In its annual negotiations with Germany, the Jewish Claims Conference (JCC) has obtained an additional US$ 320 million for programs for Holocaust survivors. The additional funds, to be distributed over the next decade, are a combination of increased payments to survivors, inclusion of additional survivors in the pension programs, and funding for homecare needs of Jewish victims of Nazism.
According to a statement from the German Finance Ministry, about US$ 71 million has been committed for home care for needy and aging Holocaust survivors through 2009. The Claims Conference distributes the funds to agencies that provide such care to survivors around the world. With immediate effect, monthly payments to a group of 65,800 survivors worldwide will rise by 8 per cent. Monthly payments to survivors residing in non-EU countries will be US$ 281 per month, up from US$ 261. These increases will result in an extra estimated US$ 166 million pay out over the next decade.
The JCC also secured an agreement to extend eligibility of some 2,000 additional Holocaust survivors originally from western European countries, who survived Nazi camps or ghettos, suffered from persecution, lost one or both parents or received a one-time payment from the 'Global Agreement' with Germany. The agreement will make some survivors eligible for the first time to receive a pension from the Claims Conference, totalling approximately US$ 83 million over the coming decade.
The Claims Conference has held talks with Germany since 1952 on behalf of survivors around the world. Further information is available at www.claimscon.org.
