The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany said today that less than one-fourth of claims for compensation by individual victims of the Nazi era had been processed by the first of this year.
Of 2,674,328 claims filed, only 596,403 had been processed to January 1. Delegates to the conference here also were told that the West German indemnification law expires on December 31, 1962 and that at the present pace, the full program could not be completed by that date.
The conference recorded its “deep concern” and urged the West German states to speed the rate of settlement by simplifying procedures and adding personnel to ensure that many thousands “are not cut off from the indemnification due them and which they desperately need.”
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, who presided, said that in processing claims for compensation for permanent physical and mental injury suffered under Nazi persecution, states were demanding a volume of documentation “which it is practically impossible to provide and which is definitely contrary to the spirit of the federal law which requires only that reasonable proof be given.”
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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.