Germany extends aid to elderly Holocaust survivors for 2024

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered during the Holocaust on Thursday said Germany had agreed to extend another $1.4 billion overall for Holocaust survivors globally this coming year. The amount was negotiated with Germany’s Finance Ministry and includes $888.9 million for home care and supportive services for frail and vulnerable survivors. Additionally, increases of $175 million to symbolic payments of the Hardship Fund Supplemental program have been made, impacting more than 128,000 Holocaust survivors globally, the organisation, also referred to as the Claims Conference announced.
“Every year these negotiations become more and more critical as this last generation of Holocaust survivors age and their needs increase,” said Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference. “Being able to ensure direct payments to survivors in addition to the expansions to the social welfare services is essential in making sure every Holocaust survivor is taken care of for as long as it is required, addressing each individual need,” he added.
The Hardship Fund payment was originally established as a one-time payment, negotiated during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and eventually resulted in three supplemental payments for eligible Holocaust survivors. This year, Germany has agreed to extend payments, which were set to end in December 2023, through 2027. The survivors receiving these payments largely are Russian Jews who weren’t in camps or ghettos and aren’t eligible for pension programmes. Most survivors fled the Einsatzgruppen or Nazi mobile killing units charged with murdering entire Jewish communities by shooting hundreds of thousands at a time and burying them in mass pits. “For those who were able to flee and survive – they are some of the poorest in the survivor community; the loss of time, family, property and life cannot be made whole,” the group in a statement. “While symbolic, these payments provide financial relief for many aging Jewish Holocaust survivors living around the world.”
All living Holocaust survivors are now elderly – the second World War ended nearly eight decades ago – and many suffer from medical issues stemming from malnutrition as children in detention camps. As the number of survivors dwindles, the Conference has also negotiated continuing funding for Holocaust education, which has been extended for two more years and increased each year by $3.3 million. The German government has shelled out more than $90 billion since 1957 to individuals for suffering and losses under the Nazis. This year, the Claims Conference projects it will distribute hundreds of millions in compensation to more than 200,000 survivors in 83 and social service agencies that provide home care, food and medical services for Holocaust survivors.
“Every negotiation is a near-last opportunity to ensure survivors of the Holocaust are receiving some measure of justice and a chance at the dignity that was taken from them in their youth. It will never be enough until the last survivor has taken their last breath,” Stuart Eizenstat, a special negotiator for the Conference added.