E. Germans for First Time Giving Funds to Aid Holocaust Survivors

East Germany is giving money for the first time to assist survivors of the Holocaust in which the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews during World War II, the official ADN news agency reported Monday.

It said the new East German government, reversing 40 years of Communist opposition to such gestures, will give $3.65 million to an Israeli foundation that helps ease survivors’ psychological and physical suffering.

An additional $59,000 will be given to a branch of the foundation that is being set up in East Germany, the agency quoted government officials as telling a news conference.

By comparison, West Germany has paid over $47 billion in reparations to Israel and Jewish survivors of Hitler’s drive to erase European Jewry.

Although tiny by comparison and not officially termed reparations, East Germany’s contribution from its precious hard currency reserves has tremendous symbolic value.

The hard-line Communist regime, ousted last year, maintained that it had fulfilled its war reparations obligations and had no responsibility for the Nazis’ persecution of the Jews.

It agreed in November, 1988, to look at humanitarian aid for Holocaust survivors but never got as far as agreeing on the sum with the World Jewish Congress and other Jewish representatives.

Signaling a change of tack, the newly elected East German Parliament said April 12 that the country accepts joint moral responsibility and seeks the forgiveness of Israel and the world’s Jews.

It also offered to find ways to pay compensation to Holocaust survivors.

There are 400 Jews living in East Germany and registered with Jewish communities.