Germany to pay £500m to Holocaust survivors to help them through pandemic

Child Holocaust survivors pictured shortly after Auschwitz was liberated in 1945

Credit: Anonymous/CAF PAP

Germany is to pay €564m (£508m) in aid to Holocaust suvivors to support them during the coronavirus pandemic, it was announced on Wednesday.

Some 240,000 Holocaust survivors living around the world will each receive two payments of €1,200 (£1,080) over the next two years.

The aid payments are in addition to reparations the survivors already receive from Germany for their suffering under the Nazis.

Holocaust survivors are among those worst affected by the global pandemic  according to the Claims Conference, an independent organisation representing Jewish victims of the Nazis which negotiated the new aid package.

The average age of who will receive payments is 84, putting them at high risk from the virus. In addition, many suffered severe malnutrition during their youth as a result of Nazi persecution, making them more vulnerable to disease.

“There’s this kind of standard response for survivors, ‘We’ve been through worse, I’ve been through worse, and if I survived the Holocaust, I’ll get through this,’” said Greg Schneider, vice-president of the Claims Conference. “But if you probe deeper you understand the depths of trauma that still resides within people."

Many Holocaust survivors live in poverty and struggle with the extra cost of personal protective equipment or having groceries and other supplies delivered to their homes.

“In the face of a devastating global pandemic, it was vital to secure larger increases for survivors while also seeking immediate funds to help them through these extremely challenging times,” said Stuart E. Eizenstat, one of the Claims Conference negotiators who agreed the new aid package with Germany.

The gates of Auschwitz

Credit: Michael Sohn/AP

The payments will be made to Holocaust survivors living in Israel, the US, Europe and the former Soviet Union. 

Germany has made extensive reparations payments to the victims of the Nazis. The German government estimates it has paid more than €77bn ($69bn) in compensation to Jewish and non-Jewish victims of Nazi persecution.

Those who were forced to live and work in concentration camps and ghettos are entitled to full pensions. The new package is aimed primarily at Holocaust survivors who escaped the Nazi terror by fleeing to the former Soviet Union,  who do not receive pensions but were given one-off reparations payments instead.

“These increased benefits, achieved by the hard work of our negotiating delegation during these unprecedented times, will help our efforts to ensure dignity and stability in survivors’ final years,” said Gideon Taylor, President of the Claims Conference. 

“We must meet the challenges of the increasing needs of survivors as they age, coupled with the new and urgent necessities caused by the global pandemic. It will always remain our moral imperative to keep fighting for every survivor.”

In addition to the €564m in aid payments, Germany has also agreed to raise its funding for social welfare services for Holocaust survivors for 2021 to €554m (£500m).

The Claims Conference, also known as Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, has been negotiating with Germany on behalf of Holocaust survivors since 1952.