Germany Increases Payment to Holocaust Survivors

BERLIN - Germany will pay $77 million in subsidies this year to aid needy Holocaust survivors worldwide. The decision is the end result of annual negotiations held in Berlin between the German government and the Claims Conference.

According to the terms of the deal, half of the money will be sent to survivors living in Israel who are in need of home nursing, medicine and food.

The sum of $77 million is an 85 percent increase over last year's budget the German government set aside for impoverished survivors.

The bulk of the funds are earmarked for those who escaped Nazi persecution in the former Soviet Union. These individuals were not officially recognized as Holocaust survivors by the German government since they were not directly under German rule during World War II.

Since the mid-1990s, the Claims Conference has supported their efforts to wrest reparations from Berlin. According to organization chairman Reuven Merhav, the Claims Conference coffers are expected to empty within a few years, necessitating increased financial aid from Germany.

The Claims Conference has long sought to reach agreements with Germany on the establishment of a foundation devoted to the matter of helping needy Holocaust survivors, thus negating the need for annual negotiations.

"It was only in recent years that the Germans began to recognize their responsibility and moral debt toward emigrants from the former Soviet Union who were persecuted by the Nazis," Merhav told Haaretz yesterday. "This understanding lies beyond the bounds of any political argument in Germany, and it is being championed by Chancellor Angela Merkel out of a sense that this is the last chapter in negotiations in which we are engaging with Germany over compensation to the victims of the Nazis and to Holocaust survivors."

Outside of yesterday's agreement, Germany allocates 400 million euros annually to Holocaust survivors worldwide through various aid programs.

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Denver Holocaust Survivor Speaks Out

DENVER - Eighty-eight-year-old Fanny Starr has a story to tell. She wants people to know about her horrifying experiences at the Auschwitz concentration camp so something like that never happens again.

"I just want people to listen to the truth," Starr, a Denver resident, said.

But, Starr does not want people to just read about how she and some members of her family survived the holocaust. Starr believes people should hear these stories before it is too late.

"My generation is slowly passing on," Starr said.

That's why her daughter, Helen Starr, has set up live Webcasts through a virtual world known as a Second Life. It's a place where avatars of real people interact with each other.

"I believe it's the future of preserving history," Helen Starr said. "To be able to hit a wide range of people in one sitting is amazing."

The computer version of the 88-year-old woman recounts the last time she saw her mother and younger brother while on the train to Auschwitz. She remembers how people were tortured, how little children were murdered and their bodies piled up like trash.

"It's such a heinous crime in such a heinous way," Fanny Starr told listeners in New York, Scotland and Israel during a Webcast on Thursday. "I begged to God, 'That's enough. Take me.'"

Helen Starr says you cannot ask a book a question. You cannot feel the pain of a survivor's voice by reading their words.

"Once my mom's generation is gone, who's going to talk about this?" Helen Starr asked. "Who's going to tell the story of our heritage?"

Fanny Starr just wants younger generations to know about the atrocities so they do not happen again like they have in Rwanda and Darfur.

"I would like to live another 20 (years) and tell people what we went through," Fanny Starr said. "It's horrid."

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