Plans for establishment of an international corporation to expedite the transfer of capital and goods of Jews emigrating from Germany will definitely be completed by the Intergovernmental Refugee Committee within a week, this correspondent was informed today by committee circles.
Declaring the project was “still in the embryonic stage,” these circles emphasized that the extent of the corporation was not yet fixed, but said that it definitely would include Jewish organizations. The details are now being prepared by financial experts.
The corporation, according to these sources, is the result of a decision taken at this week’s plenary session of the committee in London, after hearing Director George Rublee’s report on his arrangement with the Reich, which makes possible the putting into motion of the corporation machinery.
Establishment of a corporation to facilitate the export of Jewish capital had been urged by Jewish economic experts in the Reich as far back as 1937, when a detailed plan was submitted to London by Jewish groups closely associated with the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland (Reichs Representation of Jews in Germany, now reorganized as the Reichs Union of Jews in Germany) after consultation with Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, then president of the Reichsbank. This plan, however, remaind in abeyance while billions of marks of Jewish capital with could have been saved in time was confiscate under the decree last November of Field Marshall Hermann Goering.
While Mr. Rublee did not meet Jewish leaders during his stay in Berlin, it is assumed that this plan came into his hands together with various other similar plans submitted to the Intergovernmental Committee since last July’s Evian conference by different groups.
The projected corporation will apparently include also Reich representatives, since it is assumed that Germany will not only permit transfer of Jewish property, but will also contribute to Jewish emigration from “the flight tax” of 25 per cent of total property which the Reich assesses on emigrants. Such contribution would be profitable to the Reich since the clearing would bring it foreign exchange.
Central Jewish organizations in Paris which finance Jewish emigration from Germany are deeply interested in the information so far obtained regarding the projected corporation, especially since this project has the backing of the Intergovernmental Committee, which, they believe, will see it through.
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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.
