The Israeli delegation to the German reparations negotiations began meeting here today with representatives of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany on final plans for coordination between the two groups which will soon enter into separate negotiations with the Bonn Government. Although the composition of the delegation representing the Conference has not yet been set, it was reiterated that it would be composed of experts and that no Jewish political figure would participate in the talks.
The World Union for Progressive Judaism today submitted to the United Nations a request that it bring a claim for restitution for the Union before the West German Government. The memorandum said that the request was put to the U.N. “because we did not have an opportunity to express our point of view in the Conference on Jewish Claims Against Germany and because a considerable number of our governing body felt that our organization should not approach the German Government directly.”
The memorandum stipulated, however, that the Union does not “wish to interfere with or disassociate” itself from claims made on behalf of Jews generally, but only to add the claim of the religious organizations which the Union represents. It pointed out that in pre-war Germany the majority of the Jews expressed a preference for affiliation with Liberal Judaism and that two Liberal Jewish religious organizations were associated with the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
Meanwhile, a New York Attorney, Lillian D. Rock, left here for Paris on the first leg of an international search for the assets of the Mendelssohn family, whose members fled Germany in 1933, leaving behind an estimated $5,600,000 which the Nazis stole. Miss Rock will seek valuable paintings belonging to the Mendelssohns in French banks. Later she will travel to Holland to recover about $280,000 which she believes is there. Finally, she will go to Frankfurt to begin proceedings to recover the remainder of the family’s assets from the Bonn Government.
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