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Congressman Charges U.S. Taxpayers Would Be Made to Shoulder Burden of East German Reparations to Je

October 18, 1974
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A Congressman charged in the House that U.S. taxpayers would be made to shoulder the burden of reparations that East Germany may pay to Jewish victims of Nazism. Rep. John R. Rarick (D.La.) made the in charge in a speech Tuesday attacking U.S.-East German diplomatic relations which he claimed are “tied to consideration of Jewish reparations against East Germany by Nazi victims.”

Rarick, an arch-conservative, was defeated in last month’s primaries in his bid to stand for re-election to Congress. He said that he had heard from “at least one source” that Jewish claims against East Germany total nearly $400 million and that “material claims for property confiscation by the Nazis are estimated as high as $4 billion.”

The Congressman claimed that this money would eventually come from the pockets of American taxpayers. According to his reasoning, “Rigid socialist East Germany has indicated that one of its first diplomatic moves would be to apply for most favored nation status to enable its party leaders to obtain foreign aid and all of the other one-world goodies from the U.S. taxpayers.

“In other words,” Rarick continued, “it gives the inference of the Nazi victims reparation being tax shifted onto the U.S. taxpayers. We are yet to hear from the heirs and survivors of the Christian victims of socialism under the Hitler era–especially as to charting U.S. foreign policy,” Rarick said.

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