Committee handling Holocaust survivors´ claims says Germany dealing with past in model fashion

The committee handling Holocaust survivors´ claims reached an agreement Monday with the German government to double the assistance granted to survivors for the year 2011. The funds for the year will total €110 million (some $145 million), and are intended to finance essential welfare services to Jewish Holocaust survivors around the world.

This is the highest figure the committee has so far succeeded in negotiating in the framework of its talks with Germany, and will go towards home nursing and the purchase of food and medicine and other essentials. This figure is double the sum allocated by Germany for this purpose for 2010.

The German aid is intended to answer urgent needs among Holocaust survivors who are growing old, requiring increased services, and comes as sources of funding from unclaimed Jewish assets grow thin.

The head of the committee´s negotiating team, Stewart Eisenstadt, welcomed the agreement, saying he promised that survivors needing treatment and assistance will have no cause to fear they have been forgotten. Germany is dealing with its past in an exemplary fashion, he added, and its government is proving its commitment to easing the suffering of survivors.

The committee represents Jews throughout the world in negotiating for compensation and the reinstatement of property to the victims of the Nazis and their heirs. The committee manages the compensation funds, handles unclaimed assets, allocates grants to organizations providing welfare services to Holocaust survivors, and preserves the memory of the Holocaust.

In April the Welfare Ministry approved an arrangement which granted survivors living in Israel a discount of 90% on medication purchases at pharmacies. The arrangement, which came after many bureaucratic and political hurdles, offers those above the age of 75 (more than 80%) up to NIS 100 for medication required on a regular basis. The younger survivors have to pay up to NIS 125. The arrangement is expected to cost some NIS 50 million ($14 million). (Copyright 2010 © Yedioth Internet 12/06/10)