Claims Conference: Berlin doubles survivor care funds

German money to go to 101 agencies in 32 countries that provide in-home nursing and help the elderly with daily living activities.

By GIL STERN STERN SHEFLER
Holocaust survivors 311 (photo credit: Associated Press)
Holocaust survivors 311
(photo credit: Associated Press)
The Claims Conference has negotiated an agreement with the German government which it said would double the amount provided by Berlin for vital homecare services for Jewish Holocaust victims living around the world to ¤110 million (approximately $145m.) in 2011.
“This is double the amount that the Claims Conference received for 2010 following negotiations earlier this year and is the largest single amount ever negotiated for homecare for Holocaust victims,” said Julius Berman, chairman of the Claims Conference.
“With restitution-related sources of funding on the decline, this agreement obtained by the Claims Conference is vital to addressing the growing social welfare needs of aging Holocaust survivors.”
The organization, whose full name is the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, said the agreement illustrated Berlin’s confidence in it despite the recent discovery that it had been defrauded of $42m.
The Claims Conference said it would allocate the German government money to 101 agencies in 32 countries that provide inhome nursing and vital help with basic activities of daily life – such as eating, dressing, and bathing – as well as other services that greatly ease the lives of elderly Holocaust victims and enable them to remain living in their own homes.
“We congratulate the government of Germany for recognizing its historic responsibility to Jewish Holocaust victims, whose advancing age has brought increased hardship to many,” said Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, Claims Conference special negotiator.
“In their final years, survivors who need care and services should not have to fear that they will be forgotten. Germany has been exemplary in facing its past, and the government has demonstrated its commitment to alleviating the plight of elderly victims who need the care that these funds will provide.”