|
|
NEWS
Claims Committee Obtains Reparations for Jewish Survivors
of Siege of Leningrad
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
Following years of negotiations with the German government
the Claims Committee reached an agreement to pay one-time
reparations to Jewish survivors of the Nazi siege of
Leningrad now living in Western countries. During the course
of the annual negotiations, the German government recognized
Leningrad siege victims' eligibility for reparations from the
Claims Committee Assistance Fund on condition that they meet
the Fund's other criteria. Thanks to the agreement, survivors
who spent any amount of time in Leningrad between September
1941 and January 1944 or fled the city during this period
will receive a one-time payment of 2,556 euro (NIS 14,000 or
$4,000). According to estimates 6,000 Jews who managed to
survive the 900-day siege and currently reside in Western
countries will be eligible for this payment.
Had the Germans captured the city they would have annihilated
all of the 300,000 Jews living in Leningrad and the
surrounding area, chas vesholom. As German forces
advanced toward Leningrad in 1941 the Jewish residents tried
to move as close to the city center as possible. Jews who
were unable to flee the Nazis remained in areas later
captured, where they were tortured and shot. The largest
slaughter took place in Pushkin, a suburb of Leningrad, where
800 Jews were taken to the cellars of the Ekaterininsky
Palace and shot in groups in the nearby park, Hy"d.
While planning the siege Hitler described Leningrad as the
center of the Jewish-Bolshevik intellectual elite.
The Germans surrounded the city in September 1941. During the
siege they cut the water and electricity lines and residents
lived in conditions of constant air raids and artillery fire.
The Nazis disseminated antisemitic flyers claiming the Jews
were responsible for the residents' suffering and that
Germany would liberate the country from the control of the
Bolsheviks and the Jews. One-third of the city's three
million inhabitants starved or froze to death, but their
brave stand caused a turning point in the war, eventually
leading to the Germans' defeat.
The Assistance Fund was started in 1980 following five years
of negotiations between the Claims Committee and the German
government. The Fund provided a one-time payment to Jewish
survivors from Soviet-bloc countries who emigrated to the
West after 1969, the last year reparations claims could be
filed according to West German law. These reparations laws,
which were legislated between 1953 and 1965, did not include
Nazi victims who lived in Eastern-bloc countries and the
Soviet Union.
West Germany set up a fund on condition that the Claims
Committee, and not the government itself, would run the
implementation and distribution of reparations, in accordance
with the guidelines of the German government. Based on the
size of the fund at the time it was set up, it was estimated
that 80,000 Holocaust victims would be able to benefit.
The collapse of communism and the subsequent emigration of
Jews from Soviet-bloc countries significantly increased the
number of eligible survivors. Reparations requests from
320,000 Jewish survivors have been approved (187,000 from
Israel) and over $850 million has been paid. The Claims
Committee continues to approve over 5,000 applications
annually.
|
