The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany warned today that the deadline for the filing of claims under the Federal Restitution Law of Germany is December 31 and that it is unlikely that this deadline, already extended once, would be extended again. The conference urged claimants to communicate immediately with attorneys expert in indemnification matters or with the nearest office of the United Restitution Organization to ensure the proper completion and submission of compensation applications before the December 31 deadline date.
The Federal Restitution Law deals with claims for compensation, in lieu of restitution, arising from the confiscation of moveable property, such as furniture, securities, bank accounts, foreign currencies, jewelry, precious metals, libraries; stamp collections, machines, goods in stock and the like.
The law provides that compensation claims may be submitted for such moveable properties valued in excess of 1,000 reichsmark that were confiscated outside the territory of what is now the German Federal Republic or Berlin but that were subsequently transported into that territory or into Berlin.
Proof must be submitted that the property was confiscated and carried off to the territory of the German Federal Republic or to Berlin, the Conference advised. With respect to most of these moveable properties, proof of ultimate destination can generally be established on the basis of Nazi measures since assets of this kind were usually delivered to Berlin. In the occupied countries of Western Europe, such as France, Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg, these properties were taken to Western Germany or Berlin.
Claims should also be made, the Conference advised, for valuables confiscated in the former Eastern regions, particularly the Government-General of Poland and in Czechoslovakia, wherever proof exists that the properties were carried off to the territory of the German Federal Republic or Berlin.
A second provision in the law grants the right to compensation for goods in-transit confiscated outside Germany, provided that the persecutee-owner emigrated from the area of the German Federal Republic or of West Berlin.
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