Attention Holocaust Survivors

ДО УВАГИ ВИЖИВШИХ ПІД ЧАС ГОЛОКОСТУ (Ukrainian)

ALL’ATTENZIONE DEI SOPRAVVISSUTI ALL’OLOCAUSTO (Italian)

לתשומת לב שורדי השואה (Hebrew)

A L’ATTENTION DES SURVIVANTS DE LA SHOAH (French)

INFORMATIONEN FÜR HOLOCAUST-ÜBERLEBENDE (German)

AANDACHT HOLOCAUSTOVERLEVENDEN (Dutch)

HOLOKAUSZT-TÚLÉLŐK FIGYELMÉBE (Hungarian)

If you are a Holocaust survivor who has not received any compensation payment (either from the Claims Conference or German or Austrian governments), please call us immediately. You may be entitled.

The Claims Conference has negotiated the following liberalizations of criteria to compensation funds with the German government.

HARDSHIP FUND – SUPPLEMENTAL PAYMENT Jewish Nazi victims eligible for the Hardship Fund have been approved for annual Supplemental Payments of approximately €1,200 in 2023 through 2027. If you already received a Hardship Fund Supplemental Payment (meaning payments over the two years of €2,400), you don’t have to apply again. You will only need to provide Proof of Life. Please register with Paneem for the 2023 payment (you will need to do this every year through 2027). You will hear from us to validate via Paneem. If you have moved, or don’t hear from us, please contact us. If you have never applied, the deadline for the 2023 payment is December 31, 2023.

Holocaust survivors who were previously ineligible to receive the Supplemental Hardship Fund payments because they received one-time German government payments (for example from Länderhärtefonds) are now eligible to apply for the supplemental payment.

Survivors who receive a German or Austrian pension for persecution during the Holocaust (BEG, Article 2 Fund, Regional Specific Program (RSP), Austrian Victims Pension (Opferausweis)) are not eligible to receive the Hardship Supplemental Fund Payment.

NEWLY APPROVED OPEN GHETTOS Jewish Holocaust survivors who were persecuted in the open ghettos identified below, for at least three months, may be eligible for a monthly pension from the Article 2 or CEE Fund:

  • In Romania, survivors persecuted in Bucharest, Adjud, Beiuş, Blaj, Caracal, Dumbrăveni, Făgăraş, Haţeg, Luduş, Mediaş, Nălaţ-Vad, Oraviţa, Păclişa, Piteşti, Şărmaşu, Sighişoara, Târnăveni, Tinca, Turnu Severin, Arad, Braila, Brasov, Buhusi, Călărași, Deva, Dorohoi, Fălticeni, Huși, Ilia, Lugoj, Ploeşti, Podul Iloaiei, Sibiu, Suceava, Târgu Frumos, Timisoara, Turda, Alba Iulia, BaCau. Barlad, Botosani, Buzau, Costanta, Craiova, Focasni, Galatz, Harlau, Iasi, Pascani, Piatra Neamt, Roman, Romanicu Sarat, Stefanesti, Targu Mures, Targu Neamt, Tecuci, and Vaslui, between August 1941 and August 1944;
  • In Bulgaria, survivors persecuted in Dobrich, Kazanlŭk, Kŭrdzhali, Lovech, Nevrokop (a.k.a. Gotse Delchev), Nikopol, Plovdiv, Popovo, Preslav, Provadiya, Turgovishte, and Yambol (Jambol), between September 1942 and September 1944. In addition, all pension recipients who were in one of the open ghettos in Romania or Bulgaria named above and born after January 1, 1928, may be entitled to a one-time payment from the Child Survivor Fund administered by the Claims Conference.

Note: Jewish Nazi victims from these open ghettos in Romania and Bulgaria may also be entitled to a pension from the ZRBG (Ghetto Pension). This pension is not administered by the Claims Conference. Please contact a German embassy or consulate near you or https://www.germany.info/us-en/service/07-Pension/ghetto-financial-compensation/920638

CHILD SURVIVOR FUND In addition to the other eligible applicants listed above, the Child Survivor Fund may also provide a one-time payment to those who are among the One Thousand Children amounting to €2,500 (approximately $2,500) per person. Approximately 1,400 children were forced to leave their parents behind when they were rescued from Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied countries and taken to the United States. Please contact us to learn the details of eligibility.

PAYMENT TO SPOUSES OF DECEASED ARTICLE 2/CEE FUND BENEFICIARIES
The Claims Conference will provide payments to eligible spouses of deceased recipients of the Article 2, Central and Eastern European (CEE) Funds. A spouse of an Article 2/CEE Fund beneficiary may, upon the death of the Article 2/CEE Fund beneficiary, be entitled to receive payments for up to 9 months, paid in three quarterly installments, if the following conditions apply:

  1. The spouse is alive at the date of the payment; and
  2. The spouse was married to the Article 2/CEE Fund beneficiary at the time of death of the Article 2/CEE Fund beneficiary; and
  3. The Article 2/CEE Fund recipient passed away at any point while he or she was receiving a payment from the program.

The spouse of a Holocaust survivor must be alive at the time of each payment. Other heirs, including children, are not entitled to receive any payment. To download an application from our website, please go to: www.claimscon.org/apply

The German government established a similar program for surviving spouses of monthly Holocaust compensation pensions made under German Federal Indemnification Law, other German federal compensation laws or governmental programs, (sometimes referred to as Wiedergutmachung), for Holocaust survivors who passed away January 1st, 2020 or later. For more information, please check with the BADV or download the application from the BADV website at https://www.badv.bund.de/DE/OffeneVermoegensfragen/UebergangsleistungenEhegattenNSOpfer/antrag.html.

REGION-SPECIFIC PERSECUTION (RSP) PENSION A pension program was created for survivors, who currently do not receive pensions who were, for at least three months in: (i) the Leningrad Siege (ii) persecuted in Romania or (iii) hiding in France. Income/Asset criteria of the Article 2/CEE Funds apply. Meeting the RSP persecution criteria shall entitle a survivor to a payment from the Child Survivor Fund if the age criteria (born in or after 1928) is met.

For more information, contact:
CLAIMS CONFERENCE
P.O. Box 1215 New York, NY 10113
Tel: 646-536-9100
Email: info@claimscon.org