Bonn Parliament Fails to Ratify $357,000,000 Restitution to Jews

The West German Federal Council, the upper house of Parliament, refused its consent today to a measure which would have repaid a maximum of $357,000,000 as restitution for identifiable Jewish property confiscated by the former German Relch. Instead, the Council sent the bill to a conference committee of both houses.

As far back as 1947 and 1949, the Allies imposed restitution legislation compelling the return of Jewish-owned businesses, real estate, furniture, works of art, and securities in cases where these had been acquired under duress and by virtue of anti-Jewish persecution. The German Federal Republic, however, has not heretofore returned the Jewish possessions obtained by its predecessor, nor has it paid compensation therefore. The thousands of expropriated Jews who were awarded court judgments against “the German Reich” have so far been unable to collect, while the necessary legislation has been delayed seven years.

The proposed law, to which the Council raised certain technical objections, deals only with assets “Aryanized” by the German state–as well as the former Prussian state, the state railways and the state postal system–either in West Germany or in both parts of Berlin, Seizure of Jewish property in East Germany, the Saar, the areas now under Polish or Soviet administration and in the countries overrun by Nazi Germany are not affected by the law. Neither are “Aryanizations” by German individuals, corporations or municipalities.

The measure covers houses and real estate appropriated by Germany, and also stocks and bonds sequestered during the war, or else “sold” by the Jews of Germany and Austria to pay the billion-mark “fine” exacted by the Nazis in November 1938, after the assassination of Nazi diplomat Ernst vom Rath. The gold, silver and jewelry, which had to be delivered up at the same time, as a rule falls under the new law. So does furniture or luggage shipped abroad by emigrants from Germany and intercepted by the Nazis en route. If art objects and machines were seized in German-occupied countries by organs of the German state and demonstrably brought to Germany, the law also applies.

It is expected that the parliamentary conference committee will soon come to agreement on changes in phraseology proposed by the upper house. However, unless agreement is reached within a few weeks, the measure will not be enacted into law by the present Parliament.