The West German Government has agreed, in principle, to compensate Italian Jews who were victims of the Nazis, “La Stampa,” Turin’s leading newspaper, reports from Bonn. The unofficial decision to compensate Italian. Jews was disclosed during preliminary negotiations between German and Italian officials on the the payment of compensation to Italian victims of Nazism.
The West German Government had originally objected to the payment of compensation to Italian Jews on the grounds that they were already paying 450,000,000 marks to Israel and the Jewish Claims Conference.
The paper reports that intensive Italian-West German negotiations on details of compensation to Italian citizens are expected to start before the end of the summer. Taking part in the discussions will be a mixed Italian-West German commission which will study economic and commercial problems and which will be presided over by Italian Undersecretary of the Treasury, Valsecchi and by West German Undersecretary for Economic Affairs, Westrick.
The Bonn Government is also understood to have yielded on the question of the number of categories of persons entitled to compensation. The Federal Government had previously claimed that compensation was due only to those Italian citizens who had established residence in Germany not later than 1945. Bonn now concedes that compensation is due all Italian victims of Nazism, whether they resided in Germany or not.
One difficulty still to be overcome in the negotiations is the definition of “persecuted by Nazism.” According to present German laws persons persecuted “for confessional, racial and ideological motives” are entitled to compensation, but there are several controversies on this point. Italian war prisoners and internees in Germany have been excluded from compensation, the paper said.
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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.
