Berlin will compensate 113,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel in the form of $27 million (€25 million), according to the German finance ministry.
“Many Holocaust survivors were hit particularly hard by the Hamas attacks, whether through the loss of their homes, support systems in the form of care,” a German finance ministry spokeswoman said.
The additional funds were aimed at helping the Holocaust survivors ”as quickly as possible (…) in this frightening and hopeless war situation,” the spokeswoman added.
The Hamas-led murderous rampage into southern Israel was the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history, killing at least 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 others.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have since killed at least 33,634 Palestinians and injured another 76,214 people, according to the Ministry of Health there. Human Rights Watch and Oxfam last month accused Israel of carrying out “indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks in violation of international law.”
Each of the 113,000 Jewish survivors in Israel will receive the $236 as a one-off payment, according to the nonprofit Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) – a Jewish umbrella organization that seeks damages for Holocaust survivors and which worked with the German government on the scheme.
The payments are being distributed in Israel in cooperation with the Claims Conference and the Holocaust Survivors Rights Authority of the Israeli government, the German finance ministry said.
Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference, praised the payment scheme, saying, ”The additional symbolic acknowledgment payment by Germany to Holocaust survivors in Israel is a message of solidarity.”
The German Finance Ministry added, “This exceptional and stressful situation for the victims of the Holocaust, which has been exacerbated by the anti-Semitism being expressed around the world, the payment of 25 million euros was intended as a gesture of solidarity and support from Germany to Israel.”
German politicians have repeatedly stated that Israel’s security is Germany’s “reason of state” – the term is a reference to Germany’s special relationship with Israel due to the Holocaust, in which Germany systematically murdered 6 million Jews under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
