Only a small number of Jewish Holocaust survivors still live in Central and Eastern Europe. Most of them have been suffering to this very day from the physical and psychological traumas of this persecution.

Survivors who remained in the Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe after 1945 did not receive any compensation for their suffering. During the Cold War, the Federal Republic of Germany refused to make payments to these countries, and it was not possible for individual victims to apply to any of the compensation programmes set up in the West. Only after the fall of Communism and the reunification of the two German states, did the German government agree to sponsor the establishment of foundations in Poland, with 500 million DM, and in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, with a combined sum of one billion DM. As these amounts were intended to address the needs of many tens of thousands of Nazi victims from all backgrounds, they do not permit the persecutees to receive more than a one-time payment ranging from several hundred to - in exceptional cases - a few thousand marks. If one considers the extent of the suffering many of these people endured, these sums are little more than token charitable handouts. Survivors in other countries - Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, for example - do not have recourse to even this. These survivors deserve a regular monthly pension to allow them to live the last few years of their lives in dignity.

As the representative of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, the Claims Conference negotiated with the German government in 1992 for the creation of a special fund to address the needs primarily of uncompensated victims. Known as the Article 2 Fund (with reference to that section of the German Unification Agreement which mandated these negotiations) it provides for a monthly pension of 500 DM to those Nazi victims

Having waited more than fifty years for indemnification, these victims are now compelled to leave their country if they wish to receive a pension from the German government. The vast majority of these survivors in Central and Eastern Europe are over seventy years old; most live in extremely poor conditions without appropriate medical or social assistance. In spite of their needs, they cannot confront the physical and emotional ordeal of emigration at this time in their lives. Further delay in providing these victims with the modest pensions they deserve only serves to allow more to die in a state of poverty and bitterness.

We appeal to the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and to the German Parliament to implement immediately a programme of compensation that will address equally and fairly the claims of these most severe victims of Nazi persecution. Agreements should be concluded with the Claims Conference as quickly as possible that will extend the provisions of the Article 2 funds to victims residing in Central and Eastern Europe. Existing regulations should be altered, as necessary, and adequate funds provided.

Justice demands no less, and it demands it now.