[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 20 (Wednesday, March 4, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1366-S1367]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  BEN MEED, THE AMERICAN GATHERING OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS, AND GERMAN 
                              COMPENSATION

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to briefly comment on 
the program of German reparations being paid to Holocaust survivors. 
Over the past two years, we have looked extensively at the role Swiss 
banks played during the Holocaust. What we found was shocking. Clearly 
we discovered that in addition to carrying out the mass murder of 
millions of people, Jews and non-Jews, the Nazis carried off the 
greatest robbery in history.
  After the war, the new government of Germany began a program of 
restitution for the survivors of the Holocaust. Over the past half-
century, Germany has paid billions of dollars to survivors, but can we 
really say that this is enough? Can we say that it is fair that someone 
who survived, for example, five months in a concentration camp, but not 
the six required to obtain compensation, is fair? Can we say that it is 
fair that someone who survived a Gestapo prison should be denied 
compensation for their suffering? The answer to these questions is an 
emphatic NO!
  It is time that Germany drop their reservations to paying 
compensation to all those who deserve it, regardless of income levels, 
regardless of the time spent enduring Nazi torture. All limitations 
should be dropped and each and every survivor, everywhere, regardless 
of their situation, should be provided with compensation.
  Mr. President, Ben Meed, the President of the American Gathering of 
Jewish Holocaust Survivors, makes these same points in a speech he gave 
at the National Leadership Conference in Washington on February 15, 
1998. His speech is poignant and succinct. Holocaust survivors have 
little time left and they need help. I could not agree more with this 
wise man's conclusions. At this time, I ask unanimous consent that the 
text of his remarks be included in the Record.
  Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to read Ben Meed's words and to 
help ease the suffering of these survivors of mankind's greatest 
inhumanity to man. I ask that they be printed in the Record.
  The remarks follow:

     Remarks by Benjamin Meed at the National Leadership Conference

       Distinguished guests, Fellow survivors, my younger 
     colleagues and dear friends
       Though many issues of importance will be raised during the 
     day, I want to take this opportunity to convey the dismay and 
     anger felt by survivors toward the reparations program 
     established by Germany and to express the survivors' goal to 
     challenge those programs.
       German compensation has become an extremely important--
     perhaps the most important--issue to survivors. Many 
     survivors need the compensation. And most survivors, even 
     those who would not accept German money before today demand 
     rights for the payment. But time is Germany's ally; time is 
     the enemy for survivors. As nature takes its course, we learn 
     daily of the deaths of more survivors. That unfortunate fact 
     only serves to emphasize the urgency of this matter.
       We attend funerals almost daily. Let me also add that since 
     the reparation program started over forty years ago, more 
     than 50% of survivors receiving German pensions have passed 
     away. Germany is not paying to the deceased or to their heir.
       After the Holocaust, we survivors were in no position to 
     negotiate directly--also many of us wanted nothing to do--
     with Germany. Though German money does go to some survivors, 
     the amounts and the conditions attached to the funds 
     humiliate us personally and collectively.
       In 1951, Chancellor Adenauer announced that compensation 
     for survivors was Germany's moral responsibility. And, since 
     the 1950's, the Claims Conference has negotiated with Germany 
     on behalf of the survivors. It has served as trustee for 
     their collective interest, and we survivors are grateful for 
     any help extended to us. But whatever was done, was not 
     enough. Much more can be done and must be done quickly.
       Until recently, survivors played virtually no role in 
     Holocaust-related compensation matters. We did not negotiate 
     with Germany; we did not decide how the German money would be 
     used; and we did not distribute the money. All of these 
     things were done without our participation.
       Yes, the Claims Conference and their leaders deserve our 
     appreciation for the work they did when we were unable to do 
     it. The negotiations with Germany resulted in various 
     compensation programs for survivors. There is the Federal 
     Indemnification Law, the Hardship Fund and the Article 2 
     Fund. We all know that no amount of compensation can truly 
     ``pay'' for the damage Germany did to our people. Yet the 
     amount Germany has provided is shameful, and the conditions 
     for eligibility are outrageous and humiliating; they are 
     unacceptable today.
       First, the amount Germany has paid is barely a start in 
     repairing the destruction and human misery it caused. Our 
     homes . . . our culture . . . our faith in our fellow man 
     were destroyed. Who will give us back our families, our 
     youth, our health. So much of our minds are still--and will 
     always be--there. Any yet whenever some survivors receive 
     payments, we are told, ``look, see how much Germany pays to 
     the survivors!'' How can anyone talk about German 
     ``generosity'' in the context of the Holocaust. It sounds big 
     when you say Germany paid more than fifty billion dollars 
     over forty years to Israel and to other countries in 
     reparations. But think about it, how much did Germany's 
     robbery amount to in four years of the Holocaust? Some 
     historians today are estimating that the robbery was more 
     than three hundred billion dollars worth of land, homes, 
     gold, jewelry and personal belongings--beside murdering our 
     six-million people.
       Second, the individual payments Germany has made, though 
     needed by many survivors, are typically small; they do not 
     furnish a dignified life with modest security that Germany 
     has a duty to provide.
       Third, only survivors who were in a camp for a minimum of 
     six months, or a ghetto for eighteen months, are entitled to 
     German compensation; and you must prove it with documentation 
     which is difficult if not impossible to obtain. Can you 
     imagine the fear and anguish which lingers from a single day 
     in the Warsaw or Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, or in 
     hiding? Can the people who imposed these insensitive 
     limitations have any idea of what one day in those places 
     felt like? It didn't take a month or two--or certainly six 
     months--to be abused, or to be plagued by nightmares, 
     forever.
       Finally, survivors must show virtual poverty--
     notbeduerftigt--to qualify for payments. This turns the 
     payments into welfare. Thus, the very people targeted by the 
     Nazis for murder are now treated as beggars or, at best, as 
     charity cases. This is disgraceful and insulting to us. 
     Compensation should be paid for what Germany did during the 
     Holocaust; it should have absolutely nothing to do with the 
     circumstances of our lives after the war struggling to 
     rebuild our lives.
       As a general matter, the selections the programs make--
     based on income, previous payments and other restrictive 
     rules are upsetting reminders to survivors of the infamous 
     selections made during the Holocaust. This, to us, is 
     intolerable and cannot remain the same; it must be 
     eliminated.
       In sum, too many survivors have been excluded from German 
     payments; too many who have gotten something have been paid 
     too little; too many improper conditions--selections--have 
     been imposed; and too many in immediate need of help will not 
     receive compensation quickly enough to do any good. All this, 
     in the name of humanity and justice, must be changed.
       Germany has treated Holocaust reparations like any other 
     business--get the best deal possible; pay as little as 
     possible; and be done with it. Holocaust survivors deserve 
     better. It may be that the claims of survivors are 
     unprecedented; but that is because the Holocaust was 
     unprecedented.
       But as we are in the last stages of our lives, there are 
     many needy and lonely survivors who live in distressing 
     circumstances. With an average age exceeding 75, they feel 
     forsaken, afflicted by illness and, in addition to the usual 
     complications of growing old. They still carry the nightmares 
     of the Holocaust.
       Now we know that circumstances could have been very 
     different had survivors played a larger role in the 
     compensation negotiations with Germany. Germany would not 
     have dared to take the adamant negotiating positions it 
     regularly took with the Claims Conference had survivors who 
     still bore the numbers of the camps tattooed on their arms 
     been present. And if Germany had played ``hard-ball'', 
     survivors--from the United States and elsewhere around the 
     world--would or should have walked away from the negotiating 
     table, and taken their case public, or to their own 
     governments for support. For the last few years, we proved 
     the importance of the survivors at the negotiating table. 
     Yes, without survivors, we would not achieve these gains.
       Survivors have dedicated themselves to not permitting the 
     world to forget the Holocaust. They played a leading role in 
     establishing museums, memorials and other Holocaust 
     remembrance-related projects in Israel, the United States and 
     elsewhere. We did this not for ourselves--we know what 
     happened--but for the rest of the world, which had to be 
     educated and reminded.
       We now are equally determined to do what is necessary to 
     make certain, in the little time we have left, that fellow 
     survivors live out their years in dignity; not full of fear 
     and frustration.
       Germany's war against the Jews was more brutal and 
     relentless than the war it waged even against the Allied 
     soldiers. To fulfill its moral obligation, Germany should 
     have a

[[Page S1367]]

     compensation program which gives to every victim, even at 
     this late date, the fullest possible coverage; enough 
     compensation to establish a foundation upon which survivors 
     can live out their lives in dignity, and with security. 
     Germany not only can do it; it is the right thing for Germany 
     to do.
       The gross injustices done to Jewish Holocaust survivors 
     should be the concern of everyone. Now it is clear what needs 
     to be done: We want the removal of all restrictions in the 
     German compensation programs; we want German compensation to 
     be inclusive--to cover every remaining survivor; and 
     survivors should be involved in every facet of German 
     compensation; the negotiations and decisions about how the 
     money is used.
       My dear fellow survivors, I focus my comments today on 
     Germany but we all know too well that other countries 
     participated in the world's greatest robbery from our Jewish 
     people in Europe. We commend those who are exposing these 
     matters on every level. But we survivors know better that 
     nothing, no nation could be compared to the greatest murder 
     machine of Germany.
       We should never forget this. Let us also not forget that we 
     spent a lifetime after the Holocaust educating, documenting 
     and commemorating the Holocaust. We must continue to stand on 
     guard of Remembrance. We should never be blinded with the 
     glitter of gold. The memory of our kedoshim should never be 
     tarnished.
       Let us work together, together let us demand what is 
     right.

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