|
Guess Which One Receives
a War Victims Pension
from the German Government.
Survivor of a Nazi Ghetto in Eastern
Europe
Photo credit: Stewart Ain |
Veteran of the Latvian Legionnaires and
the Waffen-SS
© Wayne Sorce / Life Magazine |
If you guessed the survivor, you're
wrong, sad to say. While Holocaust survivors in other parts of the world are eligible to
receive German pensions, Holocaust survivors in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
have never received a pension of any kind from Bonn. Inexplicably, the German government
has simply drawn the line at providing such direct assistance to this group of survivors.
Not so, however, for many of the
survivors' former tormentors. Believe it or not, the German government provides generous
monthly pensions to Nazi war veterans, whose injuries or even mild, chronic ailments
qualify them for "war victims pensions."
In the U.S. alone, there are 3,377 pensions sent each month to veterans of the armies
of the Third Reich or their dependents!
After the fall of communism, many Waffen-SS veterans in the Baltic states and elsewhere
in Eastern Europe discovered they, too, were eligible and are now receiving such pensions
from Germany, while their victims are not.
Today, an estimated 15,000-20,000 Jewish survivors of ghettos and concentration camps
live in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. They are old, many are in poor health
and financially destitute. Surely, they deserve some help and comfort in the last years of
their lives.
Join our call to the German government to correct this grievous wrong. Bring justice to
the real victims of the Holocaust. Contact us to see how you can help.
The American Jewish Committee
Robert S. Rifkind: President
David A. Harris: Executive Director
165 East 56th Street, New York, New York 10022
(212)751-4000, extension 271. |
