German Government Welcomes Direct Reparations Talks with Israel

Anticipating that the Israel Parliament will authorize the government to start direct talks with Germany on reparations, a spokesman for Chancellor Konrad Adenauer today told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent here that the West German Government “welcomes every step taken by Israel toward direct negotiations.”

It is up to Israel to determine the best method of carrying on the negotiations, the spokesman said. Other officials pointed out that the reparations talks with Jewish organizations in Germany and the preparations now being made by the Federal Ministry of Finance for the issuance of a Federal reparations law laid the ground-work for official contact between Israel and Germany.

Erich Lueth, initiator of the “Peace with Israel” movement in Germany, today reported that his movement is receiving wide support, especially from young Germans. In a published statement he declared:

“Day after day, I receive messages of approval, especially from young people, including students of every political complexion. It seems as if the students are more anxious to make up for the wrongs inflicted on the Jews than the university lecturers, although I have received letters of encouragement from them, too. It is a healthy symptom that Germany’s students are approaching the problem with an open-mindedness which seems to have been lost to many members of the older generation.

“I am always deeply moved by the passion and zeal with which the Germans disassociate themselves from the crimes committed by the Nazi regime against our Jewish fellow citizens. It seems to me that many Germans consider it as an act of liberation that at last they may express their feelings. So far they did not know where to turn and if they did speak, conditions for a widespread response did not exist.”