Resolutions calling for specific improvements in the text of indemnification legislation for individual claimants and in the administration of the Federal Indemnification Law that went into effect last October, were adopted at the conclusion of a two-day conference of Jewish jurists from all parts of Germany and from other countries, held in nearby Bad Homburg.
The conference, which was convened by the Central Council of the Jews in Germany, was attended by some 150 lawyers, judges and government officials. It was held under the chairmanship of Dr. Kurt Werthauer, the only Jewish attorney practicing before the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe.
Speakers at the conference voiced disappointment with the operation of the Indemnification Law to date, and with the lack of progress in securing the most urgent amendments. In the American and French zones, as well as in Berlin, the new Germany-wide law, adopted by the Bundestag more than five months ago, has caused a slowdown in payments and not infrequently even a deterioration of the legal position, it was brought out. In Berlin, for instance, monthly payments dropped from $1,500,000 to less than half; in Bavaria the average number of settlements plummeted from more than 1,500 to substantially less than 100 a month.
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