Claims Conference Reaches Agreement with Germany on Restitution for Child Survivors of the Holocaust

The Claims Conference has reached a landmark agreement with the German Finance Ministry to pay restitutions to Jewish child survivors of the Holocaust.

The news came after negotiations with the German Treasury, the Claims Conference, and leaders from the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel (COHSI).

Claims Conference President Julius Berman said: “The joint fund will recognize survivors worldwide who were in camps, ghettos, hiding and false identity for psychological and medical trauma caused during their deprived childhoods."

The financial support will be for survivors of the Shoah who were born January 1, 1928 or later and who were in concentration camps, ghettos, or for at least six months under Nazi occupation (or 12 months in Nazi Axis countries) in hiding or who lived under false identites. Survivors in this category will be eligible to receive a one-time payment of €2,500.

“The suffering endured by these young Nazi victims, including devastating separation from parents at a critical time in a child’s development, as well as witnessing unimaginable atrocities, deprivation from proper nutrition, and a range of injurious experiences has had a cumulative effect and are resulting in late-onset problems that only now are manifesting as physical and psychological symptoms in the survivors’ advanced age,” said Greg Schneider, Claims Conference Executive Vice President.

The fund is expected to become available on 1 January 2015. Further details will be made available after approval by the German Bundestag and the Claims Conference.

For more information, please see the Claims Conference website.