Germany Announces Deadline for Pension Claims by Nazi Victims

Former civil servants or public servants who are entitled to claim pensions on the basis of their having been dismissed by the Nazis for religious or racial or political reasons were reminded today that December 31 is the last day on which they can file their claim. It is also the deadline for applications by former German nationals who wish to have their German citizenship reinstated.

The “Law for Redressing National Socialist Injustice with Regard to Public Servants” was passed in 1951, but was considerably amended and improved a year ago Its benefits extend not only to pre-Nazi members of the state civil service system in Germany, Danzig, the Saar and certain areas later incorporated into Germany, but also to former employees of semi-official public utilities, to municipal officials, to university professors and lecturers.

Under the provisions of the law, more than 16,000 applications for pensions or for reinstatement have been submitted, the bulk of them by German political victims of Nazism, but a substantial minority by Jews. Almost all these cases have been already settled.

The law for restoration of citizenship provides that if a Jew was stripped of German citizenship by the Nazis, he is entitled to have it restored to him, irrespective of his present country of residence. A petition to that effect must, however, be addressed to the proper German authority before December 31, 1956. Emigrants from towns now located in West Germany can apply to police headquarters in their former place of domicile. Others must turn to the Bonn Ministry of the Interior, if they are now outside of Germany.