The Association of Jewish Businessmen and Industrialists in Germany has received assurances that guarantees for bank credits totalling $1,000,000 will be given to DP businessmen, artisans and manufacturers who, in contrast both to “ethnic German” refugees from Eastern Europe and to Jews formerly resident in Germany, were hitherto excluded from the government credit program.
The necessary amount, approximately $250,000, will be made available to the Bonn Ministry for Refugees out of remaining Marshall Plan counterpart funds. The credit guarantees, obtained by the Association and the Central Jewish Council after protracted negotiations, will fill a gap that has been sorely felt in local Jewish economic life.
Announcement that these credit facilities have been opened up for members of the Association was made at its annual meeting here. The conference also resolved to move the central office from Duesseldorf to Frankfurt, which is rapidly becoming the center of Jewish organizational activity in Germany. Hans Schueller, Frankfurt businessman, was unanimously elected chairman of the Association.
A small-loan fund, designed to help Jewish small businessmen, artisans and professionals in North Germany to become or remain independent, will shortly be established at Hamburg, in the British Zone, it was reported at the conference. With the Joint Distribution Committee and Jewish Claims Conference financial backing, similar credit institutions are already operating in Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin, where they have so far extended some 80 loans totaling $50,000.
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.
