Informed sources reported here today that compensation payments to victims of the Nazi occupation of Italy, from a special $10,000,000 West German fund given to Italy in 1963, will not be completed before 1968. An estimated minimum of 8,000 Jews appear to be eligible for such payments.
The West German Government provided the money for partial indemnification of Italians deported by the Nazis between 1943 and 1945. An Italian law regulating distribution of the funds was adopted in 1964. It excluded servicemen taken to Germany as prisoners of war after the Italian armistice in 1943. Under that law, it was estimated that applicants would total about 20,000, including one-third who were Jews.
Later it developed that the clause excluding prisoner of war deportees had been incorrectly interpreted, and some 300,000 applications were filed. Current estimates of eligible claimants are between 30,000 and 40,000 persons, and the number of Jewish claimants may be higher than the initial estimate.
The original deadline for submitting documentary proof of eligibility was November 22, 1966. However, final examination of the 300,000 applications by a special commission, eventual appeals against findings of the commission and other procedures assured delay in payments until 1968, the sources said.
It was estimated that the average payment, when finally made, will be about $250 per person. Since payments will be based on duration of deportation of each victim, the actual payments will vary from that average.
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