Berlin Conference Asked to Extend Reparations Pact to All Germany

Extension to Eastern Germany of Western Germany’s Jewish reparations agreement and of all restitution and indemnification laws now operative in Western Germany, was asked today by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Letters signed by Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the conference, were delivered in Berlin today to John Foster Dulles, U. S. Secretary of State, Anthony Eden, British Foreign Secretary, and Georges Bidault, French Foreign Minister, setting forth the Jewish claims. The conference, representing the major Jewish organizations in the free world, negotiated jointly with the Israel Government the $822,000,000 reparations settlement with the Federal German Republic.

The letter listed the following demands of the conference:

1. That all obligations undertaken by the West German Government to redress wrongs committed under the Nazis shall remain in effect until fully discharged. These obligations have been defined in a series of international documents which include an agreement between the State of Israel and West Germany, and between the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and West Germany, signed in Luxemberg September 10, 1952.

2. That the agreement between the West German Government, the State of Israel, and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany should cover both the East and West zones. This would necessitate financial adjustment, because the $822,000,000 settlement involves the financial obligation of Western Germany alone.

3. Extension to the Soviet-controlled zone of Germany of all legislative measures to indemnify and compensate Hitler’s victims now in force in the area of Western Germany and in the Western zone of Berlin.

This would also apply to legislation now pending in the West German Parliament, passage of which was pledged by the West German Government in its agreement with the Conference. The major provisions of the legislative agreement affecting Nazi persecutees of all faiths are also contained in the Contractual Agreement signed by the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, France and the United States and Chancellor Adenauer on May 26, 1952.

Dr. Goldmann, in his letter to the three foreign ministers, pointed out that the Soviet zone has “no legislation in any way approximating the scope and the nature of the restitution and compensation laws now in effect in the Bonn-ruled area.” He also called attention to the fact that the East German Government has as yet undertaken no obligation to the State of Israel and to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. This was a “deplorable situation,” he said. “The Federal Republic of Germany has recognized the duty of the German people to make amends to the Jewish people. All Germany is morally obligated to settle Jewish claims and no zone can claim exemption.”