The hope that the German-Israel reparations pact would be “the beginning of good relations between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany, in the interest of peace and harmony between nations,” was expressed by U.N. Secretary General Trygve Lie in connection with the exchange here last Friday of the instruments of ratification of the agreement between the two countries.
The exchange took place at a formal ceremony in the office of the U.N. Legal Department. Israel was represented at the ceremony by Arthur Lourie, Consul General of Israel in New York and Deputy Representative of Israel to the United Nations. The Federal Republic of Germany was represented by Dr. Hans Riesser, German Consul General in New York and Deputy Permanent Observer to the United Nations. Mr. Lourie made the following statement:
“This is an occasion of great solemnity. History cannot be changed and nothing can expiate the anguish endured. But in the building of the world’s future it is of the highest importance that the principles of moral responsibility enshrined in this Agreement have received acknowledgment and are now entering the stage of implementation. Israel and the Jewish people will welcome the fact that the Federal Republic of Germany has now definitely undertaken this measure of recompense for the material losses inflicted by the Nazis.
“We are meeting in the home of the United Nations, the free forum of a world yearning for peace and human dignity. It is in every way appropriate that we should be exchanging this Agreement in this place. The United Nations Organization emerged from a great war fought for freedom and the protection of the rights of individuals and peoples. It is the hope of us all that this vision will prevail.”
Dr. Riesser declared: “The German Government has made this agreement in order to fulfill an inevasible moral obligation of the German people to Israel and the Jewish people.” He recalled the statement of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer on submitting the agreement to the Bundestag (lower house of the German Parliament) in which Mr. Adenauer had said: “We may hope that ratification of the agreement will lead to a new relationship between the German and the Jewish peoples as well as to a more normal relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel. After all that has happened, we will have to be very patient, and we must have confidence in the effect of our willingness to make good and – last but not least – in the healing power of time.”
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