Germany commits to additional $800 million for home care for Holocaust survivors

Published on May 28, 2013

The German government agreed to significantly expand its funding of home care for infirm Holocaust survivors and relax eligibility criteria for restitution programs to include Jews who spent time in so-called open ghettos.

Claims Conference Brouhaha

Published on May 22, 2013

Those are the questions critics are asking following the disclosure that the Claims Conference received an anonymous letter in 2001 identifying several fraudulent Holocaust-era restitution claims — nearly a decade before the organization halted a massive fraud scheme.

Top Claims Conference officials carried out own botched probe of 2001 fraud

Published on May 22, 2013

A document obtained by JTA shows that top officials of the Claims Conference were sufficiently concerned by allegations of fraudulent restitution claims that they launched their own probe in 2001, nearly eight years before the $57 million scheme was finally detected.

Claims Conference offers last chance for East Germany property heirs

Published on February 20, 2013

Jews who owned property seized by the Nazis in what became East Germany have a last chance to receive compensation for it.

Hungary, Claims Conference exchange harsh words over Holocaust money

Published on August 29, 2012

The Claims Conference accused Hungary's government of "depriving" Holocaust survivors through "disgraceful" and "deceitful tactics."

$70 billion on, Claims Conf. marks 60 years of reparations from Germany

Published on July 12, 2012

When representatives of Israel, Germany and the newly created Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany met 60 years ago in Europe to hammer out a reparations agreement for the crimes of Nazi Germany, some Holocaust survivors were still living in Displaced Persons camps on the continent.

Germany agrees to $300 million more in restitution, Claims Conf. says

Published on July 9, 2012

Germany has agreed to provide restitution payments to an additional 80,000 Jews in what Claims Conference officials are describing as a historic breakthrough.

Opinion: Jewish organizations, others must stop interfering with Holocaust survivors' rights

Published on July 2, 2012

The JTA recently published an op-ed by Menachem Rosensaft which gratuitously offers an “alternative” to the legislation that Holocaust survivors and children and grandchildren of survivors are seeking in Congress. The bills Rosensaft patronizingly calls “well-intentioned” are necessary to restore our rights to go to U.S. courts to recover insurance policies sold by Allianz, Generali, AXA, and other global insurers to our parents and grandparents which the companies dishonored after the Holocaust.

Crafting a Holocaust insurance solution that works

Published on June 27, 2012

There is a solution to get us beyond the seemingly endless stalemates and complications that continue to characterize the ongoing debate over Holocaust-era insurance claims. And I do not believe it can be found in the well-intentioned bill before the U.S. Congress.

Claims Conference steps up aid to Greek Holocaust survivors

Published on June 27, 2012

The Claims Conference is tripling its aid to Greece’s Holocaust survivors in light of the country's economic crisis and funding an education program on anti-Semitism due to the recent rise of a neo-Nazi party.

Progressive Zionist leader Moshe Kagan dies at 92

Published on May 7, 2012

Moshe Kagan, a passionate Progressive Zionist and longtime board member of the Claims Conference, has died.

Trial date set in claims conference fraud

Published on May 2, 2012

Claims Conference employees charged in a nearly $60 million fraud case will go on trial in January 2013.

Germany adds payouts to some Soviet flight cases

Published on December 27, 2011

Germany has agreed to changes to one of its restitution programs that will add payouts of approximately $3,300 to some 10,000 Jews, the Claims Conference announced.

8 new arrests in $57 million fraud at Claims Conference

Published on October 12, 2011

Eight additional people were arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the fraud at the Claims Conference, which now tops $57 million.

Probe of Claims Conference’s accounting growing

Published on July 22, 2011

Germany has hired its own accounting firm to investigate a fraud at the Claims Conference that has topped $50 million.

Claims Conference appoints ombudsman

Published on July 14, 2011

The organization that manages billions of dollars of Holocaust reparations payments voted to appoint an independent ombudsman.

Symposium on caring for survivors set

Published on March 28, 2011

A symposium on caring for Holocaust survivors will bring together specialists from around the world. “Perspectives on Caring: Current Practice, Future Trends,” hosted by of Nazi Victim Services of Selfhelp Community Services and co-sponsored by the UJA-Federation of New York and the Claims Conference, will be held in New York City this week. Health care professionals, psychologists, authors, educators and social workers are set to attend what is being called the most comprehensive Holocaust survivor care symposium of its kind.

Fresh scrutiny of Claims Conference allocations

Published on November 29, 2010

As the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany seeks to root out additional cases of fraud, the $42.5 million scandal that has rocked the organization has rekindled dissatisfaction with the group’s annual allocation of tens of millions of dollars.

Survivors call for ombudsman in wake of Claims Conference fraud

Published on November 15, 2010

In the aftermath of the discovery of a $42.5 million fraud at the Claims Conference, a group of Holocaust survivors has called for the appointment of an ombudsman.

17 arrested in $42.5 million fraud at Claims Conference

Published on November 9, 2010

The U.S. Attorney's Office in New York has arrested 17 people for participating in a $42.5 million fraud at the Claims Conference.

$7 million fraud at Claims Conference raises questions

Published on July 27, 2010

After discovering $7 million in fraudulent payments, the Claims Conference is facing questions about whether it will recover the money and how extensive the fraud actually was.

Conference tackles Shoah survivors’ needs for next decade

By Jane Ulman
Published on July 2, 2008

Not only are survivors alive in large numbers -- estimated at 700,000 worldwide, with about 85,000 in the United States -- but they are projected to be a part of Jewish society for another 10 to 15 years, and even longer for child survivors.

Briefs: Scholars call for American Shoah heroes honors, civil marriage coming to Israel

Published on July 26, 2007

News briefs.

The leaders of Israel and of the Jewish people are failing us

By Michael Berenbaum
Published on May 24, 2007

Almost 25 years ago, I read a one-line description of Jewish leadership that has haunted me ever since. The author, whose name I have repressed, wrote: "Only a confirmed anti-Semite could believe that the Jewish people have the leadership they deserve." I protested his statement then, but I am not sure I can disagree now.

Rescuer and rescued reunion aids Polish talks on Shoah claims

By Dinah Spritzer
Published on March 8, 2007

Schmetterling and Czekaj had not seen each other since 1944, when Soviet troops liberated Kopyczynce from the Nazis.

"I am here today only because she and her family risked everything to save us," Schmetterling told the crowd, looking at Czekaj. "Now, to see her here in Poland, is more than I could have imagined."

Israelis prod Shoah Claims Conference for bigger share

By Uriel Heilman
Published on November 30, 2006

An Israeli coalition, including the Jewish Agency for Israel, Israeli Holocaust survivor organizations and the Knesset's pensioner affairs minister, is calling on the Claims Conference to give Israel a larger share of Holocaust restitution funds and more control over distribution decisions.

Red Tape Ties Up Shoah Payments

By Tom Tugend
Published on September 9, 2004

Living in the Radom ghetto in central Poland, Saul Friedman applied for work in 1942, and for the next two years cleaned a building and labored in a peat bog for the German army.

He earned no money, but received something much more valuable extra food rations. When the ghetto was finally liquidated in 1944, he was sent to an Auschwitz satellite camp, then to Mauthausen, and after liberation came to the United States.

Friedman, 85, is one of thousands of other survivors in the United States, Israel and elsewhere, who are now entangled in a bureaucratic hassle over a recent German law meant to benefit a little known class of survivors.