Memorandum from Secretary of State Dean Acheson to President Harry S. Truman

DEPARTMENT OF STATE WASHINGTON April 22,1952 SEORET SECURITY INFORMATION MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Subject: Israeli Claims Against Germany With respect to the request of Mr. Jacob Blaustein that you issue a statement requesting expeditious handling of the Jewish ma- terial claims against Germany, I would suggest that a statement from you at this time would be inappropriate. I have every reason to believe that Chancellor Adenauer is conscientious in his efforts to reach a satisfactory settlement with the State of Israel and the non-Israeli Jewish claimants in the matter of affording compensa- tion to the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. The German Government is fully aware that the United States considers the German people to have incurred an inescapable moral obligation to make material amends to the victims of Nazi persecu- tion, and that this obligation, unless discharged, will stand as a major obstacle to the acceptance of the German nation by the free peoples of the world. The German Government has also been informed that the conclusion of a satisfactory agreement in the present nego- tiations would be a source of gratification to the United States. Mr. McCloy has reaffirmed these views personally to Chancellor Adenauer on recent occasions. The Department has likewise communi- cated these views to the Ambassador of Israel and to the representa- tives of the non-Israeli Jewish claimants. The negotiations at the Hague have now reached a critical stage. The Federal Government has postulated that the settlement with Israel and the non-Israeli Jewish claimants must be brought within the limits of German capacity to meet its external obligations, and therefore must be related to other responsibilities assumed by the Federal Government, particularly those being considered by the International Conference on German Debts which has been meeting in London with Ambassador Warren Lee Pierson as the United States representative. The Debt Conference is now in recess and is scheduled to reconvene May 19th. The Germans have invited the Israeli nego- tiators to meet again at the Hague, a month later, on June 19th. DECLASSIFIED The Israeli Authority NLT 82-13 SEGRET By NC NLT Date 1-6.t3 SECURITY INFORMATION