The Ministry of Justice announced today it was preparing a legal draft on “measures to reintegrate victims of Nazi persecution” who returned to West Germany after the downfall of the Nazi regime.
A Ministry spokesman said the draft was intended to provide housing loans and mediation for employment and sick benefits. The Central Council of German Jews urged passage of such a measure more than a year ago in a petition to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
Dr. Fritz Schaeffer, West German Minister of Justice, appealed to all parties in the Federal Parliament yesterday to settle their differences and approved the Government’s anti-defamation bill. The measure was referred back to the Parliament’s juridical committee last week together with drafts offered by the Free Democratic and Social Democratic parties.
In his appeal, Dr. Schaeffer described as “unfounded” the opposition argument that the bill was a special law to protect only Jews. He said it would also protect other racial, religious and national minorities from slander. He also termed false the argument that the Central Council of German Jews opposed the bill. He said that Dr. H. G. van Dam, the Council’s secretary general, had approved the measure “in content as well as in its form.
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