Author: Webb

It’s the principle (and interest) of the thing

Dated:

Germany adds $250m. in survivors’ pensions

After months of negotiations, the German government has agreed to add $250 million to its pension program for Holocaust survivors over the next decade, the Claims Conference announced Sunday.

The change, which is expected to benefit around 6,000 elderly Holocaust survivors around the world — nearly one-third of them living in Israel — followed months of negotiations with the German Finance Ministry, the Conference said.

The “Article 2 Fund” pensions will no longer be limited to survivors whose annual income is less than $16,000.

“This was, first and foremost, an issue of principle,” said Gideon Taylor, Claims Conference executive vice president. “Since its establishment, the Claims Conference has argued that Holocaust compensation payments are symbolic and should not be based on need.”

The agreement on the changes, which go in effect on October 1, stipulates that old age pensions — including governmental pensions and social security payments — will not be counted toward calculation of the income limit, granting benefits to thousands of survivors who were previously ineligible for the stipend, the Conference said.

Germany determines eligibility for the pensions based on a survivor’s persecution history, including incarceration in certain camps or ghettos, and time spent in hiding or living under false identity.

[…]

Article 2 Fund stipends have paid more than $2 billion to more than 73,000 Holocaust survivors since they were established in 1992 through negotiations with the German government, with monthly payments averaging approximately $320, the Claims Conference said.

Source: Etgar Lefkovits, THE JERUSALEM POST
Sep. 2, 2007
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1188392518799 &pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Aktion Circumcision

Dated:

Lessons of the Holocaust

GREENSBORO — […]

[…]

[Stefanie] Seltzer, 69, is president of the World Federation of the Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust, and she has been telling her story worldwide for more than 28 years. She was in town this week from Philadelphia, visiting family, when she was asked to speak at the library.

“It’s not a fun thing, but it’s an important thing for our children to hear,” said Teqita Williamson, who organized the event. “Unfortunately, time marches on and our friends are leaving, and when they’re gone, the story is gone with them.”

[…]

Though many memories have faded with time, Seltzer remembers:

[…]

• Seeing Jews executed after being forced to expose themselves to German police who were looking for circumcised men.

[…]

Source: Ryan Seals
Staff Writer
SUNDAY, SEP. 2, 2007 3:00 AM
www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070902/NRSTAFF/70901016

Webmaster note: It’s a wonder the Nazis had any Jews left to fill the gas chambers, considering this mode of execution. Can you imagine how many German soldiers would have jumped at the chance to examine the private parts of other men? The only unbelievable aspect of this story is that it seems to be so poorly known outside of eyewitness Seltzer’s account. What kind of a world do we live in where hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of men can be gunned down in the street with their pants around their ankles, and only one woman is brave enough to come forward with the truth?