Amends

Seven years after the gas chambers of Dachau were shut down, Germans and Jews sat down to sign a solemn agreement. By it, West Germany undertook, in the words of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, to "make moral and material amends" for the "unspeakable crimes committed in the name of the German people."

One morning last week, at Luxembourg's City Hall (the Jews had refused to go to Germany), German State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Walter Hallstein smilingly handed Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett a golden fountain pen. Sharett bent over the reparations documents, and in the silence the scratch of the pen was heard through the room. But the pen made no mark: its ink had run dry. Stiffly, Sharett signed with his own pen. The other signers: Adenauer, and Dr. Nahum Goldmann, representing 23 Jewish organizations outside Israel.

Under the agreement, Germany will: P: Give Israel $715 million worth of goods and services (mainly iron ore, machinery). P:Pay $107 million to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany on behalf of some 300,000 Jewish refugees living outside Israel, many in the U.S.

Extremists in Germany protested the settlement, arguing that the German people should not be held responsible for Nazi crimes. Bitter Israelis cried that no amount of "blood money" could atone for six million Jews murdered. But the Israeli government accepted the offer, because the country's faltering economy needs German products badly. Through a stroke of historic irony, Israel may be helped to its feet by the fruits of German labor.

After the signing. Konrad Adenauer walked alone to Luxembourg Cathedral and knelt in prayer. No one had seen the Germans and Jews shake hands. But back in Israel, Sharett paid tribute to Adenauer's "great civil and moral courage."

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