VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRL #0349/01 0841439
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 251439Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3666

C O N F I D E N T I A L BERLIN 000349 
 
SIPDIS 
DEPARTMENT PASS TO EUR/OHI 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/25/2019 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KNAR GM
SUBJECT: JEWISH CLAIMS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS SURGING HOME 
CARE NEEDS FOR HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS, ASKS GERMAN GOVERNMENT 
FOR SUPPORT 
 
Classified By: Charge D'Affaires a.i. John M. Koenig for reasons 1.4 (b 
,d). 
 
¶1.  (U)  This is an action request.  See paragraph 8. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Summary: The Conference of Jewish Material Claims 
Against Germany, Inc. (JCC) achieved only a partial success 
in its March 19 annual negotiations with the German Finance 
Ministry.  The Ministry agreed to raise assistance payments 
for Eastern European Holocaust survivors to bring them more 
in line with those of Western European survivors.  JCC 
negotiator Roman Kent, however, informed CDA March 20 that 
adequate home care assistance for elderly survivors and 
payments to ghetto workers remain outstanding and 
increasingly urgent issues.  In the days prior to the 
negotiations, the JCC delegation met with a range of 
political party leaders and government officials to discuss 
their concerns and received general support for their 
positions.  End summary. 
 
East and West European Survivors Pensions Equalized 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶3.  (SBU) In a March 20 meeting, JCC negotiator Roman Kent -- 
himself a Holocaust survivor -- briefed CDA on the outcome of 
the JCC's March 19 annual negotiations with the German 
Finance Ministry.  As a result of the negotiations, Holocaust 
survivors in new EU member countries and those in non-member 
countries will (beginning in 2010) receive monthly assistance 
of 240 Euro, rather than 216 and 178 Euro respectively.  The 
result equalizes and increases the amount received by 
survivors in EU and non-EU states.  Kent said that the JCC's 
goal was to increase the payments to 290 Euro and they will 
seek a further increase during their 2010 negotiations. 
 
Home Care Increasingly a Concern for Survivors 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Kent stressed that home care has become 
increasingly a necessity for elderly survivors.  Provision of 
assistance to cover home care has not been included in any 
Holocaust victims compensation agreements with the German 
government.  He estimates that USD 100 million is needed 
annually to cover the cost of home care for survivors.  How 
to cover home care assistance in the near future has become 
an urgent issue, Kent added.  He explained that the urgency 
is not only because of the increased need but because the JCC 
budget is dwindling and and it will soon not have sufficient 
funds to provide for this need.  Kent explained that as the 
JCC is selling off much of the unclaimed property that it 
owns through restitution claims, its budget is diminishing 
and will be gone within a few years.  Kent pointed out that 
this year the JCC spent the last of the remaining funds of 
the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance 
Claims (ICHIEC) -- USD 26 million -- for home care 
assistance.  (Note: Konrad Matschke, deputy representative 
for the JCC's office in Germany told Poloff March 25 that the 
JCC is the main source of funding for home care for survivors 
in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics.) 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Kent noted that the danger is that those needy 
survivors who currently receive home care could face loss of 
this service when the JCC funds run out.  Although the 
Finance Ministry agreed to provide 30 million Euros this year 
plus an additional 7.5 million Euros in the fourth quarter to 
ensure that no break in services occurs, an agreement for 
next year's funding was not reached.  The Finance Ministry 
argued, according to Kent, that part of the home care funds 
should come from the so-called "Hardship Fund."   This fund 
was created in 1980 to pay a one-time amount of 2,556 Euros 
to survivors who are refugees from former Soviet states and 
who left with no resources.  The Finance Ministry has argued 
that funds for home care should be taken from this fund's 
five percent set-aside to cover institutional grants, 
according to Kent.  The JCC has maintained that this five 
percent set aside was not meant to cover home care costs. 
The Finance Ministry agreed to establish a working group to 
study what home care assistance elderly German citizens 
receive and what the needs of the Holocaust survivor 
population are. 
 
¶6.  (C) In the days prior to the negotiations, Kent said, the 
JCC negotiating delegation met with a range of political 
party leaders and government officials.  Kent said that the 
JCC had obtained support for its position regarding German 
government responsibility to help fund home care from Social 
Democratic Party Secretary General Hubertus Heil, Free 
Democrats leader Guido Westerwelle, Christian Democratic 
Party/Christian Social Union Bundestag Caucus leader Volker 
Kauder, Greens Party co-Caucus leader Rentate Kuenast, member 
of The Left Party Petra Pau, and Chancellery State Secretary 
 
 
Hermann Groehe, with the latter being especially sympathetic. 
 Kent said that Groehe agreed that home care costs should not 
be taken from the five percent set-aside of the Hardship 
Fund.  All agreed, Kent said, that it is the "moral 
responsibility" of Germany to provide assistance for home 
care. 
 
Ghetto Labor Pensions 
--------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Kent also highlighted the problem of pension 
eligibility for those persecuted who performed voluntary work 
in ghettos.  Pursuant to the 2002 Ghetto Pension Law, 
persecuted persons who voluntarily did paid work in a ghetto 
can apply to receive social security in Germany. 
Applications are filed with state agencies.  Kent said that 
of the 70,000 applications submitted for pensions under this 
law, some 95% have been rejected.  He said that part of the 
problem is the difficulty in proving the voluntariness of the 
work and that "each state has its own interpretation of the 
law."  Kent pointed to cases of siblings with identical 
histories where one was found eligible and the other not.  To 
partly address the problem of eligibility, in 2007 Germany 
established a special fund to compensate survivors for 
"recognition of work in a ghetto which did not constitute 
force labor and which has not been recognized to date under 
social insurance law."  According to Kent, implementation of 
this law has also proven problematic.  Since the creation of 
this voluntary ghetto labor fund, of the 45,000 applications 
submitted, only 15,000 received the one-time lump sum payment 
of 2,000 Euros.  Regarding the 2002 law, the JCC has argued 
that a mechanism is needed to ensure that all of the 16 
German states implement the law uniformly.  Regarding the 
2007 law, the JCC has argued for faster processing of the 
cases. 
 
¶8.  (C) Comment: In response to Kent's request for USG 
support in efforts to meet JCC goals with Germany, CDA said 
that we would explore how we could be of assistance.  Post 
requests guidance on how best to proceed in addressing these 
Holocaust-era compensation issues, both with regard to 
responding to JCC's request for support and addressing these 
issues with the German government. 
 
 
Koenig