A Palestine Court ruled today that it could not assist the German Nazis in collecting the billion-mark “reprisal” fine from the Jews since the English law courts did not recognize “uncivilized confiscatory fines.” The action, one of several similar cases pending, was considered to be a test case.
The ruling was handed down by Magistrate Rosenzweig in the case of a local Jewish merchant, defendant in an action brought by the Nazi Commissar of an “Aryanized” enterprise in Deresden, Germany. The plaintiff demanded payment of amounts due the former Jewish owner of the enterprise.
Ordering the defendant to ignore the demand, Magistrate Rosenzweig declared English law recognized the laws of foreign countries provided they were civilized. “We cannot,” he added, “consider the present regime (In Germany) civilized.”
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