MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Germany pledges half billion Euros to aid Holocaust survivors, exposed to Covid-19

With the end of WW II 75 years ago, Holocaust survivors are all elderly, and since many were deprived of proper nutrition, suffer from numerous medical issues.

Germany has agreed to provide more than a half-billion Euros to aid Holocaust survivors struggling under the burdens of the coronavirus pandemic, the organization that negotiates compensation with the German government said on Wednesday.

The payments will be going to approximately 240,000 survivors around the world, primarily in Israel, North America, the former Soviet Union and Western Europe, over the next two years, according to the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference.

With the end of World War II now 75 years in the past, Holocaust survivors are all elderly, and because many were deprived of proper nutrition when they were young today they suffer from numerous medical issues. In addition, many live isolated lives having lost their entire families and also have psychological issues because of their persecution under the Nazis.

Many are also on the poverty line, and the additional costs of masks and other protective gear, delivery groceries and other pandemic-related expenses has been crushing for many, Schneider said.

The new funds are targeted to Jews who aren't receiving pensions already from Germany, primarily people who fled the Nazis and ended up in Russia and elsewhere to hide during the war.

Schneider said about 50% of Holocaust survivors in the U.S. live in Brooklyn and were particularly hard-hit when New York was the center of the American outbreak, but now numbers are looking worse in Israel and other places.

Each of those survivors will receive two payments of 1,200 Euros (US$1,400) over the next two years, for an overall commitment of approximately 564 million Euros (US$662 million) to some of the poorest survivors alive today.

The funds come on top of an emergency US$4.3 million the Claims Conference distributed in the spring to agencies providing care for survivors.

In addition to the coronavirus-related funds, Germany agreed in the recently concluded round of annual negotiations to increase funding for social welfare services for survivors by 30.5 million Euros (US$36 million), to a total of 554.5 million (US$651 million) for 2021, the Claims Conference said.

The money is used for services including funding in-home care for more than 83,000 Holocaust survivors and assisting more than 70,000 with other vital services, including food, medicine, transportation to doctors and programs to alleviate social isolation.

As a result of negotiations with the Claims Conference since 1952, the German government has paid more than US$80 billion in Holocaust reparations.