COMPENSATION page 3
ference together after spending
hours and hours videotaping and
interviewing survivors for Steven
Spielberg's Shoah Foundation.
Rabbi Roth and the other sur-
vivors will be able to get informa-
tion from the two featured
speakers, attorney William R.
Marks, the founder and principal
of the Marks Law Firm, P.C.,
whose practice is exclusively ded-
icated to the claims of Holocaust
survivors, and Greg Schneider, di-
rector of allocations and special
projects for the Claims Conference.
Local Holocaust historian and
expert Sid Bolkosky will moder-
ate the panel. The event is being
sponsored by several local orga-
nizations including CHAIM
(Children of Holocaust-Survivors
Association in Michigan), Holo-
caust Education Coalition, Hid-
den Children of Michigan,
Holocaust Memorial Center,
Shaarit Haplaytah, Shaarey
Zedek, the Jewish Federation
and others.
Ms. Victor is urging survivors
to leave documentation and their
personal stories at home, because
of time constraints. Instead, she
Fran Victor: Hours of interviews.
would like to see people come
with questions, pen and paper to
take note on what could be a
primer in how to effectively go
about receiving compensation.
Said Mr. Marks, "What is im-
portant is that there is so much
focus and attention being paid to
Holocaust compensation and
what was wrongly taken from the
victims."
Mr. Marks will outline the
compensation programs that ex-
ist. He'll make Sunday's message
a primer for survivors.
"There is just so much misin-
formation in the survivor com-
munity," he said. "Survivors talk
to one another and often what
they say isn't accurate legally.
Each case with a survivor has to
be looked at as individual case.
It's like a fingerprint. I'll be giv-
ing an overview of the issues.
"Over the course of the decades
a number of people purporting to
work for survivors have not done
right by their clients. I've seen
lawyers who have been no better
than crooks. I've seen machers
(community leaders) who have
completely mishandled files."
There are at least three major
compensation agreements be-
tween the German government
and the survivors. The first be-
gan in 1952, but stopped accept-
ing applications in 1965. It is
called the BEG, which comes
from the German Bunde-
sentschaendigungsgesetz, or Fed-
eral Compensation Law. Some
$45 billion has been paid out to
280,000 survivors under the
BEG. Yet, there are tens of thou-
sands of survivors who applied
and received no payment or re-
ceived a one-time small payment.
The second reparation fund be-
gan in 1980, and is still accept-
ing applicants. It is known as the
Hardship Fund, and it has
awarded 155,000 survivors a one-
time payment of about $3,000.
The third is the Article 2 Fund,
which started in 1993. About
38,000 survivors are eligible for
a $300 per month pension. So far,
about 25,000 have received the
pension. Germany will pay some
$757 million under the program
through 1999. At that point, the
Claims Conference will have to
renegotiate to continue the pro-
gram.
Article 2 compensates sur-
vivors who had been left out of
earlier programs.
To be eligible, survivors have
to earn a joint income less than
$21,000 for couples and $16,000
for individuals. This is the fund
that Rabbi Roth does not qualify
for. It is also the fund that re-
ceives the greatest amount of crit-
icism.
Germany has never released
the reasons behind its acceptance
guidelines. Survivors have said
the conference denies tens of
thousands of survivors the pen-
sions, using a set of guidelines
it won't release. The fund is dis-
persed by Jewish administrators.
In its defense, the conference
not only awards individual pen-
sions but also gives tens of mil-
lions of dollars to support Jewish
charities that benefit survivors.
Detroit's Jewish Family Service
recently received a grant of
$100,000 per year for three years
for direct social services for sur-
vivors, including home care and
support groups. ❑
Compensation For Holo-
caust Survivors, 1 to 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 18, at Congre-
gation Shaarey Zedek. Free
transportation available from
both campuses of the JCC.
Buses will depart promptly
for Shaarey Zedek at 12:30
p.m, For information, call
(248) 661-3008.
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in this issue of
The Jewish News.