The American Jewish Committee has been advised by the State and Justice Departments that it is contrary to U.S. Government policy to record “any validity to German confiscatory and discriminatory laws, decrees and acts insofar as they may be concerned in the consideration of claims filed against vested Chairman interests,” it was revealed today by Victor S. Riesenfield, chairman of the ?.J.C. administrative committee.
The policy ruling affects suits for recovery of bank accounts and other property seized by the Nazis and subsequently vested with the U.S. Custodian of Alien property or blocked in banks by Government order. According to a letter to Seymour ? Rubin, counsel for the Committee, from Assistant Attorney General David L. Bazelon, director of the Office of Alien Property, “the Office of Alien Property will not assert as a defense to debt claims filed under section 34 (of the Trading with the?emy Act), decrees, laws and regulations of the former government of Germany, enacted ? promulgated during the period between January 30, 1933, and May 8, 1945, which discriminated against individuals because of membership in a political, racial, or Religious group.”
Restitution to original owners of property in Germany looted during the Nazi ? will be furthered by a clause introduced by the Social Democratic Party for seclusion in the preamble of the proposed constitution for Western Germany now being ##rafted by a German parliamentary group at Bonn, according to information received by the Committee through its European representatives. The constitution is intended to ##erve as the basic law for the projected West German state.
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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.
