Global Courant
BERLIN — The organization that handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered at the hands of the Nazis said on Thursday that Germany has agreed to allocate an additional $1.4 billion (1.29 billion euros) over the coming year to Holocaust survivors around the world. world.
The compensation has been negotiated with the German Ministry of Finance and includes $888.9 million for home care and support services for vulnerable and vulnerable Holocaust survivors.
In addition, increases of $175 million in token payments from the Hardship Fund Supplemental program have been realized, affecting more than 128,000 Holocaust survivors worldwide, according to the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also known as the Claims called Conference.
“Each year, these negotiations become more important as this last generation of Holocaust survivors grow older and their needs grow,” said Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference.
“It is essential to be able to guarantee direct payments to survivors alongside the expansions of social services, to ensure that every Holocaust survivor is taken care of for as long as necessary, with every individual need met,” Schneider added. .
The Hardship Fund supplemental payment was originally set up as a one-time payment, which was negotiated during the COVID-19 lockdowns and ultimately resulted in three additional payments for eligible Holocaust survivors. This year, Germany again agreed to extend the hardship benefit, which was due to end in December 2023, through 2027.
The amount for each of the additional years was set at approximately $1,370 per person for 2024, $1,425 for 2025, $1,480 for 2026, and $1,534 for 2027.
The survivors receiving these payments are largely Russian Jews who were not in camps or ghettos and are not eligible for retirement programs, the Claims Conference said.
As children, they fled the so-called Einsatzgruppen – Nazi mobile killing units accused of murdering entire Jewish communities. Over 1 million Jews were killed by these units, which largely operated by shooting hundreds and thousands of Jews at a time and burying them in mass pits.
“For those who were able to flee and survive: they are among the poorest in the community of survivors; the loss of time, family, property and life cannot be healed,” the group said.
“By expanding payments to these survivors, the German government recognizes that this suffering is still deeply felt, both emotionally and financially,” the group said in a statement. “While symbolic, these payments provide financial relief for many aging Jewish Holocaust survivors living around the world.”
Now that World War II ended nearly eight decades ago, all Holocaust survivors are older, and many suffer from a host of medical problems from not being properly nourished at a young age.
As the number of survivors declines, the Claims Conference also negotiated continued funding for Holocaust education, which has been extended for another two years and is increasing by $3.3 million each year. The newly negotiated financing amounts are approximately $41.6 million for 2026 and $45 million for 2027.
Since 1952, the German government has paid more than $90 billion to individuals for the suffering and losses of Nazi persecution.
By 2023, the Claims Conference will pay hundreds of millions in compensation to more than 200,000 survivors in 83 countries and allocate more than $750 million in grants to more than 300 social service providers worldwide who provide vital services to Holocaust survivors, such as home health care, nutrition and medicines.
“It has been almost 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, and the need to negotiate survivors’ care and compensation is more urgent than ever,” said Stuart Eizenstat, the special negotiator for the Claims Conference’s negotiating delegation.
“Every negotiation is a near-last chance to ensure that Holocaust survivors get some measure of justice and a chance at the dignity they were stripped of in childhood. It will never be enough until the last survivor has their last breath blown out. ,” he added.
