CJ

SETTLEMENT page 3

Featuring
items from
Ilene Blaz,
Time Piece
Antiques
and mail'
others.

Germany invoked immunity on
the grounds of foreign sover-
reparations.
Ms. Ridgway described them eignty. An attorney took the mat-
ter to Capitol Hill, leading some
as deeply moving.
"They are so very understat- members of Congress to intro-
ed," she said. "No adjectives, no duce legislation that would void
adverbs, just the simple state- Germany's immunity. Ultimate-
ment of facts. It's almost as much ly, however, it was President
Clinton, Vice President Al Gore
as what they don't say."
Ms. Ridgway, a Clinton ap- and Secretary of State Warren
pointee who serves as chiefjudge Christopher who convinced Ger-
of a three-member tribunal that man Chancellor Helmut Kohl to
is adjudicating the claims, said take action.
The Holocaust Claims Pro-
some of the claimants live in the
Detroit area, but she would not gram is not open to U.S. citizens
reveal their names. Neither Rab- who were pressed into forced la-
bi Charles Rosenzveig of the bor during the war, although
Holocaust Memorial Center in their claims will be reviewed, Ms.
West Bloomfield nor Dr. Sidney Ridgway said.
Bolkosky, a social historian and
author who teaches at U-M Dear-
born, were aware of any such sur-
vivors in the area.
But, "it seems to me that the
American Jews who were in-
terned had a fairly high rate of
The Conference on Jewish Ma-
survival, in part because the Ger-
terial
Claims Against Germany,
mans thought they could use
them. Those who claimed Amer- a New York-based umbrella or-
ican citizenship or made a credi- ganization for some 20 national
ble case were tucked away in case and international Jewish orga-
they could be used in some way," nizations, estimates that the Ger-
said Dr. Bolkosky. He mentioned man government has paid out
the case of a Dutch woman who $50 billion in reparations to Holo-
had lived in New York during the caust survivors and their fami-
1920s with her parents before re- lies since the early 1950s. A
turning to Europe and was able spokesperson said the agency
to save herself by convincing the does not know how many of the
authorities that she was an approximately 200,000 survivors
American citizen. The Germans in the United States were Amer-
sent her to Bergen-Belsen rather ican citizens at the time of their
internment.
than to Auschwitz.
To inquire about making a
Mr. Princz sued the German
government in the early 1990b, claim, contact the FCSC at (202)
but the case was dismissed when 612-6975. ❑

all the claimants are eligible for

L ,

U.S. citizenship and
no prior reparations.

Nazi Hunter: 'Stop Papon'

Pans (JTA) — Nazi hunter Serge
Klarsfeld has asked French jus-
tice officials to take steps to pre-
vent a former Cabinet minister
who is charged with crimes
against humanity from leaving
the country to escape trial.
An appeals court ruled in Sep-
tember that Maurice Papon, 86,
must face trial for ordering the de-
portation of 1,690 Jews, 223 of
them children, to Nazi death
camps when he was secretary
general of the Bordeaux region's
local government during Ger-
many's wartime occupation of
France.
Mr. Papon has appealed the
ruling to the Supreme Court.
"I asked the public prosecutor
to take away Papon's passport
and put him under police control,"
Mr. Klarsfeld said. "He is old; he
has money and if he leaves
France, he can always say he is ill
and cannot be extradited."
Mr. Klarsfeld said he had made
the request to the Justice Ministry
on Oct. 25 and was still awaiting
an answer.
Citing Mr. Papon's age and
health problems, some observers
believe that he will never set foot
in the dock to face his accusers.

Mr. Papon recently had heart
surgery.
Mr. Kiarsfeld said he was
putting pressure on the Supreme
Court to rule quickly on whether
Papon should stand trial.
Mr. Papon has denied the
charges against him, saying that
he used his position in the Resis-
tance to save Jews. Mr. Papon re-
portedly joined the Resistance
movement rear the end of 1943.
But lawyers for the families of
his victims have documents
signed by Mr. Papon that ordered
the transfer of Jews to transit
camps from which they were sent
to Auschwitz.
After the liberation, Mr. Pa-
pon went on to an illustrious
postwar career, serving as police
chief of Paris between 1958 and
1967, then as budget minister in
the French Cabinet during the
1970s.
Jewish groups, lawyers and for-
mer Resistance members have
long felt that successive French
governments were obstructing the
judicial process, hoping that Mr.
Papon would die before a trial took
place that would recall a period
many French people would rather
forget.

A°4 "
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