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Claims Conference Programs:
Program for Former Slave and Forced Laborers
Introduction: Payments to Heirs
The Claims Conference’s Program for Former Slave and Forced Laborers has concluded its distribution of funds to most eligible living Holocaust survivors. In three years, the Claims Conference paid a total of $1.3 billion to more than 150,000 Jewish survivors who were forced to work under the Nazis. The Claims Conference processed 265,000 applications and paid survivors in 62 countries.The Claims Conference’s top priority during this complex, historic endeavor was to pay as many living Holocaust survivors as quickly as possible. The last phase of the program is now to issue compensation to approximately 28,000 heirs, both those who applied directly to the program and those who are heirs to a survivor who applied.
The Claims Conference has always maintained that Holocaust compensation payments are a symbolic acknowledgement of the suffering of Jewish victims of Nazism. Nevertheless, the Claims Conference has always tried to obtain the maximum amount for those who suffered beyond comprehension and for eligible heirs The Claims Conference successfully in negotiated additional amounts to ensure that each living Holocaust survivor received the maximum amount possible under the German Foundation Law.
However, the amount available for heirs will be less than that paid to living survivors, in order that each eligible living Holocaust survivor was could receive the maximum possible amount.The exact amount to be paid for each heir claim has not yet been determined as there are appeals cases pending from living Holocaust survivors.As the Appeals Authority concludes its work, and the funding requirement is known, the German Foundation will determine the amount available for distribution by the Claims Conference to heirs.
To be eligible to receive payment, heirs or the original Holocaust survivor must have submitted an application within the deadline of December 31, 2001.All heirs to those claims that met the deadline and were known to the Claims Conference have been sentan Heir Application Packet (HAP). Additional heirs to claims submitted by the December 31 2001 may contact the Claims Conference to obtain the HAP, but no new claims may now be submitted.
Processing heirs’ claims will be made easier if each family designates one Primary Heir, as indicated on the application in the HAP. In order for the Primary Heir to receive payment on behalf of all eligible heirs, other eligible family members must sign and return the waivers with the Primary Heir’s application as indicated in the HAP instructions.
For more information, please consult the topics to the left.