Mass Protests Against Delay in Indemnifications

(Continued from Page 1)
up a special fund of $300,000,000
to pay their claims.
Despite this legislation, West
German Finance Minister Rolf
Dahlgruen announced recently
that the 1966 payment would be
deferred for a year or two because
of "budgetary difficulties," and
plans to this effect have been
presented to the Bundestag, lower
house of the Parliament, as part
of an over-all 1966 budget reduc-
tion. The plans have already
passed in the Bundestag on first
reading, and a second _reading is
expected in about a week. Dr.
Nahum Goldmann, chairman of
the Conference on Jewish Material
Claims Against Germany, sent ap-
peals to members of the Parlia-
ment to vote against the proposed
delay in payments to the post-1953
Nazi victims.
The Central Council of Jews
in Germany issued a statement
terming the delay of compensation
payments to Nazi victims uncon-
stitutional. Kurt Grossman, repre-
sentative here for the Conference
an Jewish Material Claims, said
the planned delay in payments
to post-1953 claimants would affect
particularly the aged and the
needy, and widows of those claim-
ants. These, he said, are "the
indigent members of the post-
1953 group, who, under the law,
would, at last, have been assured
of some hardship payments."
Failure to start those payments
in 1966, he added, lArould amount
to "a flagrant breach of a solemn
promise" made by Chancellor
Erhard last spring, when the
"Final Indemnification Law" was
adopted.
The Conference on Jewish
Material Claims warned that
the Bonn government's plans to
reduce the 1966 and 1967
budget affecting indemnification
payments to victims of Nazism
would, if finally adopted, "in-
evitably" affect not only new
claimants but also old claims
that had not yet been favorably
adjudicated by the German
authorities.
Those claimants whose claims
had been favorably adjudicated
would not be affected. However,
it was pointed out, there are more
than 250,000 "old" - claims that
petitions have not yet been ad-
judicated and could be affected
by cuts in the government's 1966
and 1967 budgets. Therefore, the
Claims Conference contended,
budget reductions for 1966 and
1967 will, if passed finally, "in-
evitably cut into the old and
the new claims."
The "old" claims are those filed
by victims of Nazism under the
Federal Indemnification Law prior
to April 1, 1958. The new claims
are those filed under the amended
Indemnification Law enacted by
the Parliament in May of 1965.
"It is little consolation," the
Claims Conference declared, "that
they (the claimants) are not to
be deprived of their claims but
that 'only' about 30 per cent to 40
per cent of their claims may be
deferred to future years. Many
of the persecutees are old and
may not have months, let alone
years, to live."
The proposals for 1966 and 1967
budgetary cuts affect also the im-
position of higher taxes on various
services and luxury goods such
as "champagne and spirits." Re-
ferring to that portion of the
recommendations, the Claims Con-
ference stated: "Of all those af-
fected by the budgetary curtail-
ment laws, consumers of cham-
pagne and spirits are listed
directly after Nazi victims. Those

,
s
CP "666

7

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
10—Friday, December 10, 1965

whose lives were wilfully impaired
by state-organized crime should
not be brought within the orbit
of budgetary law. Indemnification
has always been proclaimed as
an honorary debt of the German
people and must be taboo."
The German government warn-
ed Wednesday that victims of
Nazism who had filed indemni-
fication claims prior to the ex-
piration of the filing deadline
under the federal indemnifica-
tion law of April 1, 1958, and
wish to file additional claims
have only until Dec. 31 of this
year to enter new claims.
Previously there had been no
time limit on the filing of addi-
tional claims by persons in that
category. Now, however, it was
emphasized that there is a time

Hmnphrey Makes
Appeal for Peace
at Weizmann Fete

Underscoring the influence of
modern science and technology on
every phase of contemporary and
future civilization, Vice President
Hubert Humphrey appealed for
universal peace. He expressed
hope that: ". . . The nations of the
Middle East may live securely in
peace with each other, to their
common benefit."
He addressed the $350-a-plate
dinner under the auspices of the
American Committee for the Weiz-
mann Institute of Science at the
Waldorf-Astoria Monday night. He
was introduced by Abraham Fein-
berg, president of the American
Committee for the Weizmann In-
stitute.
The guests of honor included
the following Nobel Laureates:
Dr. Konrad Bloch (medicine and
physiology); Dr. Carl F. Cori
(medicine and physiology); Dr.
Andre Cournand (medicine and
physiology); Dr. Peter Debye
(chemistry); Dr. Edward C. Kend-
all (medicine and physiology); Dr.
T. D. Lee (physics); Dr. Fritz Lip-
man (medicine and physiology);
Dr. Maria G o e p p e r t Mayer
(physics); Dr. I. I. Rabi (physics);
Dr. Emilio Segre (physics); Dr.
William Shockley (physics); and
Dr. Selman A. Waksman (medicine
and physiology).
The Vice President paid glow-
ing tribute to the late Senator
Lehman, in whose name the
Weizmann Institute is establish-
ing a Research Chair in
Theoretical Nuclear Physics for
peaceful purposes. Mrs. Herbert
H. Lehman; guest of honor at the
dinner, was presented by Din-
ner co-chairman George Backer
with a scroll citing Senator
Lehman's accomplishments as a
humanitarian, statesman, leg-
islator and champion of Jewish
interests.
A message from Levi Eshkol,
Prime Minister of Israel, was read
commending the establishment of
a research chair honoring the
memory of Herbert H. Lehman.
Dewey D. Stone, Chairman of the
Board of Governors of the Weiz-
mann Institute, presented a special
award to Theodore R. Racoosin, a
governor of the institute and
chairman of the executive commit-
tee of the American Committee for
the Weizmann Institute, on the oc-
casion of his 70th birthday.
The artistic program featured
Mischa Elman, premier ballet danc-
ers Edward Villella and Patricia
McBride, the French chanteuse
Francesca Solleville, and the Pale-
stine String Quartet.
Twelve hundred guests from
every walk of life attended the
dinner which celebrated 21 years
since the basic plans for the Weiz-
mann Institute were initiated.

—Israel Fashion—
The second Israel Fashion Week
will be held Feb. 21 to 25, in Tel-
Aviv.

limit which will expire at the end
of the 1965 calendar year.
Italian Jewish Communities .
Protest Delay of Payments
ROME (JTA)—The Union of
Italian Jewish Communities pro-
tested that West German plans to
defer compensation payments to
a special group of victims of Nazism
were causing "resentment and dis-
trust."
The Union made its protest to
the West German ambassador in
Rome, asking that West Germany
cancel the plans which would defer
payments from a special $300,-
000,000 hardship fund to claimants,
mostly Jews, who were in Iron
Curtain countries in October, 1953,
the original deadline for filing
such claims, and hence unable to
file.

Edelman Brands Payment
Delay 'Retrograde' Step

(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)

LONDON—The plans being con-
sidered now in the Bundestag,
West Germany's lower house of
parliament, for passible defer-
ment of 1966 and 1967 payments
of indemnification to certain vic-
tims of Nazism who were schedul-
ed to receive initial payments by
1966, was criticized sharply here
Wednesday by Maurice Edelman,
president of the Anglo-Jewish As-
sociation.
A Bundestag committee is cur-
rently discussing proposals to defer
for at least one year the payment
of a first installment of $50,000,000

to those victims of Nazism who
were voted a $300,000,000 "hard-
ship fund" in an amendment to
the federal indemnification law
enacted last May.
The German government, said
Edelman addressing a meeting
of the AJC Council, seems to be
having "second thoughts" on the
payments. Characterizing the
plans as a "retrograde" step, he
said that deferment payments to
the post-1953 victims would
"only cause increased hardship
to victims of Nazism" and would
"seriously undermine confidence
in the German government's in-
tentions to repay some part of
the debt which no amount of
money can ever repay."
"It is hard to see," he con-
tinued, "what prompted this hasty
and ill-considered about face. This
is all the more remarkable in view
of the establishment of diplomatic

relations between Germany and
Israel and in view of Chancellor
Ludwig Erhard's reiteration of his
country's desire to overcome its
Nazi past"
Edelman expressed the hoi
that "wiser and more hurnai
counsel will prevent an act ox
patent injustice."
In his address, he welcomed the
British government's recent an-
nouncement that it would adhere
to the United Nations convention
against genocide. He expressed the
hope that the United Nations and
other great powers will "follow
suit."

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