Property seized from Jews in Europe after 1933 and now located in neutral countries will be restored to their owners, or their heirs, if they can be found, or will be made available for Jewish rehabilitation and resettlement, it was announced today by the American Jewish Conference on the basis of correspondence with the State Department.
The State Department notified the American Jewish Conference that it has taken under advisement the proposal advanced by the Conference that heirless Jewish property should be made available for Jewish rehabilitation and resettlement.
The sum of $25,000,000, allocated under the Paris Reparation Agreement for the rehabilitation and resettlement of non-repairable victims of German action, constitutes a first and prior charge on the proceeds of German external assets, the American Jewish Conference has been assured in the communication received from the State Department.
J. Kenneth Galbraith, director of the Office of Economic Security Policy of the State Department, discussing the statement and recommendations on reparations submitted to the Secretary of State by the Conference, declared that the State Department “has reason to believe” that this is also the view of France and the United Kingdom. The three governments will therefore support this position in future international negotiations, both with the neutral countries involved and in the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency.
As for the non-monetary gold found by Allied forces in Germany, which is to be made available to the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees over and above the ?25,000,000 referred to, it is contemplated that the gold would be melted down, sold for foreign exchange, and the proceeds turned over to the Committee.
The American Jewish Conference is now preparing memoranda for submission to the “Big Four” meeting of Foreign Ministers scheduled for London on April 25th and the subsequent peace conference to be held in Paris in May. Since the treaties in question will affect considerable numbers of Jews now living in Rumania, Hungary, and Bulgaria, efforts will be made to have appropriate safeguard clauses inserted in the various treaties.
Joint consultations between representatives of the American Jewish Conference, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the World Jewish Congress are scheduled to take place in London during the month of May. Among the points to be discussed at the consultations is the extension and expansion of the tripartite agreement to include representative Jewish organizations from other countries.
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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.
