Jewish Assets May Be Used by Britain to Repay German Debts to British Creditors

A substantial sum in German Jewish assets, now administered by the British Custodian of Enemy Property, will be used to repay British prewar creditors of Germany unless a bill providing for the distribution of German enemy property, which passed a second reading in the House of Commons last night, is amended during forthcoming committee discussions.

The bill provides for the use of German assets blocked in Britain for the benefit of British prewar creditors. The Custodian of Enemy Property issued a circular letter two years ago stating that the assets of victims of racial and religious persecution of former enemy (German) nationality could be released under certain conditions, chief of which was the condition that the victim had been deprived of his liberty.

Sydney Silverman, Laborite, the first speaker in the Commons debate yesterday, declared that the current practice of the Custodian was highly unsatisfactory. He cited the instance of a Jewish woman of Hamburg, whose husband had been sent to a concentration camp and who herself committed suicide on receiving a deportation order to the East. Mr. Silverman said that the claim of her heirs to jewelry deposited in England was rejected on the grounds that the owner had “not been deprived of her liberty.”

Another case he cited concerned a Rumanian who had been imprisoned by the Iron Guard to compel him to surrender his assets. Inmates of that prison were executed by firing squads after eight days unless they signed the document of property surrender. This victim signed under compulsion after three days. His claim was rejected by the Custodian of Enemy Property, who argued that three days arrest did not add up to confiscation of property. In addition, Mr. Silverman said, many claims of Hungarian and Rumanian Jews, who were sent to concentration camps — including the infamous extermination center in Transnistria — were rejected because the camps were called “labor” and not concentration camps.

Mr. Silverman was supported by Barnett Janner, Laborite, and many others, including Brig. John G. Foster, Conservative, who stressed the additional point that even the assets of German victims, admitted to Britain after the outbreak of war, would be considered confiscatable under the stipulations of the measure.

At the conclusion of the debate, A.G. Bottomley, secretary of the Ministry for Overseas Trade, promised on behalf of the government that the most generous consideration would be given to cases described as falling within the framework of international agreement. Meanwhile, several members of Parliament are drafting amendments to the bill which would protect the assets of victims of Nazi racial and religious persecution and permit their release and distribution to those victims, or their survivors, on a large scale.