German Social Democrats Seek Action on Indemnification Law

Mounting indignation at German governmental procrastination in issuing the implementation regulations to the Federal Indemnification Law for individual compensation claimants has led to the tabling of a legal amendment and of a parliamentary interpellation by the Social Democratic Party in the Bundestag.

The Social Democratic draft amendment seeks to correct some of the deficiencies of the Federal Indemnification Law. Thus it proposes a more realistic definition of the term “persecutee, ” provides for tax exemption of compensation payments and directs the computation of certain pension payments on the basis of the Nazi victim’s average income in the three years immediately preceding the onset of the persecution.

At present, the income of a “comparable civil servant” is used as a basis for these calculations, leading to grotesque situations when, for instance, a formerly prosperous Jewish cattle dealer is placed in one of the worst paid civil service categories because he lacks a high school diploma, which he would have needed to qualify for a low-ranking clerkship in the civil service system.

According to German parliamentary procedure, a “major interpellation” makes it mandatory for the government to deal with the subject of the inquiry at a plenary session of the Bundestag. In an interpellation now filed, the Social Democratic Party formally asks the Federal Government when the implementation regulations and administrative ordinances, which the Federal Indemnification Law calls for, will be promulgated. Although the law was passed by the Bundestag nine months ago, it remains a dead letter because not a single regulation or ordinance has yet been issued.

Meanwhile, a special committee of the Federal Council, or Upper House of Parliament, has begun hearings and deliberations on ways and means to improve the Federal Indemnification Law.