The U.S. Court of Restitution Appeals, supreme tribunal in restitution matters affecting the American zone, has decided that contemporary trade unions are entitled to the return of property which was confiscated from pre-Hitler unions by the Nazi German Labor Front or acquired by individual Nazi favorites by the use of pressure.
The decision, announced by Presiding Judge Fred J. Cohn of South Carolina, has no direct bearing on Jewish claims. It will, however, serve to assure union support for the Allied restitution legislation now on the books, which is under unremitting attack from interested German quarters.
The success of these attacks may be gauged from a disturbing Bundestag vote, which has been generally overlooked although it is deemed particularly significant in view of its timing. Ten minutes after ratifying the Israel reparations agreement on March 18, when observers and newspapermen had already left the legislative chamber, the West German Parliament called upon the Federal Government to submit by the end of April a draft law “to deal with the obvious hardships occasioned through the handling of restitution by the occupation powers.”
This motion, with the aid of which its sponsors would like to re-open restitution cases that have already been settled by the return of property to its rightful Jewish owners, was adopted by a substantial majority. There were no “nay” votes.
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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.
