On July 5, Julius Berman, the president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, announced major progress for home care aid for Holocaust survivors. The organization negotiated with the German government and secured major increases in homecare funding on behalf of poor Holocaust survivors worldwide. This agreement, subject to approval by the German Parliament, will increase funding by 111 million in 2017, and nearly 388 million in 2018. This makes a total of almost 500 million dollars in additional funding for Holocaust survivors’ homecare aid worldwide.
“We commend the government of Germany for recognizing its continuing obligation to victims of the Holocaust almost 70 years after liberation,” said Claims Conference Special Negotiator Amb. Stuart Eizenstat. “We have worked exhaustively to arrive at this agreement with the German government. Holocaust survivors, now in their final years, should know of our total commitment to trying to ensure that they live in dignity, with the help they need.”
The negotiations lasted over eight months, as the Claims Conference worked to address the significant, currently unmet, needs of Holocaust survivors worldwide. As the survivors become more elderly, many are frail and vulnerable. Therefore, homecare aid is becoming an ever-increasing need.
“Elderly Holocaust survivors, who lived through the worst of humanity’s horrors, now need assistance to be able to live out their years in the comfort and security of their own homes. Thousands of survivors emerged from camps and ghetto and they deserve to live out their final years in dignity,” said Greg Schneider, Claims Conference Executive Vice President.
Members of the conference are optimistic about the agreement. “We have been fighting for the rights of survivors for 65 years, and this new agreement will have a huge impact on the most vulnerable, poor and disabled of survivors,” said Berman.
The Claims Conference currently works with 240 organizations, helping Holocaust survivors in 46 countries. They provide home care to 67,000 elderly survivors, and medical care, food and emergency financial aid to 121,000. The new agreement will be able to expand their home care aid worldwide, which will provide even more survivors with services such as cooking, dressing and taking medication. These services will enable them to live out their years in the comfort and dignity of their own homes.
