Immediate action by the West German Government in extending the restitution law in order to assure prompt handling of the remaining 900,000 claims for individual restitution still pending, was demanded here today by Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, at the annual meeting of the board of directors of the Claims Conference.
Addressing the opening session, Or. Goldmann said that such a law also was needed to extend the benefits of existing West German law to other victims of Nazi persecution, especially those who have recently come from Iron Curtain countries. He emphasized that the need for immediate action was imperative because the present Federal indemnification law was scheduled to expire next December 31.
Dr. Goldmann pointed out that many Jews are entitled to compensation although they are not at present covered by the German law, which set October 1953, as a cut-off date. Nazi victims who could not leave Iron Curtain countries before that date do not qualify for compensation under the present German law. The law also fixed October 1, 1953, as the cut-off date for stateless persons.
Those now ineligible under the German law, said Dr. Goldmann, include thousands of Jewish victims of Nazism who fled Hungary after the 1956 uprising in that country, as well as thousands of others who reached Western Europe from East European countries in recent years. “On numerous occasions,” said Dr. Goldmann, “we have called upon the German authorities to place these refugees upon an equal footing with the pre-1953 claimants, and to compensate them for incarceration in concentration camps and for the loss of life and health.”
CLAIMS CONFERENCE DISTRIBUTED $79, 566,000 IN 30 COUNTRIES
He emphasized that payment of these claims was entirely separate from the money received by the Claims Conference for global distribution to needy Jews throughout the world. He reported that, to date, $79, 566, 000 had been distributed for the benefit of surviving victims in 30 countries by the Claims Conference, and that some 200,000 Jewish men, women and children had benefited from this distribution. In 1961 the Conference distributed $10,108, 000.
The total amount which the Claims Conference is to receive from the West German Government under the restitution agreement is to reach $107, 000, 000, he reported. The Claims Conference is recognized by the West German Government as the official spokesman for the Jews throughout the world who are entitled to individual restitution under laws drawn up by the Federal Government and various West German states.
Dr. Goldmann opened his address with a tribute to the Danish people and the Government for their heroic rescue of their Jewish fellow-citizens during the Nazi occupation He recalled that, of the 7, 000 Jews residing in Denmark at the time, only 475 fell into Nazi hands.
$2, 598, 000, 000 PAID OUT IN INDEMNIFICATION TO NAZI VICTIMS
In an accounting of individual restitution payments to date, he said “indemnification payments under present Federal law reached $2, 598,000, 000 on December 1, 1961. In addition the West German states paid out $173. 938, 000 before the Federal law was en-acted in 1953 to reach a grand total of some $2, 772,000,000. Of the total sum about $556,000,000 came in 1961, preliminary figures indicate.”
He said that the record “makes impressive reading but it must be weighed against the cost of the entire indemnification program. Those costs will run to $4, 300, 000, 000, West German authorities have estimated. Should the figure prove correct, only 60 percent have been paid to date.”
Moses Leavitt, treasurer of the Claims Conference, reported that, of the sum received in 1961, $7, 795,000 went for relief and rehabilitation of needy Nazi victims; $1,904,000 was spent for cultural and educational reconstruction; and $408,000 for various special projects.
In the field of community reconstruction, Mr. Leavitt listed the following projects made possible in 1961 through Claims Conference funds: six homes for the aged in Belgium, Italy, Uruguay and Australia; eight community centers in Belgium, France and Italy; repair reconstruction of synagogues in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Bologna and Naples. In addition, he reported, capital grants have been made to Jewish schools throughout the world.
Mr. Leavitt pointed out that “1961 was a year of upheaval and displacement in Jewish life. ” “Jewish refugee migration,” he said, “reached a momentum the like of which has not been seen for a decade or longer. Besides our continuing welfare allocations, our funds played a life-giving role in aiding thousands of Nazi victims, refugees from Eastern Europe and many from Cuba, in finding new countries of abode and starting life afresh.”
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