Joe Clark, Secretary of State for External Affairs, has called on East Germany to pay compensation to former German Jews now living in Canada for the confiscation of their property by the Nazis during World War II.
Clark, who requested some $4 million while visiting East Berlin last week, told East Germany’s leader, Erich Honecker, that Canada supports a World Jewish Congress call for a moral payment for wrongs inflicted by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Canada, Clark said, wants a lump-sum payment for the confiscation of property owned by Canadians of German descent, but East Germany said it prefers to look at the matter case-by-case. Officials in the Canadian Embassy in East Berlin told reporters that East German Foreign Minister Oskar Fischer did not respond directly to Clark’s request.
Clark also raised the demand that East Germany join West Germany in acknowledging German responsibility for what was done to the Jews by Hitler’s government. The East German position is that it is not responsible for the Nazis’ action.
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