The municipality of West Berlin has approved a $2,500,000 payment in compensation for the more than 25 Berlin synagogues wrecked during the November pogroms of 1938 by Nazi arsonists and dynamiters, with the assistance of the then municipal authorities.
From the amount of $2,500,000, which covers damage to the synagogue buildings as well as the destruction of furnishings and equipment, a $200,000 advance made to the postwar Berlin Jewish Community will be deducted. The present West Berlin Jewish Community will receive $700,000, while $1,600,000 is to go to the two “successor organizations” for heirless personal and congregational property, the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization and the Jewish Trust Corporation.
This settlement, one of the first entered into by German municipalities with respect to synagogues demolished and despoiled in the Nazi era, places the present Jewish community on a sound financial basis. It follows long negotiations not only between the city and the community, but also between the latter and the successor organizations.
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