Turn over any stone in the former East Germany and you are likely to find an agent of the Stasi, the former secret service. And the Claims Conference apparently did just that.

Recently, the Claims Conference — whose successor organisation handles compensation for property stolen during the Shoah — learned that an attorney in its employment had once been “an unofficial employee of the Stasi”.

Many former East Germans worked for the Stasi, though some were listed as informants without their knowledge.

In its “General Controller Annual Summary Report” this summer, it was recommended that “the Claims Conference management... formulate a position on relations with entities which may have in their past links to Stasi.”

But in this case, the matter was rather cut and dry, a Claims Conference spokesperson told the JC.

“Possible past links of an individual with the Stasi, in and of itself, does not foreclose the possibility of the Claims Conference availing itself of that individual’s service.”