More than two million dollars in indemnification claims benefits have been collected from the West German Government by Hias of Baltimore, over the past 12 years for the more than 700 victims of Nazism now living in Baltimore, it was announced here by Jacob J. Edelman, who was re-elected president of the agency for the third successive year.
Mr. Edelman, who made the announcement at the annual meeting of Hias, said that the $2,069,414 collected as of December 31, 1961, represented 946 individual claim cases. He also said that during this past year alone $314,723 had been collected on behalf of 151 clients.
In his annual report, Mr. Edelman said that in addition to lump sum settlement for Nazi victims. Hias of Baltimore had secured monthly life pensions averaging $62 per month for 134 clients. The filing and processing of indemnification claims against the West German Government now comprises 40 percent of the local Hias activity, Mr. Edelman said.
Mr. James P. Rice, executive director of the United Hias Service, addressing the meeting, pointed out that during 1961, United Hias had resettled throughout the free world 7,200 refugees from Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Cuba, including over 4,000 in the United States. “Of the 4,000.” Mr. Rice said, “over half came from Cuba.” He also expressed the hope that there would be a renewal of Public Law 86-648 under which refugees from the Middle East and Eastern Europe come, and which expires as of June 30 of this year.
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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.