We are at home watching the shows and stories of the Holocaust. A day dedicated to the stories and the survivors here in Israel. There are 80,000 survivors in Israel that can barely survive and leave below the poverty line yet when they ask for help they are put through hell. Insurance monies, property taken from these people, claims money that were awarded all went to a group called the Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims in New York.
The Conference is the sole beneficiary of German compensation. Actually $1,070,000,000 worth of compensation. When properties were released after the fall of the Berlin wall in Germany it was this organization that collected the properties – a list that until today is not being revealed to survivors. This body is today one of the largest single property ownership groups in Europe.
Today when a survivor wants to get the money he is left, he needs to face a battery of lawyers controlled by this New York organization. Even today this organization refuses to provide a list of the properties that are held supposedly for the Holocaust survivors.
120,000 properties were received, worth $1,050,000,000. And this money is transfered to organizations and foundations that have nothing to do with the Holocaust and its survivors. Organizations that are in Brooklyn, Jewish Museums, and a whole network of organizations not related to the Holocaust in any way.
Not only that, in one case when the Conference received a property and then is faced with a claim from the actual property owner, the Conference demanded 50% of the money and threatened in writing the owner that they will take his house if he doesn’t pay up. Blackmailing Holocaust survivors!!! The CON gets worse and is aggressively covered up to the extent that employees are fired for asking the wrong questions.
There are 24 Jewish organizations that control the Claims Conference each having the same weight in decisions and allocations. And so Israel with its 80,000 survivors gets the same weight in deciding on the allocation of aid as for example South Africa with its 900 survivors.
The Conference allocates money for political favors and people on the board of directors are getting ridiculous salaries with administrative costs that are running in the millions. The term for this in the US is Self Dealing! It is Self Dealing that is now hopefully going to be investigated by the District Attorney of New York.
“Yirgon Uotzei Merkaz Europa”, an organization in Israel that received $9,000,000 from the Conference over the years, is managed by one of the guys close to the plate. That organization that supposed to help Eastern European jews is charging $4,000 a month for a room in their retirement home. It gives no breaks to Holocausts Survivors of course. The organization that received money and is supposed to help Holocaust education and support survivors has absolutely no such services or consideration to survivors. This year the organization will receive another $670,000.
To date 2,000 Holocaust survivors received assistance from the Conference.
Gideon Taylor the head of the Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims makes $450,000 a year!
Good People…
May 2, 2008 at 7:17 am
From the very beginning the Claims Conference(CC)has been a major problem for Jewish Holocaust Survivors. In the most demeaning way possible, in the name of Holocaust Survivors, the CC has extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from Germany while exploiting and then subjugating their Jewish Holocaust Survivor brothers. Further, the CC and their institutional partners hijacked our dignity, our programs and our benefits leaving Survivors with crumbs.
Their response to inquiries is double talk, secrecy and stonewalling. The CC and their institutional partners are guilty of creating situations for Jewish Holocaust Survivors that are objectionable and reminiscent of negative treatment we encountered in Europe years ago. Why would a Jewish organization repeat some of the offences of our war time enemies?
How can we get rid of them? The German Government has known for years that the Claims Conference has been exploiting and degrading Jewish Holocaust Survivors for decades. Why do they remain silent and continue to have a relationship with an organization that mistreats Holocaust Survivors?
Shalom
May 21, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I am second generation trying to orchestrate an effort and/or legal battle against the CC to finally channel monies to the rightful entitled receivers – holocaust survivors – please contact me at my e-mail if you are willing to join this effort. It is only if we collectively go together after the Taylors of the world that we can put a stop to this terrible unjust disaster called the CC.
Anat
alechner@mac.com
July 16, 2009 at 1:54 pm
This issue of secrecy on the part of the JCC is extremely troubling. Claimants should demand that any files be produced. These are not issues of Bank Secrecy or the US Patriot Act, so there should be no objections. Secrecy means one of two things: [1] I can’t trust you with the information, or [2] What I am hiding is so horrible, I can’t let you find out.