The recent international Conference on Holocaust Era Assets in Prague highlighted the plight of needy Holocaust survivors throughout the world. For the first time, 46 states endorsed the conclusion that "It is unacceptable that those who suffered so greatly during the earlier part of their lives should live under impoverished circumstances at the end," and that "a high priority" must be to address "the social welfare needs of the most vulnerable elderly victims of Nazi persecution -- such as hunger relief, medicine and home care as required, as well as measures that will encourage intergenerational contact and allow them to overcome their social isolation. These steps will enable them to live in dignity in the years to come." The conference at the end of June also dealt with other pressing unresolved issues arising out of the Holocaust, including the restitution of communal and private Jewish real property, looted Judaica and Jewish cultural property, Nazi-confiscated and looted art, the preservation of Jewish cemeteries and burial sites, the need to maintain the integrity of the sites of mass annihilation, and a categorical, unambiguous repudiation of Holocaust denial and trivialization. The declaration issued at the end constitutes a comprehensive road map of the final phase of the complex Holocaust reparations and restitution process. Its adoption was due primarily to the tireless efforts of Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, who headed the U.S. delegation; Ambassador J. Christian Kennedy, the State Department's special envoy for Holocaust issues; and a group of dedicated professionals who ensured that experts and stakeholders alike had genuine input into the conference proceedings. Among the critical catalysts in the latter category are the members of the senior staff of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, popularly known as the Claims Conference. Without question, the Claims Conference is the single most important and effective body providing assistance to Holocaust survivors throughout the world. It also is frequently under attack by individuals and groups that take issue with its process of allocating funds.
No organization should be immune from criticism. However, some of the charges directed against the Claims Conference are out of control. Among the most commonly heard accusations are that the organization's leadership is somehow hostile to Holocaust survivors. This canard must finally be laid to rest. First, prominent Holocaust survivors are integral members of the Claims Conference and its committees. Roman Kent, chairman of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants, serves as the Claims Conference treasurer and has been a key figure in its negotiations with Germany together with Holocaust survivors Noach Flug from Israel and Ben Helfgott from England.
Sam Bloch, the president of the American Gathering, is a member of the Claims Conference Executive Committee, and American Gathering Senior Vice President Max Liebmann has been appointed as one of a number of ad personam members of the Claims Conference board. Other Holocaust survivors on the Claims Conference board include Eli Zborowski, Stefanie Seltzer and Joseph Wilf.
This year alone, the negotiations spearheaded by Eizenstat and Kent resulted in 13,000 survivors who previously had been turned down becoming eligible for reparations for the first time, and in the improvement in existing pension payments to survivors totaling more than $50 million. I am not suggesting that legitimate criticisms of the Claims Conference should not be aired, but it would behoove all involved to focus on constructive solutions that benefit the survivors rather than engaging in disingenuous personal attacks.
Menachem Rosensaft, the son of two survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, is Vice President of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants and Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. He was a member of the U.S. delegation to the June 2009 Prague Conference on Holocaust Era Assets
This article was first published by JTA - the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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