An agreement detailing the list of goods to be sent to Israel this year under the German reparations pact, was signed here today by Dr. F. Shinner, head of the Israel Mission and Dr. Hans Goers, an official of the West German foreign ministry. The amount of West German reparations in 1960 will total about $60,000,000.
At the same time it was affirmed here today that the West German Government will not enter into a new reparations agreement with the State of Israel on expiration of the present agreement in 1963. The announcement was made by Felix von Eckhardt, Minister of State and chief aide of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. He told a visiting group of five United Nations correspondents here that “neither the Government nor Parliament nor Israel envisages a new reparations agreement after 1963.”
Mr. von Eckhardt was emphatic in stating that no steps had been taken toward establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel and added that “what the future may bring, I do not know.” Asked about German purchase of small arms from Israel, Mr. von Eckhardt commented that weapons from Israel constituted only one-twentieth of one percent of West Germany’s arms purchases.
Karl Mommer, parliamentary whip of the German Social Democratic Party, told the correspondents that West Germany must establish diplomatic relations with Israel because, among other reasons, it has “a special obligation” to Israel because of the crimes committed against the Jewish people by the Hitler regime.
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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.
