Nazi Victims Protest Deferment of German Indemnification Payments

The law recently enacted by the German Federal Government deferring indemnification payments to special groups of Nazi victims was vigorously protested last night, at a meeting conducted under the auspices of the Coordinating Committee of Nazi Victim Organizations. The major organizations of Nazi victims in the United States are represented on the Coordinating Committee. Representatives of Nazi victims who came to this country from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia attended the meeting.

The meeting was addressed by Dr. Ernst Katzenstein, the representative in Germany of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Dr. Katzenstein pointed out that the new law empowered the German Government to defer payments of $100, 000, 000 per year, in 1966 and in 1967, which were scheduled for distribution to Nazi victims in the scores of thousands. These payments were originally authorized by the German Government a brief three months earlier. The German action, Dr. Katzenstein said, will fall with the harshest severity upon thousands of indigent victims, among them many who are elderly, widowed or chronically ill.

Dr. Curt Silberman, who presided, told the meeting, that the German Government’s claim that financial pressures had impelled it to defer the indemnification payments had a hollow ring. The funds at stake, he pointed out, represented a mere fraction of 1 percent of the German budget.

The Coordinating Committee adopted a resolution calling upon the German Government to reverse its stand and to reinstate the indemnification payments. The resolution stated that Nazi victims all over the world and of every faith and nationality viewed the deferment with dismay and felt it could only lead to a loss of confidence in the promises of the German Government. The deferment was in sharp contradiction to statements issued by leading members of the German Government at the time the funds were originally granted, that the indemnification payments represented a debt of honor which took priority over other payments.

The resolution expressed deep regret that the deferment will represent a setback in the efforts to promote greater understanding between the new German democracy and the Nazi persecutees. In many instances, the injuries for which compensation was granted were inflicted as long as three decades ago, and many elderly, widowed and chronically ill victims may not live to receive the compensation which is rightfully theirs, unless the German Government will reverse its recent stand.