JEWISH CLAIMS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS SURGING HOME

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