Strong “protective” organizations bent on wrecking Allied plans to return their stolen and confiscated property to victims of the Nazis have emerged in the United States zone of Germany, it was stated in a report by Harry Greenstein, former adviser on Jewish affairs to the American authorities in Germany, made public here this week-end by the Department of the Army.
Expressing concern for the military government’s restitution program the report stated that organizations, fed on still-rampant anti-Semitism, have banded together with the “avowed aim” of mobilizing sentiment against the restitution law. He observed that the law was “exceedingly unpopular” with the Germans adding that “the Germans are and will continue to be reluctant to surrender to the rightful owners the property which was confiscated during the Nazi regime.”
Mr. Greenstein’s report, which covers the period of his service in Germany from February to October 31, 1949, noted that the restitution law had been promulgated by the military government after efforts to obtain passage of such laws by the German states had failed. Mr. Greenstein asserted that the restitution program in Austria “bears even closer surveillance.
The report added that hatred and hostility against Jews in Germany will persist for many years stressing that it “is imperative that the occupying powers recognize in anti-Semitism the rejection of the democratic principle and as the unmistakable sign of the resurgence of German nationalism, in its must vicious form.”
“The progress in the solution of the Jewish displaced persons problem,” measured in terms of resettlement, has been a source of great satisfaction to everyone,” the report said. Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 15, 1949, it revealed, 54,700 Jews were resettled from Germany and 12,500 from Austria. Of these, it was pointed out, 40,300 migrated to Israel, 23,500 to the United States and 3,400 to other countries. As of Oct. 15, 1949, he added that 33,000 Jewish DP’s remained in the U.S. zone of Germany and 10,000 in the U.S. zone of Austria.
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