Edited by: Fern Sidman
The German government has agreed to pay an additional 200 million shekels ($58 million) annually to Holocaust survivors in need of nursing care in Israel, as was reported on the Algemeiner.com web site.
Haaretz reported on Thursday that Israeli Social Equality Minister Meirav Cohen and German Finance Minister Christian Lindner reached an agreement on expanding nursing-care benefits for certain Holocaust survivors living in Israel. The agreement, which was announced by Cohen’s office and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, extends long-term care benefits of 1,200 shekels ($350) a month to about 14,000 survivors with a slightly higher functional capacity score than in the past.
Cohen said that the “historic agreement” is of “utmost importance” and “ensures an additional 1,200 shekels ($348) a month to thousands of Holocaust survivors who are long term care patients,” as was reported by Algemeiner.
“The well-being of Holocaust survivors in Israel is at the top of our priorities,” Cohen stated. “We work around the clock to increase the budgets that are transferred to survivors. For those who are in need of home nursing care, every hour of nursing help is literally a life saver.”
Cohen disclosed that over the past year a total of over 2.6 billion shekels ($755 million) was raised for the benefit of Holocaust survivors, both from budgets around the world through the Claims Conference, and from the Israeli government’s budgets.
Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Luxembourg Agreements in Berlin which was the signing of the indemnification agreement making it possible for Holocaust survivors to receive a measure of justice, the German Federal Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner, was joined by the Claims Conference, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Israel’s Minister for Social Equality, Meirav Cohen, along with several hundred guests for the event.
On September 10, 1952, groundbreaking agreements on compensation payments for survivors of Nazi persecution during World War II and to the State of Israel were concluded in the City Hall of Luxembourg. The landmark agreements were negotiated and ultimately agreed to between the newly formed State of Israel, the Federal Republic of Germany as the legal successor to the German Reich, and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) formed by 23 major global Jewish organizations to negotiate on behalf of the world’s Holocaust survivors. The agreements created the basis for all subsequent compensations for Nazi persecution.
“This historic event, the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Luxembourg Agreements, is cause for commemoration and reflection,” said Gideon Taylor, President of the Claims Conference. “The extermination of European Jews by the Nazis left a horrific chasm, not only in global Jewry, but in global humanity. These agreements laid the groundwork for compensation and restitution for those survivors who had lost everything and continue to serve as the foundation for the ongoing negotiations on behalf of the estimated 280,000 Holocaust survivors living around the world.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of the importance of the agreements and the special responsibility Germany bears for the past, the present, and for the future.
“The Luxembourg Agreements were fundamental and led to financial compensation in the amount of more than €80 billion Germany has paid by the end of 2021. The payments to survivors and the home care program are very close to our heart and recently we see the increasing importance of Holocaust education,” stated Scholz.
Claims Conference President Gideon Taylor and Claims Conference Chief Negotiator Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat , emphasized the consequences and effects of the agreements for Holocaust survivors around the world.
“It took truly great and far-sighted leadership to sit down at the table only a few years after the Holocaust and negotiate the unimaginable. They laid the groundwork for the results we are announcing today of more than $1.2 billion in 2023 for compensation and social welfare services for Holocaust survivors,” stated Claims Conference Executive Vice President Greg Schneider. “We could not do the work we do today – work to ensure every Holocaust survivor is able to live their life in the dignity that was taken from them in their youth – if each of those leaders had not stepped up during this moment in history.”
An announcement was made at the event in Berlin as to the the negotiation outcomes for the following areas:
Emergency humanitarian payments of €12 million to 8,500 Ukrainian Holocaust survivors. Payments are anticipated to begin being distributed in fall of this year.
Effective in January 2023, an increase of €130 million in home care for those survivors who depend on in-home services to manage their day-to-day life. Of this amount, €60 million will be spent to increase home care in Israel, which was achieved together with Minister of Social Equality Meirav Cohen. €70 million will be spent in other countries around the world.
A third year of the Hardship Fund supplemental payments to follow on the two years that were previously negotiated. This additional €170 million will impact approximately 143,000 Holocaust survivors worldwide.
For the first time, there has been an agreement on Holocaust education funding of €10 million for 2022, €25 million for 2023, €30 million for 2024, and €35 million for 2025. In total, as a result of negotiations with the German government, for home care and compensation for Holocaust survivors living around the world is approximately $1.2 billion for 2023.