A sharp criticism of the anti-restitution campaign of Fritz Schaeffer, Bonn Justice Minister, was made today by Dr. Franz Boehm, a member of the West German Parliamentary Compensation Committee, in an address before the Congress for the Society of Christians and Jews of Munich.
“Mr. Schaeffer knows our budget quite well. ” Dr. Boehm declared. “Why does he again and again pick out our compensation program for criticism?” Asserting that there were “other examples” to be used to demonstrate misuse of German laws. Dr. Boehm said that Schaeffer seemed to believe he could win the approval and votes of West Germans by continuing to attack the compensation law.
He said high legal fees were paid not by the West German Government but by the compensation applicants themselves. He asserted it was “sheer nonsense” to say that 30 percent of the estimated 18, 000, 000 marks to be paid in compensation claims would be taken by lawyers. He said there seemed to be a “number of politicians” in the West German Federal republic who were convinced that compensation payments were unjustifiable but, he added, they should not be permitted to stir up new anti-Semitism in their opposition.
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