German Government Pledges Better Care of Jewish Cemeteris

The Federal Government will devote greater effort in the future to the upkeep and safeguarding of isolated Jewish cemeteries in West Germany; particularly in the hundreds of towns and villages where former Jewish communities have been totally wiped out, Federal Minister of the Interior Dr. Gerhard Schroeder pledged in a message to the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

The cemeteries, which in rural areas often are in a deplorable state, have for many years been a subject of negotiations between the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Federal Ministry of the Interior. In the famed Statement of Governmental Policy on Jewish questions, which Federal Chancellor Adenauer delivered before the Bundestag in September 1951, the obligation to restore and maintain these burial grounds was recognized, but actual execution of the policy has been held up by several factors, among state governments, while the latter generally hold Bonn responsible.

Now the Federal Government has adopted a formal cabinet decision declaring its readiness to join with the individual states in taking care of the cemeteries, in lieu of the destroyed Jewish communities. The cabinet decision undertakes to include in the federal budget an annual appropriation “to supplement corresponding funds of the individual states.”

Particulars regarding the safeguarding and custodianship of the cemeteries are to be settled in an agreement that is to be reached with the Jewish representatives, says the cabinet decision. A joint cemetery committee was formed for this purpose several years ago by the Jewish organizations concerned.