The bill for the payment of more than 4,000,000,000 marks ($952,000,000) damages to Jews and other persons who were persecuted by the Nazis, which was passed last Thursday in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, will come up for final approval on July 17 before the Bundesrat, the upper house, it was learned here today.
Some objections to certain features of the bill may yet be raised at the Bundesrat, but it is nonetheless expected that the bill will be enacted in August and will enter into effect on October I. It is understood that the Social Democrats, who are strong supporters of the bill, are already engaged in preparation of amendments to improve the deficiencies of the measure. Before proposing these amendments, the leaders of the Social Democrats will discuss them with a group of Nazi victims.
Compensations to Nazi victims under the bill, as adopted by the Bundestag last Thursday, will be paid over a period of ten years. Loss of life would be compensated with pensions for survivors. Damage to health would be paid for at a minimum rate of 30 percent of the victim’s normal earning capacity. Former concentration camp inmates would receive the equivalent of $37.50 a month for the terms of their confinement.
The Communists voted against the bill in the Bundestag. The Free Democrats were split with a majority voting in favor of the bill. Most of the deputies of the Bavarian Party and of the German Party either abstained or voted against the measure. The bill passed by the solid majority of the votes of all the Social Democrats and a preponderant majority of Chancellor Adenauer’s Christian Democrats.
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