A sub-committee of the Landerrat, Council of Minister-Presidents of the German states in the U.S. zone, today adopted a proposal to remunerate former political and racial concentration camp prisoners for the time they were imprisoned by the Nazis.
The proposal must now be referred for final action to the full Council, consisting of the heads of the governments of the states of Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Greater Hesse and the city of Bremen, which is an American enclave in the British zone. It is expected that the measure will meet stiff opposition in the Council, as did a recent restitution law, and will be defeated. However, as in the case of the restitution law, the American Military Government is supporting the legislation and is expected to promulgate it on its own authority should the Germans vote it down. No action is anticipated for several months.
The proposal, in its present form, would award ten marks to each ex-prisoner for every day he spent in a concentration camp. (Ten marks are worth one dollar at the current fixed rate.) However, because of the low value of the money on the open market, payment will be made in goods such as work tools and household goods. The law would only apply in the U.S. zone.
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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.
