Holocaust Fund’s Payment Falls Short, Survivors Say

Eighty Holocaust survivors received the first checks Tuesday from a $200-million fund set up by Swiss banks, but many recipients complained that the payments were too small.

Riva Sefere, a 75-year-old Jewish survivor of a Nazi labor camp in Latvia, was the first to receive a $400 check at a ceremony in Riga, the Latvian capital.

“What I really need is a washing machine, because all my life I had to do the washing by hand,” said Sefere, who lives with her husband in Riga. “Unfortunately, this sum isn’t even enough for a washing machine.”

The money was provided by Swiss banks and industry in response to claims that they profited from the Nazi machine during World War II. So far, almost $200 million has been collected by the fund.

The Latvian survivors are to eventually receive an additional $600 payment.

Other needy Holocaust survivors in Eastern Europe will also be receiving payments of $1,000 each.

Several recipients called the payments symbolic, and some said they would use the money to pay for rent or medical care.

Jewish leaders acknowledged that the payments were small but said the program is important because it marks the first time Holocaust survivors in formerly Communist Eastern Europe have received assistance. For decades, Communist governments blocked them from receiving payments from the West, while Soviet authorities largely ignored the survivors.

“Sure, the amount of money is not enough,” Mikhail Chlenov, who is active in Russia’s Jewish community, told reporters in Moscow. “But for Eastern Europe, this is the first payment we ever received.”

The fund’s officials stressed that the payments should be regarded as humanitarian relief, not compensation for suffering.