Over half a billion deutschemarks has been paid out to claimants for restitution in the United States zone of Germany and one-third of all individual claims have already been settled, it was announced here today by the office of American High Commissioner John J. McCloy. More than 20,000 claims of all sorts have been settled for a total of 550,000,000 deutschemarks.
United States nationals or residents received a total in excess of 212,000,000 deutschemarks, 18,000,000 went to Israelis and 87,000,000 remained in Germany for various religious and political groups and for trade unions, a spokesman for the High Commission reported. The estimated value of real estate returned to its rightful owners was 216,000,000 deutschemarks, actual cash payments in lieu of property claims amounted to 103,000,000 deutschemarks, while approximately 100,000,000 deutschemarks was paid out for compensation under the provisions of the general claims law.
The spokesman also emphasized that United States policy with respect to the restitution program remains unchanged: it calls for strict adherence to all provisions of the general claims law and to the basic principles which prompted passage of the law.
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