Jews in or from the State of Hesse, who were herded into the Shanghai ghetto by the Japanese in 1944-45, are definitely entitled to compensation on the grounds of illegal custody, provided they are otherwise eligible under German indemnification legislation.
This was learned here today when it became known that the period has expired during which the State of Hesse could have appealed against a verdict of the local Superior Court in the Shanghai ghetto test case filed by Frankfurt resident Else Sommer.
Jews in or from Hesse can collect a little more than one dollar a day for the 27 months they spent in the Shanghai ghetto, where 20,000 German and Austrian Jews were herded together in the Hongkew slums by Japanese military authorities acting on German instigation.
There is no assurance, however, that German states other than Hesse and Berlin will respect the ruling of the Frankfurt Superior Court, arrived at after extended cross-examination of top Nazi diplomats stationed in the Far East during the war. Bavaria, in particular, is likely to delay until a case has reached the Supreme Court in Karlsruhe.
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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.
