Germany will pay a monthly lifetime allowance of 375 euros to Jews who survived the pogrom in Romania after the blockade of Leningrad and are hiding in France, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
“A real breakthrough,” said Greg Schneider, vice chairman of the Claims Conference, an international organization dedicated to providing compensation, property restitution and aid to Holocaust survivors and heirs. The financial situation of many of the survivors is very difficult. “A lot of people every month are faced with the choice between paying rent, buying drugs or buying groceries,” added Schneider.
The agreed benefit amount will cover payments starting from July of this year. In total, it will reach 6.5. Jews. 4.5 thousand of them survived the blockade of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) from 1941 to 1944 1.4 thousand people. survived in Romania and 800 hid in France from German terror.
One of the recipients of the compensation is the 85-year-old former librarian Nonna Revzina, who survived the siege of Leningrad and today lives very modestly in a Jewish nursing home in Berlin. The woman told reporters how her father died of starvation and exhaustion during the 1942 blockade, and her mother took his body in a sleigh to the place where hundreds of corpses were piled. The family never knew the exact burial place of the deceased. Historical sources say more than a million people died in bombing and starvation during the blockade of the Russian city.
$ 625 million in damages
– People who survived the Holocaust often left the war with nothing. Many live in isolation after the loss of their families (…) and also suffer from the psychological burden of persecution by the Nazis. Greg Schneider recalled that many in old age struggle with numerous health problems caused by the lack of food in their youth.
Some of the 6.5 thousand eligible for compensation received a one-time compensation in the past, which does not deprive them of the right to participate in the currently adopted payment scheme. Since 1952, the German government has distributed approximately $ 90 billion in compensation to “those who suffer and suffer from the persecution of the Nazis.”
This year, Claims Conference will pay approximately $ 625 million in direct compensation to more than 260,000 people. Survivors of the Holocaust. He will also donate approximately $ 640 million in donations to over 300 social security agencies around the world that provide services to Holocaust survivors.