Germany / Jewish Holocaust / Restitution for Genocide

"German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has officially signed off on revisions to the original 1952 compensation treaty for holocaust survivors." (Getty Images)

Germany Expands Pension Scheme for Victims of the Holocaust 
The Daily Mail, November 15, 2012
"Germany has announced plans to increase pension payments to Holocaust survivors as they enter their final years. It comes sixty years after a landmark accord started German government compensation for victims of Nazi crimes. Most Holocaust survivors experienced extreme trauma as children, suffered serious malnutrition, and lost almost all of their relatives -- leaving them today with severe psychological and medical problems, and little or no family support network to help them cope. In acknowledgement of that, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble  has officially signed off  on revisions to the original 1952 compensation treaty. It will increase pensions for those living in eastern Europe and broaden who is eligible for payments. Contributions to home care for survivors have already been increased.
Julius Berman, chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, said: 'Survivors are passing away on a daily basis but the other side is that individual survivors are needing more help than ever. While a person came out of the camps very young and eventually developed a life of their own over the years, the impact of what happened at the beginning is now coming to the fore.  Whether it's mentally or physically, they're sicker than their peers of the same age'. Germany has paid -- primarily to Jewish survivors -- some 70 billion euros in compensation overall for Nazi crimes since the agreement was signed in 1952. In one change to the treaty that Germany agreed to earlier this year, the country will provide compensation payments to a new category of Nazi victims -- some 80,000 Jews who fled ahead of the advancing German army and mobile killing squads and eventually resettled in the former Soviet Union. On November 1, they became eligible for one-time payments of 2,556 euros. The amendment also formalizes an increase in pensions for Holocaust survivors living in formerly communist eastern Europe to the same as those living elsewhere -- an increase to 300 euro per month -- from the 200 to 260 euro they had been receiving. [...]"
[n.b. Thanks to Jo Jones for bringing this source to my attention.]