The Claims Conference distributed $11 million to needy Holocaust survivors in Eastern Europe.
The funds, proceeds from an Austrain slave labor fund that the Claims Conference helped negotiate, provided $596 to 19,119 survivors in 19 countries, according to a news release from the conference.
“With the cost of living skyrocketing and governmental old-age pensions remaining constant, elderly Jews in Eastern Europe and especially the former Soviet Union are extremely vulnerable,” said Hillary Kessler-Godin, spokeswoman for the Claims Conference.
“Many of the compensation programs for Nazi victims that the Claims Conference has negotiated since 1951 were just never available in Communist countries. These double victims suffered tremendously during the War, were persecuted and impoverished since the War and have received the least amount of compensation.”
