Vol. XIV No. I January, 1959 INFORJ\/\ATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN GREAT BRITAIN a FAIRFAX MANSIONS, Office and Contulting Hours: FINCHLEY ROAD (Corner Fiirfjx Roid), Monday to Thursday 10 a.m.— I p.m. 3—6 p.m. LONDON, N.W.3 Friday tO a.m.—I p.m. Telephone: MAIdi Vale 9096/7 (General Office) MAIda Vale 4449 (Employment A{ency and Social Servicet Dept.) COMMENT Professor ISorman Bentwich •JEKYLL AND HYDE" TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF U.R.O. Since its inception this journal has considered " as one of its tasks to publish information on events in Germany. It appears from numerous Address at Staff Conference on November 12 reactions that this is also in accordance with readers' wishes. The reasons are manifold: having spent their formative years in that country, Two anniversaries are combined today. for compensation were brought first under the niembers of our community are particularly cap­ Twenty years ago this week was that tragic day laws of the Laender, and after 1953 under the able of assessing the meaning of the diverse trends when the Nazi organisations attacked the Jewish Federal law. The compensation action was first in German policy. They know that there are on a small scale. It has grown mightily in the forces of progress, democracy and tolerance, communities throughout the Third Reich, burnt symbolised in the personality of Federal President down synagogues and high schools of learning, last years and each year it expands. The United Dr. Heuss. But, in the light of their own experi­ sacked Jewish businesses and arrested 40,000 Restitution Organisation today represents 125,000 claimants and over 220,000 claims for compen­ ence, they are not incUned to minimise danger Jews. That dreadful day of the pogrom Signals. At the same time, as contemporaries, they sation, and it has oflices now in 14 countries apart realise the decisive bearing of the solution of the symbolised as it were the severance of the long from Germany. But we know that our action is German question on the peace of the world. association of German Jewry with the culture and only a small part, less than one-tenth of the We usually record events in Germany without philosophy of Germany, which had given so much whole operation of compensation. We are glad comment. We also try to keep a balance between to learning, science and philosophy. It shocked we have been able to bring a little comfort and reassuring and alarming news items. In this the conscience of the outside world, because it amenity into the lives of tens of thousands of approach we are guided by the knowledge that appeared as the culmination of contempt for law, refugees from Germany and Central Europe, who any one-sided approach would be doomed to for twenty years and more have suffered hardship. failure, because it is just its ambivalence which justice and humanity. It shocked particularly the Sives the German problem its specific quality. It conscience of the British people and lost to Ger­ We are deeply concerned that many old people ^ no accident that, during the war, Sebastian many the good opinion even of those who had have not yet received what is due to them. Haffner, an expert on German affairs, took the hitherto felt sympathy with the Nazi effort. title of his book from R. L. Stevenson's novel We recognise that the Federal Government each about a split personality, and called it " Germany We know now that leaders of the churches and year makes greater sums available for the payment ~-Jekyll and Hyde ". many individuals and groups did courageously of compensation. Yet, if the programme is to be completed by 1963 according to the Law, it is Two incidents taken at random from reports resist the Nazi tyranny and we recognise that the published in this issue make us particularly aware obvious that much greater effort must be made present honoured leaders of the German Federal to expedite the disposition of claims. inat any feelings of acquiescence would be out of Republic, President Heuss and Chancellor place: the flight to Egypt of Studienrat Zind, who Adenauer, were among those who imperilled their What, I venture to think, impresses Jews and ^as sentenced to imprisonment after having main­ others most, is the moral basis of the German tained that too few Jews had been gassed, and the own lives by resistance. In England the effect of elaim by a German lawyer that the gas ovens November I Oth was to open the doors of asylum Government's action. We know that the President had been constructed by Americans to be photo­ and the Chancellor of the Republic have felt the to refugees from persecution. Between that day moral duty to make material retribution for the graphed. It is a tragic irony that Zind, who appears and the outbreak of the World War in September to sympathise with the Nazi ideology in many terrible things done by the Nazis and that in this respects, was only able to escape because the Nazi 1939, 80,000 men, women and children were effort Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, System under which people were arrested before admitted. They included nearly 10,000 children, as well as all the other parties, have agreed. We jhey were found guilty is no longer existent. coming without their parents, who were received recognise, too, that besides the individual restitu­ •Regarding the lawyer's utterances, the decisive in the homes of all classes of the British people, tion and compensation, the German Government Point is not whether there are many people who both Jews and non-Jews. Later, many of the is making payment of collective indemnities to agree with his views, but that it is possible to parents of these children were admitted as the State of Israel and to the body which repre­ ^"press them without any feeling of inhibition. domestic helps. Many more were guaranteed by sents the Jewish communities of the world, on The importance of these and similar incidents relations and friends and by those who were com­ account of the burden of relief of hundreds of Should certainly not be exaggerated. But a plete strangers, but who responded to the call of thousands of refugees whom Israel and those *atchful eye seems to be necessary lest the mis­ communities received before, during and after the takes of the early 'thirties may be repeated in the humanity. Great Britain and other countries have reaped a rich return by the talents which they war. In that connection may I say a word of 'ate'fifties. gratitude to Professor Franz Boehm, Dr. Kuester salvaged. and the other representatives of Germany in the BUNDESRLTECKERSTATTUNGS-GESETZ The other anniversary is the tenth since the negotiations at The Hague in 1953. who fought founding of our United Restitution Organisation. for turning a moral into a material reparation. Aiuneldefrist bis zum 1. April 1959 verlaengert It was formed originally in England through the efforts of the Council of the Jews from Germany During this last year there has been among our Der Bundestag hat in alien drei Lesungen friends some perturbation on account not of a eine Novelle zum Bundesrueckerstattungsgesetz under the presidency of the late revered and oeschlossen, die vorsieht, dass die Anmeldung beloved Dr. Leo Baeck. The Council was com­ movement but of a trend to limit the liability rueckerstattungsrechtlicher Ansprueche (§ 27 posed largely of former lawyers from Germany, for compensation. But we in England were Abs. 2) bis zum 1. April 1959 bei dem zustaen- among them Dr. Siegfried Moses, now the State heartened a few weeks ago by the forthright <Jigen Zentralanmeldeamt eingegangen sein Comptroller of Israel, and Dr. Kurt Alexander, a declaration of the President of the Republic when niuss. Damit ist die bisherige Anmeldefrist um he visited London, that the Gennan Government Orel Monate verlaengert worden. Die Frist gilt former Rechtsanwalt in Krefeld and now with the United Restitution Organisation in New York. It would carry through the operation fully, as they als gewahrt. wenn der Berechtigte bis zum I. had promised. April 1959 den Anspruch bei einem nach § 27 started on a small scale to help the victims of Absatz 1 unzustaendigen Zentralanmeldeamt Nazi oppression scattered over the world, who May I say in conclusion that we officers and angemeldet oder durch Klage vor der Restitu­ could not engage their own lawyers, to recover lawyers of the United Restitution Organisation tionskammer eines unzustaendigen Landgerichts their immovable or other identifiable property, feel a partnership with you in a great act of geltend gemacht hat. which had been confiscated or taken under duress justice, in this immense legal operation, which is Auch fuer die Erhebung der Klage wurde by the Nazis. We started with restitution : we designed to right a national and an international <Jie bisherige Frist bis zum I. April 1959 went on to compensation. We had offices from wrong and which transcends the limit of nations. ^erlaengert. Die Bestimmungen des § 28 ueber the beginning in Israel. New York. Paris and We feel, and we hope that you feel, that in this "'e Wiedereinsetzung in den vorigen Stand London, as well as in Germany. The head­ work the law of the Bund is also the moral law. *tirden eestrichen. quarters have been always in London. The claims which is common to Jews and Christians. Page 2 AJR INFORMATION January. 1959 by Nazi influence. The oflicial report of the LAW AND REALITY IN THE FIELD Wiedergutmachungausschuss of the Federal Parlia­ ment bluntly states: OF INDEMNIFICATION " In the future indemtiification for deprivation of liberty shall, therefore, be granted in those The annual staff conference of the United Resti- have recently been influenced by such considera­ cases, too, which happened in the territories of the tutioo Organisation was held at Frankfurt in tions of financial policy and fiscal expediency.