Action by the West German Government is urgently needed to end the special handicaps of Jews who were victims of Nazism in Rumania, and who now seek compensation from the Bonn Republic, Idov Cohen, chairman of the Association of Rumanian Jews in Israel, stated here today during a stopover on his way to Bonn for a meeting with West German officials.
He said that, to qualify for compensation, Jews who lived in Rumania must prove they suffered from anti-Semitic legislation enacted under pressure by Hitler’s Third Reich, and not from Rumanian anti-Semitism. He added that such proof was not required from Jews from any other of the former Nazi satellite countries.
Declaring that the methods of obtaining proof involves a complicated process, with separate consideration for each type of case, he said years can pass before such claims can be settled. This, he emphasized, works a particular hardship on Rumanian Jews, because so many emigrants were aged and infirm. He added that many claimants died before their claims were settled.
Mr. Cohen estimated that remedial action would affect some 40,000 claims. He cited a statement made before the Bundestag, the lower house of the German Parliament, by Finance Minister A. Dahlgruen of the state of Rhineland-Pfalz, that the cost of these claims would be about 250,000,000 deutschemarks. That state handles claims for many of the Rumanian victims.
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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.
