The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) will issue this week second payments to 2,432 Jewish victims of Nazi medical experiments. Each survivor will receive €2,450 (approximately $3,200) for a total of €6 million (approximately $7.7 million).
These Holocaust survivors received earlier payments of approximately $5,400 each in 2004, totaling approximately $12.8 million. They live today in 33 countries, with 962 in the U.S.
The Claims Conference effort to identify victims of medical experiments has uncovered new information about these horrific acts committed by the Third Reich. Research of survivors’ claims for compensation by the Claims Conference led to documentation of experiments that had never before been recorded. From its research for this program, the Claims Conference compiled the most comprehensive list in existence of Nazi medical experiments. The Claims Conference’s documentation of previously unrecorded experiments enabled many of these victims to be declared eligible for payment.
“This second payment is a symbolic acknowledgement to those who endured the unimaginable,” said Claims Conference executive VP Gideon Taylor. “Their stories will be recorded for history.”
The Claims Conference stated that it negotiated intensively with all concerned to enable this second payment to be made.
The US State Department played a leading role in ensuring that this second payment to victims of Nazi medical experiments was made. “The US government has been a critical partner for us in the effort to ensure some acknowledgement for these Holocaust survivors,” said Taylor.
“The amount is not large but this is not about money. It is about acknowledging what happened to us. That is why it is important,” said Jona Lacks, a survivor who lives in Tel Aviv and heads the Organization of Mengele Twins of Auschwitz.
“Even though this is a small amount of money, it is a big help to those survivors who are in need of assistance. And more importantly, this shows that Germany has recognized what was done to the victims and has not forgotten their suffering,” said Eva Kor, founder and president of C.A.N.D.L.E.S. (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors). Her museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, which was burnt to the ground last year by an arsonist, will reopen on April 3, 2005.
As part of its effort to educate the wider public about this little-known part of the Holocaust, the Claims Conference has made available testimonies of the people who were subjected to medical experiments. The Claims Conference will be giving the new historical information and the testimonies to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and to Yad Vashem in Israel. Some testimonies have been posted on the Claims Conference website, www.claimscon.org.
About 178 different types of medical experiments were identified as a result of this program. They took place in more than 30 camps and ghettos. The Nazis' actions were gruesome, and include Dr. Josef Mengele's infamous experimentation on twins and dwarves. Other examples of experiments, sometimes performed without anesthesia, include injections to attempt to change the color of people's eyes, sterilization, injection of infectious diseases and poisons, and unnecessary amputations and organ removal, among many others.
The Claims Conference initially negotiated with German government and industry to establish the Foundation and to include DM 50 million for Jewish and non-Jewish victims of Nazi experimentation and for children of forced laborers who were in special homes (Kinderheim).
All applications were reviewed and matched up to historical material about medical experiments conducted in concentration camps and ghettos between 1942 and 1945. In addition, an independent reviewer, Judge Jacob Bazak of Israel, approved the cases.
The Claims Conference represents world Jewry in negotiating for compensation and restitution for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs. The Claims Conference administers compensation funds, recovers unclaimed Jewish property, and allocates funds to institutions that provide social welfare services to Holocaust survivors and preserve the memory and lessons of the Shoah.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Tuesday, March 08, 2005