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The
Jews-for-gold crime
Of the 71,000 Slovakian Jews who were murdered, some 57,000 were deported in 1942, of whom fewer than 300 survived. Some 200 million Slovak crowns - a sum now valued at $45 million - was extracted from the victims by the Slovaks, and paid to the Germans in 1943. "The German court did not take into account that the deportation money paid by the Slovak government to Nazi Germany originally was Jewish money," says Fero Alexander, chairman of the executive of the Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Slovakia. Alexander and his colleagues, with the help of German attorney Rainer Arzinger, intend to lodge an appeal before a higher court, but at this stage, their chances of retrieving the sum are slim. One of the many legal obstacles facing the Central Union is the court's rejection of its "legitimacy," as a result of which it has not been recognized by the Federal Republic of Germany as the legitimate heir to the assets and property confiscated from the Jews deported from Slovakia between March and October 1942. Besides those sent off in the gold-for-victims deal when Slovakia was governed by Father Jozef Tiso, 14,000 Jews were deported between the autumn of 1944 and the spring of 1945 into SS SturmbannfŸhrer Alois Brunner's Sered concentration camp. Slovakia, says Alexander, was the only country which paid Germany for the deportation of its Jewish citizens. Evidence of this policy is contained in a note relayed by the German legation in Bratislava, then called Pressburg. "The accommodation, feeding, housing, provision of clothing and retraining of the Jews including their relatives entail costs which for the time being cannot be covered by their initial productivity.... These one-time expenditures, on the basis of experience, are calculated at 500 reichsmarks per person." The German Treasury agrees with the district court that the Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities "has no claim whatsoever" in this case. The Central Union, according to Treasury spokeswoman Maria Heider, cannot make "any kind of case" with regard to the Nazi actions, nor does it even have the right to make any claims on behalf of the individuals affected. Furthermore, she added, the question of reparations 56 years after the end of the war "is no longer relevant." "Since the end of the war," maintains Heider, "the Federal Republic of Germany has fulfilled its moral responsibility to the victims of Nazi injustice by paying high reparations payments. All claims must be made in accordance with Article 16, Paragraph 1 of the law that established the Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation." Little was known abroad about the bizarre fact that Slovakian Jewry had unknowingly provided the funding for its own annihilation. "This is the first time I have heard of their claim," says Count Otto von Lambsdorff, the distinguished German statesman, who recently negotiated and reached the formula for compensating Jewish slave laborers exploited by pro-Nazi industrial firms during the war. The Central Union's cause might have progressed more smoothly had it not dived inexperienced and ill-equipped into the turbulent waters of reparation politics. The World Jewish Restitution Organization, for instance, is familiar with the Slovakian case, estimating that Nazi Germany received 28.9 million reichsmarks for the Slovakian transport. "It was Jewish money," said WJRO vice chairman Naftali Lavie in his Jerusalem office, adding that his organization would enter into this fray only "if asked." In his refutation of the district court's verdict, attorney Arzinger contended that the Central Union's claim was not an exception to the rule, but conforms to the principles laid down in the German law on the restitution of property. The court's contention, that the victims should have left wills specifying the disposition of their property and naming the Central Union as their legal heir, is downright hutzpa, both politically and legally, he said. Not only did the court fail to probe the legal status of inheritance in Slovakia, but it also "pretended" to have been advised which state laws would apply in this case, noting that Czechoslovakia existed only from 1918 to 1939, when it was overrun by Nazi Germany. Dismissing the court's ruling that the Central Union has no right to make any claims, Arzinger cites the precedent of the Jewish gold stashed away in Czech banks, which the judges ignored. The gold was restored to Czechoslovakian Jewry after the war. The remnants of Slovakian Jewry received their share after the republic dissolved in 1991. On the other hand, Arzinger concedes that it may be necessary to amend some Slovakian bylaws so that the Central Union can make nonpersonal legal demands, especially with regard to reparations for Nazi persecution. In an appeal to Jewish communities "all over the world," Alexander and his aide, Josef Weiss, seek help in exercising what they say are their rights, after they were denied by the Berlin court. The two accuse the judges of ignoring the principles laid down by West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer when the original reparations law was enacted by the Bundestag half a century ago. The court, they say, had sufficient evidence that in the first wave of deportations in 1942 fewer than 300 Slovakian Jews survived. "The German court did not take into account that the deportation money was originally Jewish money," they say. Alexander says the restitution should be used to help support Slovakia's elderly survivors and maintain the communal property they left behind. There are more than 600 Jewish cemeteries and dozens of synagogues scattered across the country, as well as a home for the elderly called Ohel David. "The only way to
accomplish our mission is to retrieve the money paid to Germany as
deportation fees, payments which were cynical and unjust," says
Alexander. n
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