BONN (Oct. 17)
Nearly 200,000 German victims of the Nazi sterilization program, most of whom were either partly Jewish or political opponents of the Third Reich, are to receive compensation according to the provisions of a bill now being prepared by the West German Government, it was disclosed here today. The victims were alleged by the Nazis to be suffering from hereditary or incurable diseases.
Delays in starting work on the draft bill were due to the view held by many members of Parliament that the sterilization was in accordance with a valid law of the government in power.
Jacob Altmaier, a Social Democratic member of the committee preparing the bill, and the only surviving member of a large partly-Jewish family, said that there “was no law.” “It was an illegal order issued by Hitler’s personal doctor and the SS doctors,” he maintained. “It was no more legal than the order to gas and massacre Jews.” Mr. Altmaier declared that “because of confused bungling and fumbling, it has taken 15 years before the Government has seen fit to tackle this problem.”