Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07BERLIN1703
2007-09-10 12:38:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Berlin
Cable title:
GERMANY MAKES PROGRESS ON GHETTO PENSIONS
how-toVZCZCXRO2726 RR RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR DE RUEHRL #1703 2531238 ZNY CCCCC ZZH R 101238Z SEP 07 FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9229 INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 0536 RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 0132
C O N F I D E N T I A L BERLIN 001703
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/10/2017
TAGS: GM PGOV PREL
SUBJECT: GERMANY MAKES PROGRESS ON GHETTO PENSIONS
Classified By: Political M/C John Bauman for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)
C O N F I D E N T I A L BERLIN 001703
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/10/2017
TAGS: GM PGOV PREL
SUBJECT: GERMANY MAKES PROGRESS ON GHETTO PENSIONS
Classified By: Political M/C John Bauman for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)
1. (C) Ambassador J. Christian Kennedy, Special Envoy for
Holocaust Issues, met August 30 with Michael Sell and Ludger
Schlief of the Federal Chancellery to discuss ghetto
pensions. Germany has made substantial progress in recent
weeks on this issue. Sell and Schlief reported that the
government will create a new 75 million euro fund to cover
the claims of approximately 63,000 former "voluntary" ghetto
workers who have not yet been paid pensions. The Chancellery
expects that 50,000 to 60,000 of these individuals will
eventually file claims, which means that each one-time
payment will be about 1250 to 1500 euros.
2. (C) The German government's purpose, according to Sell
and Schlief, is simply to provide a symbolic recognition of
the right of these claimants to a pension. This new fund
represents a major step forward from only a few months ago,
when government progress was stalled on this issue. Sell and
Schlief indicated that progress was made because of
intervention by Chancellor Merkel. The government's only
major "red lines" are that they will not make payments a) to
descendants of those persons who might be entitled to
payments from the special fund, but only to the ghetto
workers themselves and b) if the claimant is already
receiving a German pension, though there may be the
possibility of a bump-up to existing pensions. The
government will not force claimants to give up any other
rights to pursue payments by accepting this payment, i.e.
insist that claimants sign some form of quit claim.
3. (C) Sell and Schlief said the German government has no
interest in "playing the biological card," or waiting until
claimants have died. Indeed, they indicated that the
chancellery will issue policy guidelines later this week
describing the fund. Sell and Schlief expect the
administrative infrastructure to be in place very soon --
using the existing Federal Administrative Office -- so that
payments could begin later this year.
4. (C) In a separate conversation, Germany representative for
the Claims Conference, Georg Heuberger, told Kennedy that he
believed the number of potential applicants would be closer
to 20,000 and payments should then be in the euro 3,500
range. Kennedy later learned from Claims Conference
representatives in New York that they were unwilling to
accept payments in the euro 1,250-1,500 range and had so
informed their German negotiating counterparts.
TIMKEN JR
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/10/2017
TAGS: GM PGOV PREL
SUBJECT: GERMANY MAKES PROGRESS ON GHETTO PENSIONS
Classified By: Political M/C John Bauman for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)
1. (C) Ambassador J. Christian Kennedy, Special Envoy for
Holocaust Issues, met August 30 with Michael Sell and Ludger
Schlief of the Federal Chancellery to discuss ghetto
pensions. Germany has made substantial progress in recent
weeks on this issue. Sell and Schlief reported that the
government will create a new 75 million euro fund to cover
the claims of approximately 63,000 former "voluntary" ghetto
workers who have not yet been paid pensions. The Chancellery
expects that 50,000 to 60,000 of these individuals will
eventually file claims, which means that each one-time
payment will be about 1250 to 1500 euros.
2. (C) The German government's purpose, according to Sell
and Schlief, is simply to provide a symbolic recognition of
the right of these claimants to a pension. This new fund
represents a major step forward from only a few months ago,
when government progress was stalled on this issue. Sell and
Schlief indicated that progress was made because of
intervention by Chancellor Merkel. The government's only
major "red lines" are that they will not make payments a) to
descendants of those persons who might be entitled to
payments from the special fund, but only to the ghetto
workers themselves and b) if the claimant is already
receiving a German pension, though there may be the
possibility of a bump-up to existing pensions. The
government will not force claimants to give up any other
rights to pursue payments by accepting this payment, i.e.
insist that claimants sign some form of quit claim.
3. (C) Sell and Schlief said the German government has no
interest in "playing the biological card," or waiting until
claimants have died. Indeed, they indicated that the
chancellery will issue policy guidelines later this week
describing the fund. Sell and Schlief expect the
administrative infrastructure to be in place very soon --
using the existing Federal Administrative Office -- so that
payments could begin later this year.
4. (C) In a separate conversation, Germany representative for
the Claims Conference, Georg Heuberger, told Kennedy that he
believed the number of potential applicants would be closer
to 20,000 and payments should then be in the euro 3,500
range. Kennedy later learned from Claims Conference
representatives in New York that they were unwilling to
accept payments in the euro 1,250-1,500 range and had so
informed their German negotiating counterparts.
TIMKEN JR