Survivors at the Dachau concentration camp cheer their liberation by US soldiers. Photo: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.

JNS.org – The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) announced that an additional $767 million have been secured to help Holocaust survivors as the result of a new agreement with the German government.

The Claims Conference said on Wednesday that first-time pensions have been allotted for Holocaust survivors who survived the more than two-year Nazi siege of Leningrad—now St. Petersburg, Russia—as well as survivors who hid in France and those who survived persecution in Romania, who are not already receiving Holocaust-related pensions.

“Every year these negotiations become more and more critical; as this last generation of survivors age, their needs increase,” said Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference.

“We are thrilled to be able to expand the criteria for survivors again this year, including first-time pensions for nearly 6,500 survivors. Even 75 years after the Holocaust, these symbolic payments provide recognition and restore a piece of the dignity taken from survivors in their youth,” he said.

Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, special negotiator for the Claims Conference negotiations delegation, said: “I am again pleased to see more survivors recognized by the German government for their unimaginable suffering.”

The new pension program is open and currently receiving applications. Payments will be $443 per month. Child Survivor Fund payments, which is a one-time payment of $2,930, will also be given to those who meet the criteria and were born in 1928 or after.