Letters
The Nazis' Victims Dr. S. J. Roth The Road to Clacton Pier Edward A. Armstrong Apartheid and the Press Hendrik Pienaar Professor Trevor-Roper's Finest Hour? J. B. Snell Dealing With Oxbridge T. F. R. G.. Braun,
R. I. Moore, G. Smith, Russell Clarke
Liberal Voters Basil Wigoder House Be Upstanding
Nicholas Montague, W. S. Smith
South 11-Ank Religion P. G. Holden The MilCons Who Stay Away 'Churchman' Complaints about Advertising ,Elizabeth Gundrey Afterthought • Roger Huss Hot Water and Chaos- Michael J. Montague
THE NAZIS' VICTIMS SIR,—In her perceptive and illuminating report from Bonn on the spiritual conflict between the old and new generations regarding German guilt for the crimes of the Nazis, Miss Sarah Gainham wrote: 'This is the first time a civilised society has either tried its political murderers or compensated—as far as money can make good suffering, which is not very far—their victims.'
This remark about compensating the victims of Nazi persecution—indeed laudable as far as it goes— is however only partly correct. There are still about 100,000 victims of Nazism who have received no compensation at all for their sufferings. I refer to the survivors of Auschwitz and other death camps in Eastern Europe who, owing to restrictions in the Communist countries, were unable to emigrate to the West or to Israel until 1956. German indemni- fication legislation enacted in 1953 did not include them within its provisions and they are now once again deprived of any right to compensation under the new legislation pending before the Bundestag. Instead, they are to be offered grossly inadequate payments from a limited 'hardship' fund.
It is not too late for the Germans to rectify this injustice and in so doing to demonstrate that they are indeed willing fully to 'face the facts of their own actions' which, as Miss Gainham correctly writes, the world demands of them.
DR. S. J. ROTH Executive Director World Jewish Congress,
55 New Cavendish Street, WI
Previous page
