Germany offers millions in aid to Holocaust survivors

BERLIN— 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 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 the Second World War now 75 years in the past, Holocaust survivors are all elderly, and because many were deprived of proper nutrition when they were young, they now 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.

“There’s this kind of standard response for survivors, that ‘we’ve been through worse, I’ve been through worse and if I survived the Holocaust, through the deprivation of food and what we had to go through, I’ll get through this,’ ” said Greg Schneider, executive vice-president of the Claims Conference, in an interview. “But if you probe deeper you understand the depths of trauma that still resides within people.”

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.

Each of those survivors will receive two payments of 1,200 euros ($1,800 Cdn) over the next two years, for an overall commitment of approximately 564 million euros ($873 million Cdn) to some of the poorest survivors. The funds come on top of an emergency $5.7 million the Claims Conference distributed in the spring to agencies providing care for survivors.