Senate Body Hears Views of Jewish Congress Leader on Enemy Assets

Abraham S. Hyman, executive secretary of the World Jewish Congress and former general counsel of the U.S. War Claims Commission, told a Senate subcommittee that a proposal providing for the partial return of enemy assets and the award of compensation for war damages, was a “razzle-dazzle bill” which would prove “a disappointment to those who look to Congress for a law that is both comprehensive and just.”

Testifying on behalf of the American Jewish Congress, an affiliate of the World Jewish Congress, Mr. Hyman informed the Senate Subcommittee on Trading With the Enemy Act that the proposed measure “not only fails to come to grips with the outstanding problem of World War II war claims, but is basically an unjust measure.” He made the following four recommendations to amend the bill.

1. Provide compensation for personal injury sustained by American civilian citizens’ as a result of hostilities;

2. Provide compensation to the survivors of American civilian citizens who-lost their lives as a result of hostilities;

3. Provide uniform compensation for property losses, as a result of hostilities, sustained by American citizens, irrespective of the country where the loss was sustained, and to equalize the compensation, to further provide that compensation received under foreign or domestic legislation for the same types of claims shall be deducted from the first payments due under the law to be enacted;

4. Provide that persons who were residents of the U.S. at the end of the war and who are U.S. citizens at the date of the enactment of the law shall be entitled to recover for damage to property which they sustained as a result of hostilities.

Mr. Hyman reiterated a previous recommendation that persons adjudged “major offenders” by denazification tribunals should not be beneficiaries of the act.