An estimated 20,000 persons, of whom 7,000 are Jews, will be beneficiaries.

A special Ministerial Commission will be named to implement the agreement. The commission will establish the number of months each deportee was interned as well as for those who died during the deportation or within two years after the end of World War II.

A minimum of 12 months of internment will be set for payments. The total $10,000,000 will be divided by the total number of months of internment to determine the indemnification amount for a month of internment and each beneficiary will receive this amount multiplied by the number of months of internment determined for him. The individual amounts are expected to average $500.

By rough estimate, the indemnity for each month of deportation will amount to $40. Persons already indemnified under the West German Loss of Freedom Law will be excluded from the new distribution. However, it was stressed that all other claims have been explicitly reconfirmed in the Italian-West German treaty of June 2, 1961 if the claimants are individually eligible, regardless of the waiver in the 1947 Italian peace treaty with the Allies. Those victims who were refused compensation because of that waiver have until July 30 of this year to seek reopening of their cases.