The final, formal step in the West German ratification of the reparations agreement with Israel was completed today when the pact was promulgated in the Official Gazette of the German Federal Republic. Only an exchange of ratification instruments in the office of the United Nations Secretary General in New York this week remains before the treaty enters into force.
(In London today, the Daily Express published an interview with Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler’s financial “wizard,” in which the ex-Nazi called the Bonn Government’s agreement to pay Israel reparations “the height of stupidity.” Dr. Schacht said that it was stupid for the German Government to “start all that reparations business over again. We cannot pay anything like that. We will see where it land us.”)
The first Israel film shown in Germany was viewed here today by President Theodor Heuss of West Germany who accepted an invitation to the premiere extended by the Central Council of Jews of Germany. The movie was “Tent City.”
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