Urgent appeals to the German and Austrian Governments for an early agreement on compensation measures for victims of Nazi persecution in and from Austria, were sounded here today at the opening of the annual meetings of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and of the Committee for Jewish Claims on Austria.
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the two organizations, voiced his deep distress that Nazi victims from Austria, in the tens of thousands, have already waited over two decades for the enactment of legislation providing modest benefits in compensation for brutal persecutions at Nazi hands, and for the loss of their possessions and livelihoods.
“it is highest time for the two governments to complete their negotiations on the size of financial contributions going to an Austrian program for the benefit of Nazi victims,” Dr. Goldmann declared. “The new program would come too late for many, even if it entered into effect tomorrow, since considerable numbers of aged refugees from Austria have gone to their graves in recent years without getting a single shilling in compensation.”
The Claims Conference session was attended by over 40 Jewish leaders from North and South America, Europe, Australia and South Africa. They represented the 23 national and world-wide Jewish member organizations of the Claims Conference, and they will decide on the allocation of $10,000,000 to be received this year.
Dr. Goldmann outlined a broad review of recent developments in the field of German indemnification and restitution. He expressed gratification that deliveries of goods, materials and services, under the terms of the Bonn-Israel reparations pact of 1952, to which the Conference is a party, were continuing to move at a smooth pace. All told, over $589,285,000 in capital goods, materials and services were delivered to Israel from Germany since payments started on June 30, 1953.
SLOW PAYMENTS BY GERMANY TO INDIVIDUAL NAZI VICTIMS EMPHASIZED
In his report, Dr. Goldmann pointed out that payments to individual Nazi victims by the German Government reached $2,077,000,000 all told, by September 30, 1960. “But the record must be weighed against the fact that only one-half of the sums estimated to be due have been paid so far over the course of a decade, while the German Federal Indemnification Law calls for the completion of the program by the end of 1962,” he said. He announced that in discussions just completed with top ranking German officials, the Conference had submitted specific proposals calling for further speed-ups in the tempo of adjudication and for more liberal interpretations of the Law.
“Among the gravest problems impending the completion of the indemnification program are the claims for damage to health, ” Dr. Goldmann stated. “Over 218,000 claims in that category awaited adjudication on September 30,1960. Cumbersome and long-drawn procedures have led to postponements, lasting for years in great numbers of cases. Nazi victims in the scores of thousands have suffered in body and mind for as long as two decades from the effects of imprisonment, mistreatment and torture, while their justifiable claims for compensation are subjected to prolonged delays by German indemnification offices.”
Dr. Goldmann expressed the deepest disappointment that the German Government has failed to provide compensation for Nazi victims who were able to leave eastern Europe only after October 1, 1953. Refugees arriving after the Hungarian uprising are also in the same position. The 1953 date is the cut-off deadline for the technical eligibility of stateless Nazi victims to register claims under the Federal Indemnification Law. “The claims of those victims have the greatest possible merit, since they were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps and suffered privations in the post-war years. Their moral claims for indemnification are every bit as strong as those of claimants who were in a position to file in time,” Dr. Goldmann said.
LEAVITT REPORTS ON $7,000,000 AID TO REBUILD JEWISH COMMUNITIES
A $7,000,000 program for rebuilding Jewish communities ravaged at Nazi hands, “that will live on far beyond the day when the curtain falls on our activities,” was described today by Mr.Moses A. Leavitt, treasurer of the Claims Conference. The program represents allocations granted for the construction, expansion, equipment and repair of about 400 homes for the aged, children’s and youth homes, hospitals and clinics, Jewish schools and seminaries, kindergartens, summer camps, community and youth centers, religious institutions, and the like.
“In western and central Europe,” Mr. Leavitt underscored, “scarcely a Jewish community under former Nazi occupation may now be found which cannot point to one capital project or more aided by Conference funds. In many Jewish communities, the tempo of organized activity has notably quickened under the impact of new buildings and facilities provided, and reconstruction with Conference aid is moving ahead on a scale unprecedented in Jewish life.”
Mr. Leavitt pointed out that the rebuilding of the Jewish communities which suffered at Nazi hands ranked high among Conference objectives. The program included the provision of physical facilities for the care of Nazi victims and for closing in some degree the gaps inflicted by Nazi persecution on Jewish creative resources. In that context, Mr. Leavitt described the Conference program for scholarships and fellowships. He stated that 1,240 grants have been issued so far.
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