Chancellor Willy Brandt has promised action to secure restitution for Jewish victims of Nazism who left Eastern Europe after 1965, it was learned today. He made the promise during a round of talks here with Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress. The talks ended yesterday. Other participants included the West German Finance Minister Helmut Schmidt, Interior Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher and Wolfgang Mischnik, chairman of the Free Democratic Party’s parliamentary faction.
Dr. Goldmann said he did not raise the question of East German reparations during his talks with Brandt because he did not think West Germany was the right country to press Israeli claims on the East German regime. He said he was skeptical about obtaining reparations from East Germany at all but he thought that country should, nevertheless, be put under strong pressure. Dr. Goldmann suggested that leading French political figures might help get a dialogue going with East Germany, but mentioned no figures by name.
West Germany has been reluctant up to now to make restitution to the post-1965 claimants. The time limit for reparations payments expired Dec. 31, 1969. The matter had previously been taken up with Brandt’s predecessors. The Jewish Claims Office in Frankfurt says that 80,000 claims are outstanding.
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