The Budapest Fund
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This post is for historical informational purposes only. Please do not refer to this post for information pertaining to current Claims Conference programs. Visit What We Do for current program guidelines and information. Thank you.
September 30, 2009
One year after its establishment, the Claims Conference Budapest Fund has closed, having made €11.6 million ($17 million) in payments to 6,097 survivors of the Nazi occupation of Budapest.
This was the first time that Jewish victims who survived in Budapest and continue to live in Hungary received payment.
This program was established at Claims Conference negotiations with the German government in June 2008. In recognition of the incarceration and suffering of Budapest Holocaust survivors, certain Jewish survivors of Nazi-era Budapest, who currently reside in Eastern Europe and previously did not receive any payments from certain major compensation programs, received a one-time payment of €1,900 ($2,800).
Using information from applications to other compensation programs, the Claims Conference was able to identify 5,790 survivors of the occupation of Budapest who it believed would be eligible for this new payment. The Claims Conference pro-actively distributed application forms to these survivors, and widely publicized the program in Hungary. In addition, another few hundred Holocaust survivors applied to the Claims Conference.
In its negotiations with Germany, the Claims Conference had been pressing the issue of compensation for Budapest survivors for a number of years. The Claims Conference will continue to negotiate for pension payments for these survivors. From March 1944 until January 1945, Budapest’s Jews endured persecution, near-starvation, illness, cold, and constant terror, with tens of thousands killed and deported for forced labor.
Read a profile of Budapest Fund recipients Györgyné Forgács and Györgyné Róna.
