A deputations of British Jews called at the Foreign Office today to express misgivings about the rising tide of nationalism and neo-Nazism in Germany and concern over proposals to re-arm Germany. The group was headed by Dr. A. Cohen, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and included other officers and leading members of the Board.
The deputation stressed that evidence of increasing Nazi influence in German political life was to be seen in the appointment of former high Nazis to important offices in the Bonn Government, in the commutation of sentence of war criminals and in the freedom allowed extreme nationalist propagandists.
The Jews underlined that the Board of Deputies had consistently opposed the arming of East or West Germany and stressed that they feared new threats to democracy from the projected re-arming of Western Germany.
The deputation also drew the Foreign Office’s attention to the need for speeding up the procedure for handling individual compensation claims against West Germany, and for continuing international control over the archives of the International Tracing Service, which are now located at Arolsen, Germany. It is proposed to turn these files over to West Germany after the occupation is ended.
The Board group was told that the Foreign Office would give careful consideration to the issues raised by it. The group was also told that the Foreign Office would at all times be ready to receive any information in connection with these matters which the Board wished to submit.
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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.
