Nzis Destroyed $100,000,000 Worth of Jewish Communal Property, Survey Shows

The Nazis destroyed about about $100,000,000 worth of ##ish community property in Germany, it was estimated in the first comprehensive re##t on the organized destruction of Jewish communal property by the Hitler regime, ##ased today by the American Jewish Committee.

The study, which follows a three-year survey compiled and analyzed by the American Federation of Jews from Central Europe and sponsored by the Committee, is based ##a total of 1,054 reports covering 1,050 cities and towns, and on secret Gestapo ##ments and evidence revealed at the Nuremberg trials.

Local property of 231.6 million Reichsmarks was reported, plus 5.1 million ##chsmarks for Jewish regional associations in four German states, thus bringing the ##al reported communal property to 236.7 million Riechsmarks before the nation-wide ##nned pogrom of Nov. 10,1938. This total corresponds roughly to $100,000,000 at last prewar official exchange rate, the survey notes.The record of assets of the former Jewish communities and other non-private or##izations in Germany includes an inventory of the major synagogues, hospitals, or##nages, seminaries and other Jewish communal property in the principal German cities. ##s comprehensive inventory of the damage suffered by the Jewish communities in Germany under the Nazi regime is intended to commemorate the cultural and religious at##ments of the Jews of Germany “and to serve as valuable material for the recovery ##property destroyed or robbed by the Nazis,” Professor Nathan Stein, president of ## American Federation of Jews from Central Europe, declared.The assassination of Ernst Vom Rath, secretary of the German legation in ##is, provided the Nazis with the excuse for putting into action drastic measures to ##stroy the Jewish community in Nov., 1938, the survey declared. “There had been ##out 1,600 Jewish synagogues and houses of worship in Germany in 1932 and 1933,” the ##port notes. “The number decreased 1,400 in 1937. During the November events, only ##se synagogues which stood between the houses of non-Jews were spared. Whatever ##pperty of the Jewish communities, scientific bodies and social work organizations ##ained was put under official seal in June 1943, and confiscated by the German Gov ##ment.”