The World Jewish Congress today announced that it will ask the Council of Foreign Ministers, which will meet in Moscow in March to draft a peace treaty with Germany, to retain some form of Allied control over the country for at least a generation.
“Unless the strongest measures are laid down in the treaty to prevent the resurgence of fascism and anti-Semitism, a revived Germany will again become a menace to the democratic world in a few years,” Dr.A.L. Kubowitzki and Dr. M.L. Perlzweig, leaders of the world Jewish Congress, told a press conference.
Pointing out that it may take several years before all displaced Jews are transferred from Germany–even if they are admitted to Palestine and other countries of resettlement–the Congress spokesman warned that consideration must be given to what will happen to these DP’s when the domestic jurisdiction of a German government is restored. They stressed in a joint statement that “Germany is still a thoroughly anti-Semitic country,” and that “some form of jurisdiction will have to be devised which will assure these people the continuing protection of the United Nations.”
“The World Jewish Congress,” their statement continued, “will demand that the treaty shall contain some acknowledgment of Germany’s guilt in its attempt to annihilate the Jewish people in Europe, and it will insist that Germany shall pay at least some form of token reparations for the purpose of helping to reconstruct the Jewish life which it came near to destroying. Such a payment will not, of course, compensate for the hideous destruction of life which the Jewish people suffered, but it is important as an act of justice that it should be made.”
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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.