France-U.S. State Department finalize agreement to pay Holocaust deportees

Individuals with approved claims will receive a letter from the State Department notifying the parties that they will get a payment with an additional 97% increase from their original stipend.

By ZACHARY KEYSER
A flower lies in the train tracks at Gleis 17 memorial in Berlin, where thousands of Holocaust victims were deported to concentration camps (photo credit: THOMAS PETER/REUTERS)
A flower lies in the train tracks at Gleis 17 memorial in Berlin, where thousands of Holocaust victims were deported to concentration camps
(photo credit: THOMAS PETER/REUTERS)
Those whose claims have been approved by the US State Department will be making "additional' payments to those in connection with the Holocaust Deportations Program.
Individuals with approved claims will receive a letter from the State Department notifying the parties that they will get a payment with an additional 97% increase from their original stipend.
The program was established in connection US-France Agreement of Compensation for Certain Victims of Holocaust-Related Deportations from France Who Are Not Covered By French Programs.
In 2014, the program was concluded, after negotiations between France, the State Department's Office for the Legal Adviser (who has administered the claims program since inception) and the State Department's Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues.
The United States is now close completion of concluding the program officially and collected all of the funding from the French government.
"The administration of this claims program was a thorough process to the benefit of those long-denied justice. We applaud the willingness of the French government to address this injustice," lauded the State Department in a released statement.
France was released from the special program under the condition that they provide a lump-sum of $60 million to the State Department, paid over two periods, to administer survivors of deportation, surviving spouses of deportees, and representatives of the estates of survivors and surviving spouses who are no longer living.
The agreed sum will go towards claims for the living and deceased Holocaust victims.
Claims awarded to living survivors of deportations toal around $204,000; living spouses of deportees whose spouse died before 1948, receive $51,000 and a proportionally adjusted amount if said spouse died after 1948.
A portion of those funds will also go to the children and relatives of survivors; surviving spouses also receive a fair portion of the claim as well.