The Federal Government of West Germany “will continue to make every effort for the quickest possible processing of restitution claims” presented by Nazi victims and “will take all necessary measures to achieve a satisfactory settlement of all outstanding claims, ” a statement issued here today by the West German Embassy declared.
The statement emphasized that the Bonn Government “has considered restitution for injustice committed by the Nazis as one of its foremost tasks. ” This task, the statement said, has already been accomplished to a considerable degree. “This is evident from the payments of approximately 13 billion marks ($3.1 billion) made so far by the Federal Republic, the embassy pointed out.
“In view of the magnitude of this undertaking, it need cause no surprise that even today many claims have not yet been dealt with,” the statement continued. “Again and again, the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has tried, through numerous measures, to speed up the processing of restitution claims. Because of such efforts it is anticipated that one of the most complex elements of restitution claims, that of compensation for damage suffered by the health of individuals, is to be finally settled in 1961. In this area, the main problem is one of obtaining the required medical certificates for those eligible for compensation, which are often difficult to secure in the case of persons resident abroad.
“At the suggestion of the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the regional German restitution authorities have sent German doctors abroad for a limited period, in order to collect the necessary information in the various places concerned. A beginning was made with the dispatch of three doctors to New York, where, it is hoped, they helped to arrange an early settlement of the claims of eligible persons resident in the United States. While every new measure of such a nature is bound to run into certain problems initially, it may already be stated that this step will undoubtedly result in a considerably accelerated processing of claims for compensation on account of permanent damage to health, ” the statement assured.
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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.
