The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany called on the German federal republic last night to take immediate action to “allay the fears of tens of thousands of victims of Nazism whose claims for compensation are imperiled by recent developments in the implementation of the idemnification laws” of West Germany.
The demand was made by the Claims Conference at its plenary session here after a report by Dr. Nahum Goldmann Claims Conference chairman. Sums amounting to more than $100,000,000 were assigned by West Germany in 1964. The Conference continues to function as a recognized spokesman for individual claimants.
Dr. Goldmann told the session that the major positive development of the past year was the promulgation by the West German Government in December, 1965, of the law extending benefits to new categories of claimants, including those previously excluded because they were in East European countries and hence unable to file claims for reparations before the 1953 deadline in the basic legislation. The law also improved existing rights under the previous legislation.
Dr. Goldmann added that on the negative side, there had been subsequent “deplorable” developments which he called a violation of the basic spirit of the indemnification legislation. He declared that “within 90 days of the promulgation of the new law, the West German Parliament enacted a budgetary protection law which seriously curtailed payment to claimants during 1966 and 1967, deferring them to a later date.” He reiterated that “many of these claimants may not live to see this date.”
“We are now in the fourth decade since initiation of the Nazi discriminatory laws and acts in 1933,” he said. “Many of the claimants have now been waiting 20 years for payment of their claims. They cannot and we cannot participate in a race between justice and mortality.”
GOLDMANN ASKS GERMANY FOR PRIORITY ON PAYMENTS TO NAZI VICTIMS
Dr. Goldmann reported that the new law did allow full payment of certain “privileged claims” but, he added, “even these privileged claims are now endangered.” He said this “fundamental injustice” was now being compounded by the fact that some of the West German states were pleading lack of funds as justification for not making immediate payments even to those in the “privileged category.”
He told the session that “for the first time in the history of indemnification payments, the question of inadequacy of funds has arisen.” He called this “an intolerable situation,” noting that West Germans have referred to the reparations program as “a debt of honor.”
Insisting that such debts “have first priority,” he said the Claims Conference was “calling on the West German Government to make a public commitment to take action to allay the fears of the Nazi victims throughout the world that there may be further delays in payment and that their terms for compensation may never come.”
He reported that while annual allocations have ceased, the Claims Conference continued to make allocations to individuals and to groups of victims “who have no other source to take the place of what we have been giving them in former years.” Jacob Blaustein, Claims Conference senior vice-president, explained that the sums distributed this year come from residual funds that remained after the conclusion of annual payments by West Germany, supplemented by accrued interest.
Mr. Blaustein added that the budgetary proposals for 1966 were restricted to a small number of special programs in the field of relief and rehabilitation. He said that in line with the board’s decision of 1964, no new applications for relief and rehabilitation have been accepted.
He reported that a total of $1,144,534 had been allocated for this year. He said the sum “is being distributed mainly to men, women and children who are entitled to either public or private welfare relief. It will also provide help to aged rabbis and former community leaders who have no official status in the countries in which they reside.”
Declaring that the funds on hand “will be used in a very few years,” Dr. Blaustein added that “hopefully, by then new resources of help will be found or established, and our beneficiaries will be able to spend the remaining years in the peace and freedom from want to which they are entitled.” Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz of New York, Claims Conference treasurer, reported on receipts and expenditures for the past year.
Other officers of the Claims Conference are Jules Braunschvig, of Switzerland, Samuel Bronfman of Montreal, Dr. Israel Goldstein of Israel, Adolph Held of New York, Sir Barnett Janner of London, Dr. Siegfried Moses of Israel, Mark Uveler of New York, M. Boukstein of New York and Saul Kagan of New York.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
