The German government will provide about $ 662 million to Holocaust survivors suffering from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, known as the Complaints Conference, announced the resolution on Wednesday. The Claims Conference, which has been the leading negotiator with Germany on restitution bills for decades, said bills would be held in two years to approximately 240,000 survivors, many of whom live in outdoor countries in Germany.
Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Complaints Conference, told The Associated Press that while some survivors minimize the disruptions in their lives now, they still live with Holocaust pain.
“There is this kind of popular reaction for survivors, which ‘has been worse, I have been worse, and if I survived the Holocaust, through food deprivation and what had to happen, I will get it” . Schneider said. ” But if you delve deeper into your research, you sense the depths of the trauma that still exists in people. “
Holocaust survivors are elderly and face a greater threat of contracting or dying from COVID-19. Many survivors also suffer from medical disorders in their old age as a result of the malnutrition they suffered in their youth.
Schneider also said many survivors are suffering from poverty and additional pandemic-related prices, which have created a monetary burden for them. He said many “doubt between doing it every month. “
Schneider said survivors in New York suffered at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, which had the highest of its instances in New York. Since then, the virus has increasingly in other countries with survivors, adding Israel, which has experienced a spike in infection in recent weeks.
“It’s a continuous calamity,” Schneider said.
Payments will be made to survivors who obtain restitution from Germany and will be made in two installments of approximately $ 1,400. Germany has contributed more than $ 80 billion to Holocaust survivors since 1952.
Worldwide, there have been some 38. 3 million cases of COVID-19 and more than one million deaths since the onset of the pandemic.