Emigration is Rumania’s Method of Solving Jewish Problem, Goldmann Says

The release of Rumanian Jews who wish to go to Israel is a “natural development” springing from the fact that the East European countries have developed a non-Jewish intellectual and professional class for whom they desire to make room by replacing the Jewish professionals and intelligentsia, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the Jewish Agency, told a press conference here today. The method chosen by the Communist states to solve their Jewish question, he added, was to grant permission to emigrate.

Reporting various aspects of his recent conversations with West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and members of the Bonn Cabinet, Dr. Goldmann said that he found Bonn “understanding” of the problems of Jews in the East European countries, particularly those in Rumania, who had been prevented from claiming indemnification for damages suffered at the hands of the Nazis. He raised the question specifically of Jews who left the Soviet bloc states in the past five years, too late to file under the provisions of the 1 nn 1952 law.

The world Jewish leader said he had made recommendations to the Germans for speeding the processing of claims for individual restitution within Germany, particularly in the province of Rhine-Pfalz which handles the majority of claims from Jews who are Israeli nationals or stateless persons. This province, he noted, had a backlog of 500, 000 claim applications which would require 12 years to process at the present pace. The law only allows four years. He estimated that because of the slow processing only about 60 per-cent of the available funds were being paid out for individual restitution

Commenting on the wave of anti-Semitism in Germany, he expressed the opinion that it was basically the work of former Nazis and “not serious. ” But he had warned the German leaders that Nazi anti-Semitism also had “small” beginnings. He characterized as very serious the fact that a German judge–found to have been a former Nazi–had acquitted the distributors of anti-Semitic literature.

REPORTS ON GERMANY’S ACTION TO END ANTI-SEMITIC MANIFESTATIONS

He said that the Bonn Government was greatly disturbed by the anti-Semitic manifestations and was pressing for strong legislation to end them. He reported that he had told the German leaders that the problem could not be solved by legislation alone, but would also require an educational program among the youth.

On the question of caring for Jewish cemeteries, mass graves and memorials to Nazi victims, he said that an international Jewish committee would have to be established to carry out such a function. He reported that an agreement in principle had been reached with France regarding the removal of the remains of Jewish victims at Bergen-Belsen, following Jewish religious protests against the opening of graves. Under the pact, only graves which would soon revert to the control of the German military establishment would be opened, because in such cases the Jews were concerned about transferring Jewish remains from areas to be controlled by the German armed services.

In other remarks, Dr. Goldmann said the Austrian Government’s attitude toward compensation to Jewish victims of the Nazis was unsatisfactory. He also expressed the hope that a large delegation of Soviet Jews would be permitted to attend the forthcoming World Jewish Congress meeting in Stockholm.