photo: AP
Facing mounting pressure, the German government has reversed its decision to shelve the proposed settlement with Holocaust survivors, and has agreed to pay one billion dollars in monies for the care and sustenance of holocaust survivors.
Almost 60,000 people that had been victims of the holocaust still remain.
The decision came after round talks with the Claims Conference, a Jewish fund for Victims of the Nazi period, which took place in Jerusalem on May 28.
The money will be given in stages, starting in 2014 until 2017. Almost one third of all holocaust survivors live in Israel.
One of the sticking points that had led to the dismissal of the claims was the fact that it was hard to qualify who had been a 'forced' worker in the ghettos established by Nazi forces. This however, was not a sufficient excuse to block the claims. Most ghettos were open, such as those in Bulgaria and Romania, so that such identification of forced labor is not easily quantifiable, yet it occurred without a doubt. This argument was made by the Claims Conference at the talks, where it was decided that even those who were forced to labor in open ghettos should benefit from the recompensation program.
Source: Spiegel online 5.30.13
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