Holocaust Survivors Filing Claims

WOODBURY — The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) is partnering with Jewish Family Services all over the country to assist Jewish Holocaust survivors in filing claims for compensation for slave and forced labor performed under the Nazis.

On July 17, 2000, the US German, Israeli, and several Eastern European governments signed the agreement establishing the German foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future,” to provide payments to former slave and forced laborers. German government and industry are jointly funding the program,

Locally, Brownstein Jewish Family Service of the Federation: Jewish Communities of Western CT has applications available for those survivors or certain heirs who wish to file a claim for compensation. The Woodbury-based Brownstein JPS is part of a network of 165 social service agencies across the US and Canada which is working with the Claims Conference to assist survivors in applying for payments from the $5 billion Foundation. This network of local agencies will distribute applications, utilize professionals and volunteers to provide individual help to survivors in filing claims, and answer questions about the application process. The deadline for applying to the Claims Conference is August 11, 2001.

Each person eligible for slave labor compensation will receive up to DM 15,000 (up to about US $7,500). Each person eligible for forced labor compensation will receive up to DM 5,000 ( up to $2,500).

Slave laborers are persons who were compelled to perform work in a concentration camp (as defined by previous German restitution legislation), a ghetto, or a similar place of incarceration under comparable conditions. Forced laborers are persons who performed labor by force in the territory of the German Reich or under German occupation, outside the territory of Austria, under conditions resembling imprisonment or extremely harsh living conditions.

For more information or an application, contact Debby Horowitz, Brownstein Jewish Family Service Program Director, at 203-263-5125, ext 304.