Survivors promised $7.7 million in 2007, but records show they received only half that amount. Government offices vow they transferred full amount to Finance Ministry, which says survivors were only slated to receive $3.8 million

Yael Branovsky

The Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel welcomed the government’s pledge in 2006 to allocate an additional $7.7 million for Holocaust victims the following year. Two separate bodies were to contribute the much-needed funds, with the Prime Minister’s Office and Yisrael Beitenu party each slated to give half the final amount.
But Ynet has learned that throughout the course of 2007 – only one payment of $3.8 million was received.
The funds were used mainly to cover medical expenses for thousands of needy Holocaust survivors living in Israel, said officials at the foundation, adding that with the full amount some 5,000 more requests for aid could have been authorized.

But both the PMO and Yisrael Beitenu claim they transferred the entire amount they had pledged to the Finance Ministry during 2007.

more.

Court orders Holocaust art returned

Published: 12/30/2007

A U.S. district court ordered a German baroness to turn a painting over to the estate of a Holocaust survivor.

U.S. District Judge Mary Lisi said in her ruling that Max Stern did not voluntarily sell the painting “Girl from the Sabiner Mountains,” by 19th-century artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter, in 1937.

Rather, Stern was forced by the Nazis to auction off hundreds of works of art from his family’s Dusseldorf art gallery because he was Jewish. Soon after the auction Stern fled Germany, eventually finding his way to Canada, where he became a well-known art dealer.

Maria-Luise Bissonnette, now a resident of Rhode Island, was ordered to turn over the painting, which she inherited from her parents. Bissonnette’s stepfather, Karl Wilharm, a member of the Nazi party, bought the painting at Stern’s auction. The painting was recently appraised at about $94,000.

Stern’s estate found the painting in 2005 when Bissonnette tried to sell it at auction. Stern, who died in 1987, left his estate to McGill and Concordia universities in Montreal and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The schools have continued to try to find about 400 of Stern’s missing paintings.

An Israeli auction house drew censure for selling off Holocaust memorabilia.

Among hundreds of items sold Sunday by the Ben-Ami Andres auction house in Tel Aviv were two yellow Star of David badges which Jews were forced to wear under the Nazis. They were sold for $240 and $160.

The buyers were not identified, but auction organizers said there had been interest in the items from children of Holocaust survivors who voiced desire to commemorate their parents’ suffering.

Yet other Holocaust survivors were far from sanguine about the sale, describing it as profiteering.

“I think it’s despicable,” said Yosef Lapid, a former Israeli justice minister who is now chairman of Yad Vashem’s board of governors. Speaking on Israel Radio, he added sarcastically: “When I was a child in the Budapest ghetto, I had no idea that the badges I was forced to wear could prove so valuable.”

December 28, 2007 – New York – The American Jewish Committee praised Macedonia for concluding an agreement with the country’s Jewish community that resolves all outstanding claims for Holocaust-era communal and heirless private property.

“This historic agreement closes an extraordinarily painful chapter for the remnant Jewish community of Macedonia,” said Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC’s director of international Jewish affairs. He has visited Skopje regularly and played a pivotal role in the negotiations.

Under the agreement, Macedonia will allocate 17 million Euros (about 25 million U.S. dollars) for the completion and initial operational expenses of the Memorial Center now under construction in the capital city of Skopje. The center, which is located on restituted former Jewish property, will serve as a memorial and museum that recounts the story of the Holocaust in Macedonia, and also will provide facilities for cultural and communal programs.

AJC has maintained a long and close relationship with the small, but vibrant, Jewish community in Skopje. The restitution issue has frequently been addressed in meetings between AJC officials and Macedonia’s leaders, most recently with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in October and with Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki earlier this month.

In 2002, the Macedonian government resolved outstanding Jewish communal property claims. With this new agreement, Macedonia is one of only a few countries that has settled claims against heirless Jewish properties.

More than 7,000 Macedonian Jews, representing nearly 95 percent of the community, were murdered during the Holocaust.

Researchers at the USHMM are asking for your help identifying and providing contact information for eyewitnesses - those who were in Rivesaltes and would agree to be interviewed/filmed for oral histories that will be used in connection with the exhibit that is being planned.

The Rivesaltes memorial site team will come to the U.S. for these interviews, so at this point all Rivesaltes eyewitnesses/survivors who agree to be interviewed will be considered without regard to where they are located. Please contact him directly if you know of survivors who fit this description and might be willing to participate in this memorial/educational project. His name is MARC MASUROVSKY and his e-mail address is mmasurovsky {at} ushmm(.)org. Phone is 202-488-0497.

The project is being led by the French regional government and is also supported by groups like the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah in Paris, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. In June the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research urged its member countries to preserve the ”physical locations where Holocaust-related events occurred.”

For more information on Rivesaltes and this project, please see the following website for an article entitled “Paying Tribute to the Persecuted” by Sarah Wildman, published in the New York Times on October 14, 2007″: travel.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/travel/14heads.html.

Thanks so much for your assistance - and to all, a happy, healthy, and fulfilling 2008, with lots of opportunities for advancing our shared commitment to Holocaust memory and education, moving from “memory to action” to use the lessons of the past to help current and future generations build a more just and peaceful world.

Ellen Blalock

Director, Survivor Affairs / Speakers Bureau

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
eblalock {at} ushmm(.)org

I am looking for information regarding the BREAD BAKERY located just outside the fence of Auschwitz and which provided bread for the entire Camp. If anyone was part of the bakery Kommando, or has a relative who was—or knows of a book where details about this camp bakery has been published, I would be very grateful.

I am doing this research for a dramatic film inspired by true events. The BAKERY background is fictional and therefore I would like to be sure that I’m as historically correct as possible.

I look forward to any leads that you can provide, and thank you very much in advance.

P.Katz {at} earthlink(.)net

HOUSTON, TX (Dec. 23, 2007) - Twenty students from Syracuse University in New York will travel to Houston in January for Holocaust Museum Houston’s second annual Warren Fellowship for Future Teachers for Syracuse University students, while another group of teachers from Latin America will arrive later in January for HMH’s third annual Conference for Latin American Teachers.

The New York students arrive Jan. 6, 2008 for six days of training that includes presentations from Dr. Leonard Newman and Dr. Sanford V. Sternlicht, both of Syracuse University; Nancy Patz, author or “Who Was the Woman Who Wore the Hat?;” Dr. Irit Abramski, director of the Desk of Former Soviet Union Countries at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel; Dr. Samuel Totten, a genocide scholar from the University of Arkansas; Dr. Mary Johnson, senior historian with Facing History and Ourselves; Dr. William F. Meinecke, an education historian with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC; and Dr. Mary Lee Webeck, education director at Holocaust Museum Houston.

Totten also will speak in a free public lecture on Wednesday, Jan. 9, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Museum’s Herzstein Theater, at 5401 Caroline St., in Houston’s Museum District. His topic will be “Genodcide: Issues of Education, Prevention and Intervention.”

Syracuse University faculty who will facilitate the group and present at the Houston institute include: Dr. Alan Goldberg and Dr. Ruth Federman Stein. Students will meet and learn from Houston-area survivors of the Holocaust. They will tour the Museum’s Permanent Exhibition “Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers” and the temporary exhibit “How Healing Becomes Killing: Eugenics, Euthanasia and Extermination” in the Museum’s Mincberg Gallery.

The group will also attend the Museum’s annual Leon Jaworski Lecture, given this year by Henry T. Greely, the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 7, in the Herzstein Theater. Greely’s lecture, “From Nuremberg to the Human Genome and Beyond - From Human Rights to Human Interests,” is free and open to the public.

The Warren Fellowship, supported by the Naomi and Martin Warren Family Foundation, is designed to bring the lessons of the Holocaust into the classroom. The Syracuse program is underwritten by The Spector Foundation.

The Latin American conference is set to begin Jan. 26, 2008, with educators from Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Uruguay attending this year’s seven-day conference. The addition of an educator from Panama reflects the conference’s growth. It was first held in January 2006 and included educators from Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay.

The conference is conducted entirely in Spanish and is a joint initiative of HMH, the Task Force for International Cooperation in Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research and the Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO). It is underwritten by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc.

Featured speakers in 2008 will include Nora Goan of The Ghetto Fighter’s House and Dr. Edna Aizenberg of Marymount Manhattan College. Other speakers include Jaime Monllor of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Dr. Bill Shulman, AHO president; Mariela Chyrikins of the Anne Frank House in The Netherlands; Jane Denny of Brookdale Community College; Monica Garza of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dr. Aron Gilbert, second-generation author of “El Ultimo Sobreviviente;” Mariano Gurfinkel of Venezuela; and Saul Balagura, an artist and poet from Colombia who now lives in Houston and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Respond to Rene Lichtman, Holocaustchild {at} comcast(.)net

Dear sir / Madame,

I am a child holocaust surviver. Am 78 years old now & have been living in Sydney Australia since December 1950

In 1948 & 1949 I lived in Paris until mother & I migrated to Australia.

It occurred to me that your organizatiom might have/ find some adddresses of the nursing class I was a member of in

Hopital Rotschild Paris metro Picpus. ( Ecole d’ Infermiers)

My name is Mrs Emanuela ( Lita) Nadel, nee Singer

I only remember two names from my nursing school: Janine( Janka)Gradstein, & Irena( Irka) Anikst

We were 20 girls housed in this hospital for a year.I presume that some of them migrated to Israel

I do hope that you can help me in this search.

Sincerely with regards

Lita Nadel

PS I was born in Lemberg ( Lwow) in Poland

The Custodian-General’s Office has decided to transfer NIS 73 million in shares purchased by Holocaust victims to an organization that works for the restitution of their assets, the Justice Ministry announced Monday.

The funds are expected to be transferred next month, pending Finance Ministry authorization, according to Avraham Roet, the head of the Israeli Organization for the Restitution of Assets for Holocaust Victims.

The organization was established by the Knesset last year in an effort to uncover and return assets of Holocaust victims to their rightful heirs.

Earlier this year, the group published a list of assets and property of Holocaust victims found in Israel.

Property and assets belonging to Holocaust victims valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars have been held by various state institutions in Israel - including the Custodian-General’s Office - for decades, and only recently have begun to be transferred to their rightful heirs.

The shares were purchased in the Jewish Colonial Trust, the pre-state financial organ of the Zionist Movement. The Jewish Colonial Trust was founded by Theodor Herzl in England in 1899 to promote Jewish settlement in Palestine, a group spokesman said Monday.

Earlier this month, the group published the names of 55,000 Holocaust victims who had purchased more than 100,000 shares in the company. The shares are valued at more than NIS 200 million.

About 250,000 Holocaust survivors are living in the country.

Nearly one-third of them live in poverty, Israeli welfare reports have found, prompting a recent landmark accord for additional government assistance.

Important New Information for Holocaust Survivors
Claims Conference Information Notice to Assist Survivors Applying for New German Government Ghetto Labor Compensation Fund
In September 2007, the German government announced the establishment of a new Ghetto Fund to pay symbolic compensation for work without force in Holocaust-era ghettos.

The application form for the Ghetto Fund, issued by the German government’s Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues (”BADV”), is available on the Internet as follows:

In English: http://www.badv.bund.de/003_menue_links/f0_ghetto/04_Antragsformular_en.pdf

In German: www.badv.bund.de /003_menue_links /f0_ghetto/ 03_Antragsformular.pdf

The Claims Conference is not involved in the administration, implementation or processing of applications for this program.

In this Information Notice, very important general information is provided regarding the Ghetto Fund and the related application form:

A victim of Nazi persecution may be able to obtain a one-time payment of €2,000 if s/he:

1. Was held in an open or closed ghetto; and
2. Worked “without force” during this period; and
3. This work has not already been taken into account for an old age pension.

PLEASE NOTE

Regarding Question No. 4.4
of the Application Form:

The work inside or outside of the ghetto must have been performed “without force.”

This means that an applicant must either:

have “found the work him- or herself,” in which case the first box under No. 4.4 should be checked, or
have been “placed in th[e] job on demand,” in which case the second box under No. 4.4 should be checked.
If the applicant was forced to work and checks the third box under No. 4.4, “I was forced to do the work,” the work would constitute forced labor and the applicant WILL NOT qualify for a payment under the Ghetto Fund.

A. General information on the Fund
An application must be made for the one-time payment. The German government does not presently recognize a previous application to German Pensions for Work in Ghettos (“ZRBG”) as an application for this new one-time payment from the Ghetto Fund.
Only survivors themselves, and not heirs of survivors, may apply for a one-time payment from the Ghetto Fund. However, should an applicant die after submitting an application, the one-time payment may be paid to the surviving spouse or children.
B. Information on the application form
The application form must be:
1. Fully completed; and
2. Signed; and
3. Authenticated.

Regarding Question No. 2:
Confirmation by an official authority.
The personal details (requested in Question No.1) also can be confirmed by the Jewish communities or Jewish social service agencies possessing a seal.

Regarding Question No.3:
If the applicant is already a recognized victim of Nazi persecution, any available confirmation should be attached to the application form. In this case, Question Nos. 3.2 – 3.4 do not need to be completed.

Regarding Question No.4.4:
As noted in the box above, the work cannot have been forced labor. The payment in recognition of ghetto work is only awarded for “work” carried out “without force.” This means that the applicants must either have “found the work him- or herself” (the first box under Question No. 4.4), or have been “placed in th[e] job on demand” (the second box under Question No. 4.4).

Regarding Question No.5:
The period in a ghetto may not already have been taken into account in an old age pension from Germany or any other country.

Regarding Question No.6:
It is important to include the Swift code and the IBAN number with the bank details. The payment in recognition of ghetto work will only be paid to the beneficiary’s account.

Contract of assignment
It is not permissible to obtain payments for ghetto work from both the Ghetto Fund and under the German Pensions for Work in Ghettos (“ZRBG”). The one-time payment of €2,000 must be repaid if a ZRBG pension is awarded. The contract of assignment authorizes the BADV to deduct the €2,000, either in one amount from a retroactive payment or in installments from the monthly ZRBG pension.

The application form should be sent to:
Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und offene Vermögensfragen
(Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues)
53221 Bonn

Full details can be obtained at the phone number:
+49 (0) 22899 7030 1324

An English translation of the guidelines issued for the Ghetto Fund by the German government is available at:
www.bundesfinanzministerium.de

Information issued by the German government regarding the Ghetto Fund is available in German at:
www.bundesfinanzministerium.de

The website for the German government’s Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues (”BADV”) may be found at:
www.badv.bund.de/003_menue_links/f0_ghetto/

The information presented in this Notice is intended for informational purposes only. The information is not intended as legal advice and is not legally binding. It is a summary of certain issues and does not represent a definitive or complete statement of the Ghetto Fund program.The information may not address the special needs, interests and circumstances of individual recipients. Individual situations differ and applicants are urged to seek individual advice. Individuals seeking specific information are urged to contact the Ghetto Fund program or to consult their social service agency or help center representative. To the best of our knowledge, the information provided in this notice is correct as of the date of this document, however, this information may change subsequent to the said date – December 19, 2007.

The only definitive documents regarding the Ghetto Fund are those issued by the German government.

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) represents world Jewry in negotiating for compensation and restitution for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs. The Claims Conference administers compensation funds, recovers unclaimed Jewish property, and allocates funds to institutions that provide social welfare services to Holocaust survivors and preserve the memory and lessons of the Shoah.

For more information: www.claimscon.org