BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Parliament on Thursday approved a
measure extending pension payments totaling nearly a half-billion
dollars for thousands of elderly Jews who were forced to work for the
Nazis in ghettos.
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against
Germany, which helped negotiate the deal with the German government,
said the agreement means some 40,000 Holocaust survivors, used by the
Nazis in ghettos as laborers in exchange for food or meager wages, will
receive additional benefits.
Most Holocaust survivors suffered
serious malnutrition during World War II and also lost almost all of
their relatives, leaving them today with many medical problems and
little or no family support network to help them cope.
Under the
new measure, all people qualifying for the pensions can have them
backdated to 1997. The government said the extra payments would amount
to some 340 million euros ($461 million) — or about 8,500 euros on
average for each survivor.
The move "brings a long-delayed measure
of justice to elderly survivors of ghettos," said Conference official
Greg Schneider in a statement. "These ‘ghetto pensions’ are of great
interest to survivors who may be in great need of the funds and for whom
they can bring additional comfort and support in their final years."
The
average age of the survivors affected is around 85. Labor Minister
Andrea Nahles, who introduced the proposal, has promised payments would
be made "swiftly and efficiently."
Already, it has taken years to get to this point.
In
2002, a law set the stage for the pensions to be paid, retroactive to
1997. But thousands of claims were rejected because of restrictions on
who could qualify. And in 2009, a court ruling made it easier to file
successful claims, but applicants could only have payments backdated by
four years, in accordance with German pension law.
In total,
Germany has paid around 70 billion euros ($95 billion) in compensation
for Nazi crimes — primarily to Jewish survivors.
Compensation has
been ever-evolving since Germany agreed in 1952 to make payments, with
annual negotiations between the Claims Conference and the German
government on who should receive funds and how much will be paid.