Germany Tells Israel: No More Holocaust Reparation
Germany Tells Israel: No More Holocaust Reparations
Thursday , November 22, 2007
Israeli Holocaust survivors asked Germany's finance minister Thursday to improve a reparations arrangement set up a half-century ago, but he said no additional money would be paid.
Survivors reasoned the original 1952 accord with Israel did not account for their unexpected longevity or apply to tens of thousands of Holocaust victims who came to Israel following the Soviet Union's collapse.
Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck rejected the appeal, said Zeev Factor, a Holocaust survivor who took part in the meeting.
"He said Germany reached an agreement with Israel on this matter ... and isn't willing to touch the agreement," Factor said.
Steinbrueck said that if German officials concluded problems could be resolved within the framework of the 1952 agreement, then "they will be willing to discuss it," Factor said.
The German Embassy did not respond to a request for comment on the meeting.
Germany's government has said it would be willing to discuss requests for additional payments if Israel submits a formal petition, but that so far no such request had been made.
Israeli Finance Minister Roni Bar-On met with Steinbrueck on Thursday but did not submit a formal request for additional aid, a spokeswoman for the Israeli official said.
Six million Jews were killed in the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, and hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors emigrated to Israel after its creation in 1948.
Germany has paid an estimated $25 billion in reparations to Israeli Holocaust survivors, who Factor said numbered 350,000 to 400,000 at their peak. Germany also provided more than $700 million in goods and services to the Israeli government.
Today, some 250,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel. They are living longer than was foreseen under the reparation agreement with Germany, with added expenses and high medical costs, survivor leaders say.
In addition, about a third of the survivors here are not covered by the agreement, because they escaped Nazi rule by fleeing to the former Soviet Union.
Some Israelis have argued that the country should be able to take care of its own elderly survivors without going to Germany for more money.
After a storm of protest by Holocaust survivors who charged the government with abandoning them, the state agreed earlier this year to give the 160,000 Israelis who survived Nazi ghettos and concentration camps a monthly stipend of nearly $300, in addition to tax discounts and other breaks.
It also approved monthly payments ranging from $40 to $125 for 80,000 survivors who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312579,00.html
Thursday , November 22, 2007
Israeli Holocaust survivors asked Germany's finance minister Thursday to improve a reparations arrangement set up a half-century ago, but he said no additional money would be paid.
Survivors reasoned the original 1952 accord with Israel did not account for their unexpected longevity or apply to tens of thousands of Holocaust victims who came to Israel following the Soviet Union's collapse.
Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck rejected the appeal, said Zeev Factor, a Holocaust survivor who took part in the meeting.
"He said Germany reached an agreement with Israel on this matter ... and isn't willing to touch the agreement," Factor said.
Steinbrueck said that if German officials concluded problems could be resolved within the framework of the 1952 agreement, then "they will be willing to discuss it," Factor said.
The German Embassy did not respond to a request for comment on the meeting.
Germany's government has said it would be willing to discuss requests for additional payments if Israel submits a formal petition, but that so far no such request had been made.
Israeli Finance Minister Roni Bar-On met with Steinbrueck on Thursday but did not submit a formal request for additional aid, a spokeswoman for the Israeli official said.
Six million Jews were killed in the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, and hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors emigrated to Israel after its creation in 1948.
Germany has paid an estimated $25 billion in reparations to Israeli Holocaust survivors, who Factor said numbered 350,000 to 400,000 at their peak. Germany also provided more than $700 million in goods and services to the Israeli government.
Today, some 250,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel. They are living longer than was foreseen under the reparation agreement with Germany, with added expenses and high medical costs, survivor leaders say.
In addition, about a third of the survivors here are not covered by the agreement, because they escaped Nazi rule by fleeing to the former Soviet Union.
Some Israelis have argued that the country should be able to take care of its own elderly survivors without going to Germany for more money.
After a storm of protest by Holocaust survivors who charged the government with abandoning them, the state agreed earlier this year to give the 160,000 Israelis who survived Nazi ghettos and concentration camps a monthly stipend of nearly $300, in addition to tax discounts and other breaks.
It also approved monthly payments ranging from $40 to $125 for 80,000 survivors who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312579,00.html
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Good. The Holocasut was a damned tragedy BUT punishing todays' Germans WILL build the same type of resentment that caused the Holocaust in the first place! [^][^]
quote:Originally posted by Night Stalker
Germany Tells Israel: No More Holocaust Reparations
Thursday , November 22, 2007
Israeli Holocaust survivors asked Germany's finance minister Thursday to improve a reparations arrangement set up a half-century ago, but he said no additional money would be paid.
Survivors reasoned the original 1952 accord with Israel did not account for their unexpected longevity or apply to tens of thousands of Holocaust victims who came to Israel following the Soviet Union's collapse.
Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck rejected the appeal, said Zeev Factor, a Holocaust survivor who took part in the meeting.
"He said Germany reached an agreement with Israel on this matter ... and isn't willing to touch the agreement," Factor said.
Steinbrueck said that if German officials concluded problems could be resolved within the framework of the 1952 agreement, then "they will be willing to discuss it," Factor said.
The German Embassy did not respond to a request for comment on the meeting.
Germany's government has said it would be willing to discuss requests for additional payments if Israel submits a formal petition, but that so far no such request had been made.
Israeli Finance Minister Roni Bar-On met with Steinbrueck on Thursday but did not submit a formal request for additional aid, a spokeswoman for the Israeli official said.
Six million Jews were killed in the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, and hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors emigrated to Israel after its creation in 1948.
Germany has paid an estimated $25 billion in reparations to Israeli Holocaust survivors, who Factor said numbered 350,000 to 400,000 at their peak. Germany also provided more than $700 million in goods and services to the Israeli government.
Today, some 250,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel. They are living longer than was foreseen under the reparation agreement with Germany, with added expenses and high medical costs, survivor leaders say.
In addition, about a third of the survivors here are not covered by the agreement, because they escaped Nazi rule by fleeing to the former Soviet Union.
Some Israelis have argued that the country should be able to take care of its own elderly survivors without going to Germany for more money.
After a storm of protest by Holocaust survivors who charged the government with abandoning them, the state agreed earlier this year to give the 160,000 Israelis who survived Nazi ghettos and concentration camps a monthly stipend of nearly $300, in addition to tax discounts and other breaks.
It also approved monthly payments ranging from $40 to $125 for 80,000 survivors who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312579,00.html0 -
It's time for it to end. Israel is able to stand on it's own. 0 -
Germany shouldn't have to pay any longer....but it will still....just no increases.
You folks are going to be paying Reparations to Guam:
H.R. 1595....every American will pay $2 for 3 years to cover the cost of this war reparation. The US relieved Japan of it's responsibility to the people of Guam for WWII. So you'll pay it.
www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-15950 -
quote:It's time for it to end. Israel is able to stand on it's own.
Do you think the USA can stop giving them billions??0 -
The War ended 62 years ago. This is like us paying slave reparations. For me, it's long past due to be over.
And...the concept of continuing to pay this seems like kind of a sick dependency.
Doug0 -
This is just like the blacks of the US wanting reparations to the slaves well my question is why should we have to pay now for the mistakes of our ancestors. Seriously none of those blacks where actually slaves that was so long ago that thier all dead. 0 -
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-There really is no way to pay someone for being subjected to the death camps. However, money is the only means to show tangible recognition for their suffering.
But, paying someone money because they had the good sense to get outta Dodge before the fit hit the shan (i.e. they left Germany before they were rounded up and sent to the camps) and, oh, by the way, they just happen to be jewish, makes no sense at all to me.
Were the gypsies, the roman catholics, homosexuals and other so-called "inferiors", who survived the camps and were as much a part of the "holocast" as jews were, considered victims and given money?
The people that perpetrated the crimes are gone. You cannot blame the dirt and rock that the country is made of for those crimes.0 -
No sh#$. I have a relative from one of the Ohio Regts. that died in the Civil War to free the slaves.
quote:Originally posted by Cyclonus
This is just like the blacks of the US wanting reparations to the slaves well my question is why should we have to pay now for the mistakes of our ancestors. Seriously none of those blacks where actually slaves that was so long ago that thier all dead.0 -
uhhh...excuse me?
when germany stipped jews down to naked and killed them, they also went into their homes and stole all their private belongings. they stole their land and possesions. for those that lived....getting it back is almost impossible since ownership was transfered to germans. the jews have no way of proving it was theirs.
germany owes jews as long as the jews live.0 -
Germany has paid enough.
Let's get Russia to pay the Ukranians for the 6 million that Stalin murdered.
And China has a lot of catching up to do to pay for Mao's many, many millions of murders.
Israel isn't the only country who ever suffered, but they do whine the best.0 -
If I remember correctly Germany paying for WW1 was partly the cause of WW2. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Doug Wilson
The War ended 62 years ago. This is like us paying slave reparations. For me, it's long past due to be over.
And...the concept of continuing to pay this seems like kind of a sick dependency.
Doug
Maybe it was 60 years ago, but aren't there still grandparent jews and grandparent germans around? If its valid or not they would still seem to have a claim to something. Wait another 20 years or so and then it will be to the "everyone that was around then is dead" situation as exists with slave reparations.
So the jews that fled to the soviet union are also getting paid also[?][?]0 -
Having spent time in Germany I really believe they feel better about paying for the obviously most horrible act in German history.
Objecting would cause more guilt than the money is worth..
My Greek great grand father had his Black Sea sailing freighter stolen by the Turks.
I demand reparations!
Wait, Turks have no conscience, no chance for that!!!
Wulfmann0 -
WHAT?!?[:0]
Israel won't be getting any more hand outs from Germany?!?!
How long do you think it'll take for them to holler "anti-Semitism" to the press?[:(!]
Good for Germany - they've more than paid their dues to society.0
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