Dr. Eugen Gerstenmaier, president of the West German Bundestag, the lower house of Bonn’s Parliament, declared today that negotiations for German amendment of its indemnification and restitution laws, so as to provide payments to victims of Nazism thus far not covered, will be resumed in January. The German leader is in Israel on a visit.
Dr. Gerstenmaier said he talked in Bonn, before coming here, with Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. The latter was in Germany to discuss with Government leaders a proposal that payments be extended to victims of Nazism who were physically unable to file restitution and indemnification claims before the 1953 deadline, due to their inability to leave Iron Curtain countries. The 1953 deadline is the cut-off date under present German law.
Denying that these negotiations have come to a standstill, Dr. Gerstenmaier declared that the talks are only suspended until early next year, when consultations will have been held with the finance ministers of the individual German states which must ultimately assume responsibility for an expanded program of payments.
The Bundestag leader, discussing German affairs in general, at a news conference, also said that “there is no chance of a revival of Nazism” in Germany now. He reiterated again his conviction that a majority of the Bundestag would support a move for establishing diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel, declaring “such a move rests with Germany.”
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