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Program Information

Overview

Eligibility

Application Forms and Instructions

Appeals

Liaison Offices

Related Information

Profiles of Program Recipients

Article 2 Fund

Hardship Fund

Compensation & Restitution

Central and Eastern European Fund Overview

After intensive negotiations with Germany, the Claims Conference reached an agreement in 1998 that would allow some of the most persecuted Nazi victims in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to receive compensation for the first time. This agreement was negotiated for survivors whose living conditions were very different than in the West.

The eligibility criteria for the Central and Eastern European Fund (CEEF) are the same as the Article 2 Fund, on the premise that all CEEF applicants meet the financial hardship criteria.

In its 2009 negotiations with the German government, the Claims Conference obtained a significant increase in the CEEF payment amount. Beginning in January 2010, all recipients of CEEF payments will receive €240 per month. Currently, under German government regulations, approximately 7,580 survivors living in countries of the European Union (EU) receive €216 per month but 5,340 survivors living in non-EU countries receive €178.

This will result in a 35 percent increase in monthly payments for CEEF recipients living in non-EU countries, and an 11 percent increase for CEEF recipients in countries of the EU.

The Claims Conference has been intensively pressing the German government for a number of years to increase CEEF payments and to equalize all CEEF payments, as the cost of living in the region has risen substantially. The Claims Conference continues to press for CEEF payments that are equal to those from the Article 2 Fund.
The Claims Conference is continually negotiating with Germany to expand the eligibility criteria and payments for the CEEF and Article 2 Fund. Achievements as a result include:

• In 2002, the German government agreed to recognize previously unrecognized camps and work battalions in Romania and other places for purposes of eligibility for the Article 2 and CEE Fund payments, thus increasing the number of potentially eligible applicants.
• In 2003, the Claims Conference negotiated an increase in Article 2 and CEE Fund payments linked to the BEG cost of living index, and the inclusion of additional non-recognized camps in Hungary. In addition, certain persons who were citizens of Western countries at the time of persecution and had been previously unable to apply may now, under specific circumstances, receive Article 2 payments.
• In 2004, the Claims Conference negotiated the inclusion of previously unrecognized camps in Bulgaria and the payment of persons over age 18 who lived illegally under false identity or with false papers and who meet all other eligibility criteria of the funds.
• In 2005, the German government agreed to include Holocaust survivors incarcerated for at least six months in certain labor camps in Hungary, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria, and who meet all other eligibility criteria of the funds.