One can’t compare reparations for Holocaust survivors with compensation for descendants of slavery. But that isn’t the point.
The United States and France have tentatively arrived at a $60 million lump sum agreement to settle claims by survivors deported to Nazi camps via the French rail system.
When massive tragedy strikes in the United States, when half a dozen or a score or thousands of people are killed in a single incident, when disaster hits a region, Kenneth Feinberg often gets a call.
A searchable database of Holocaust-era property records has reached more than two million records.
There are an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 Holocaust survivors living in Los Angeles, according to Federation spokeswoman Deborah Dragon. Of these, 3,000 are determined to be financially needy, a figure based on a United Jewish Communities Report published December 2003, which found 25 percent of Holocaust victims in the United States living in poverty.
Briefs
Last January, Austria joined Germany and the Swiss banks in signing a Holocaust reparations agreement. Relatively little noticed, the Austrian settlement deserves great recognition. Among its distinctive features is that it permits the return of specific items of property, including art works.
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