The Bavarian State Parliament today appointed a 14-man committee to investigate the manner in which the provincial Restitution Office has been run. Dr. Philip Auerbach, its former chief, has been arrested on charges of fraud.
Meanwhile, Dr. Auerbach’s successor, Dr. Franz Zdralek, has discharged three more employees and has placed five on notice as of the end of June. Since Dr. Auerbach’s arrest the office has been in the hands of some 70-odd policemen and has halted all restitution payments and medical services to ill and crippled victims of the Nazis.
Local police officials today denied that Bavarian Chief Rabbi Aaron Ohrenstein was involved in the case of Dr. Philip Auerbach, former head of the Bavarian Restitution Office who is under arrest on charges of fraud. The police announcement stated that Rabbi Ohrenstein was called as a witness to clarify his intervention at the Restitution Office in behalf of 111 Jewish DP’s who were about to emigrate and whose restitution claims had not yet been settled. It turned out, the statement said, that part of the documents of the members of the group were forged.
From Bonn it was reported today that a meeting of representatives of the restitution offices of all states in West Germany has been called in Bonn for May 9 in order to confer on the drafting of a Federal law to indemnify victims of the Hitler regime. Non-governmental organizations representing political persecutees and Jews have been invited to attend the session.
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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.
