Negotiations between West Germany and Israel about compensation for German property in Israel will begin in Luxemburg May 19, the Israel mission in Germany today announced. The negotiations are to be started as part of the German-Israel reparations pact under which Israel consented to pay compensation for confiscated German property. All payments made by Israel will be taken from reparations funds made available by Germany.
German assets that remain in Israel today–the value of which some German sources estimate as high as $100,000,000–fall mainly into two categories. They are the former colonies of the Templars, a Protestant sect whose members were for the most part deported to Australia by the British Mandatory authorities during the war because of their Nazi sympathies. There is also real estate as well as buildings, notably the Dormition Monastery in Jerusalem and a high school nearby, held in the name of the Roman Catholic Archiepiscopal See of Cologne.
The Israel delegation will be led by Dr. Chaim Yachil, deputy head of the Israel purchasing mission in Germany. Other negotiators will be Dr. Kazmon, General Administrator of Public Property in Israel, and Karl Sirkin.
The German delegation, which will be headed by Ministerial Director Dr. Jala of the German Foreign Office, will include officials of the Bonn Ministry of Finance as well as two Foreign Office diplomats. Among the latter is Dr. Abraham Frowein, a Gentile lawyer who has been in charge of the Israel desk since the early days of the first Luxemburg negotiations. The Cologne Roman Catholic Diocese will also be represented.
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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.
