Evening star., 1947-03-11
u. 5. Zone 10 Restore
St25,00o, Worth
OF German Property
Possessions confiscuted
By Nozi Regime to Be
Returned Under New Law
BY the Assoeiatsd Press

STUTTGART, Germany, Mar.
1.-THE German Council of
States Of the American-occupied
zone approved today a law which
will restore up to $125, ,000, ,O0o
worth of properties to persons
whose possessions were confis-
Gated during the Nazi regime.
The measure required full year
to draft and must have final ap-
proval Of the American military
government before it is promul-
gated.
The Germans announced they be-
lived the law should be extended
throughout Germany and that it
did not leave enough discretion to
restitution courts.
More than 5000 Jews in the
American zone of Germany, who
now see strangers running their
businesses, will benefit. So will
hundreds Of refugees who fed Hit
Ter Germany to escape racial, re-
ligious and political terrorism.
Heavy Penalties Fixed.
Property of dozens Of prosecuted
or dissolved church, trade union and
cooperative organizations and Ger
mans whose possessions were seized
for their activity in the July 20,
1914, bomb plot against Hitler will
be restored under the law.
Heavy prison sentences will be
meted out under the law to Ger
mans failing to report possession of
property that was not theirs before
the Nazi regime.
The restitution law gives the
chance Of new start in life only to
| persons whose former property
existed in what is now the Amer
ican zone of Germany. But the
heads of the four American zone
states are expected to make an ap-
peal shortly to France, Britain. and
Russia to make the law effective
throughout the former Third Reich
Favored in principle by all Ger
man political parties in the Amer
lean zone as a chance for a demo-
cratic Germany to right Nazi
wrongs, the draft of the law long
has been tossed back and forth be-
tween the German Council oi
States, American military govern
ment and the State Department in
Washington.
With possible minor revisions be-
fore it is put into effect following
final American approval, the Law
puts the onus Of restitutions on the
present or former possessors Of con-
fiscated property. Additionally II
makes 1t hard for Germans who
knew the property was seized te
cause injury to groups which 'were
to be excluded from the economic
and cultural life Of Germany or the
Nazi Party"
Restitution Will Be Speeded.
Under the law all persons wrong
fully deprived" of their property
between January 30, 1888, and We
day will get it back-or-an ade-
quate substitute.
The measure states that restitu-
ton will be carried out as fast as
possible. Even though the inter-
ests of other persons who had nc
knowledge of the wrongful taking
must be subordinated."
The property, or its substitute
will be turned over to the former
owner or "his successor in interest"
at its pre-Hitler value.
Broadly, the law ensures the re-
turn Of all business enterprises OF
participation in them, real estate
shares and partnerships. Cash
money, however, only will be repaid
"if the person liable to restitution
knew at the time he acquired the
money that it had been obtained by
way of confiscation.
Personal items, such as jewelry
religious objects and items of un-
usual artistic or scientific value, also
have to be restored under the law
Every claim, the law states, musi
be submitted to the restitution
agencies before December 31. 1913