CLAIMS CONFERENCE REACHES AGREEMENT WITH GERMAN GOVERNMENT TO FORMALLY ACKNOWLEDGE SPECIAL NEEDS OF JEWISH CHILD SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST

$250 Million Child Survivor Fund Established

BERLIN, Germany - September 3, 2014 - The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) reached a landmark agreement with the German Finance Ministry under which the organization and the German government will together provide assistance to Jewish child survivors of the Holocaust, announced Julius Berman, Claims Conference President. Berman said, "The joint fund will recognize survivors worldwide who were in camps, ghettos, hiding and false identity for psychological and medical trauma caused during their deprived childhoods."

"Jewish children were in constant fear of death during the Holocaust. As you can imagine, this distress and the horrors of the Shoah have permeated so many aspects of their lives," said Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, Claims Conference Special Negotiator.

"Child survivors" are defined as Nazi victims born on January 1, 1928 or later. Those who were in concentration camps, ghettos or were, for at least six months, in hiding or living under false identity will be eligible to receive a one-time payment of €2,500 (approximately $3,280) for special psychological and medical care.

"The suffering endured by these young Nazi victims, including devastating separation from parents at a critical time in a child's development, as well as witnessing unimaginable atrocities, depravation from proper nutrition, and a range of injurious experiences has had a cumulative effect and are resulting in late-onset problems that only now are manifesting as physical and psychological symptoms in the survivors' advanced age," said Greg Schneider, Claims Conference Executive Vice President.

The fund is expected to become operational on January 1, 2015, and details will be made available after approval by the German Bundestag and the Claims Conference''.