Jewish Claims Conference Allocates $10,204,443 for Aid in 30 Lands

The sum of $10,204,443 was granted to Jewish communities, organizations and institutions in 30 countries throughout the world by the board of directors of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany at the close of its two-day annual meeting here today. The board represents 22 major Jewish organizations in various countries around the globe.

The sum granted today represents funds available for distribution this year from German reparations payments. With this year’s total, the overall sum distributed thus far comes to $49,749,443, Jacob Blaustein, senior vice president of the conference, announced.

The sharp contrast between the heartening speed with which the West German Republic is meeting the reparations obligations it assumed to the State of Israel and the discouraging delays in the implementation of individual indemnity legislation was stressed here last night by Dr. Nahum Goldmann, Conference president, at the opening session of the annual meeting.

Dr. Goldmann expressed gratification at the assurance conveyed to him by the West German Chancellor Dr. Adenauer that the Federal Republic’s indemnification laws would be carried out in full. “The statement just issued by Dr. Adenauer following our meeting several days ago will do much to calm the disquiet created recently by irresponsible opinion,” Dr. Goldmann said.

Dr. Goldmann also hailed the forthright attitude of the Social Democratic Party of West Germany in support of the indemnification program. “Our conference pledges itself to the continued and close follow-up of implementation of indemnification legislation in every part of Western Germany heartened by this evidence of support from the head of the government and the leadership of the principal opposition party,” he stated.

NAZI VICTIMS IN IRON CURTAIN LANDS TO GET AID FOR FIRST TIME

The Conference leader called special attention to the fact that this year for the first time the Nazi victims of the so called Iron Curtain countries were to be recipients of funds from the Claims Conference. “I am referring,” Dr. Goldmann said, “to the aid program for Nazi victims in Poland which opened last year, following an invitation extended to the Joint Distribution Committee by the Polish Government. I am also referring to the Jewish communities in Hungary and Czechoslovakia that received the permission of their governments for the first time to submit direct applications to the conference requesting aid on behalf of specified programs.

“Jewish communities in all three of the lands,” he continued, “rank high among the most impoverished in all Europe and the present needs of the Nazi victims may truly be counted among the most urgent that have cropped up from any quarter. For Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia direct and official conference aid is the first in virtually one decade that is reaching them from lands outside.”

Reporting on German deliveries to Israel under the agreement of which the Claims Conference is a part, Dr. Goldmann said: “The delivery of reparations goods, materials and services to the State of Israel was a major aspect of the 1952 agreements and new from this front is heartening. For the fifth year in a row, I am happy to report that reparations deliveries to Israel are running at a smooth pace. The German Government is not merely meeting its obligations, but us continuing to proceed beyond them.”

ISRAEL RECEIVED $326,190,000 IN REPARATIONS FROM GERMANY, DR. GOLDMANN REPORTS

The figures presented by Dr. Goldmann revealed that in 1957 Israel received in goods, materials and services the equivalent of $64,285,000, bringing the total to $326,190,000 since deliveries began in 1953. Advance orders for capital goods include ships and oil drilling equipment for delivery over the next few years amount to $80,952,000. Illustrating the important role German reparations payments played in the creation of the Israel merchant marine. Dr. Goldmann pointed out that ship deliveries to date have amounted to 19 vessels with a tonnage of 163,610.

The Claims Conference president concluded with a report on the state of the indemnification program for individual Nazi victims. “The gravest problem confronting us continues to be slow implementation of legislation, Claims on file at indemnification offices approached 1,300,000 at the latest official count. Reliable unofficial sources place the number higher by several hundred thousand more. Payment of claims is proceeding with measured strides and the number awaiting adjudication is piling up as the months roll by.”

Reporting on his meeting with Dr. Adenauer, Dr. Goldmann said he discussed with the Bonn Chancellor ways and means of speeding up fulfillment of the obligations that Federal Germany and the individual states had assumed. Measures urgently called for include: provision of more adequate funds and advances on the part of the Federal Government; enlarging of undermanned staffs at indemnification offices and the establishment of uniformity in procedures and treatment of identical categories of claims on the part of the various states.

PREDICTS THE YEAR 1958 WILL BE “FATEFUL PERIOD” IN INDEMNIFICATION PROGRAM

“The year 1958 is expected to prove a fateful period for the program of indemnification The true scope of indemnification claims and the fiscal demands they will make are expected to merge for the first time with a measure of clarity and certainty,” Dr. Goldmann asserted. “Great exertions will fall to our lot in the months ahead if we are to gain improvements in the administration of the program and in the strengthening of the very foundations upon which it rests. Above all our vigilance dare not falter since the enemies of indemnification are collecting their strength to strike at the program with fresh onslaughts.”

Moses A. Leavitt, treasurer of the Conference, reported that during 1957 the organization had allocated $10,048,000. “The year 1957 has completed the first third of the anticipated life-time of the Conference,” he pointed out. “The Conference allocations have made their weight felt up and down the entire Jewish world. Our funds are currently aiding some 200,000 Nazi victims per year. The number of beneficiaries has grown larger ever since our operations began. The cold figures fail to convey the full sense of the impact on the communities that Conference aid has provided,” Mr. Leavitt declared.

In presenting the 1958 budgetary recommendations for consideration of the board, Mr. Blaustein pointed out today that the sum allocated today was divided among the following categories: relief and rehabilitation, $794,595; cultural and educational reconstruction, $1,294,848; research and commemoration, $405,000; legal aid, $160,000, and administration, including a contribution to the Israel Purchasing Mission, $400,000.

Mr. Blaustein stated that a sizeable portion of the money assigned for relief is earmarked for the emigration of refugees from Europe and their absorption in new homes. “Second only to the needs of Jewish victims of Nazi persecution in Poland and Czechoslovakia, are the needs of the refugees who fled Hungary following the 1956 uprising. That event helped shape the structure of our 1958 budget. In the first nine months of 1957, over 2,300 refugees migrated to Australia, over 500 to Brazil. Thousands are expected in 1958.

“Besides the refugees, legal emigration flowing from Poland and Hungary to overseas lands other than Israel began to make its weight felt in the closing months of 1957. It is expected to grow in 1958,” Mr. Blaustein stressed. “Mass movements of refugees and legal emigrants stemming from these lands have taken such proportions that local resources in the receiving communities are unable to cope with the new and heavy burden. On that account, allocations destined for refugee aid in Australia and Brazil have been stepped up in budgetary recommendations for 1958.”

Allocations of cultural and educational grants have been provided for the following purposes: Jewish education; research and publication; salvage of records and documentation; upkeep of rabbinical schools; and, granting of individual scholarship. Funds for capital investment play an important role in all categories of grants, Mr. Blaustein said.

“The overwhelming share of the funds has been earmarked for expenditure in Europe, and the impact they have made on the rebuilding of Jewish communities which went to destruction at Nazi hands lies beyond any overstatement,” Mr. Blaustein concluded.