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German government pledges record $1B in funding for Holocaust survivor home care
The German government has agreed to allocate $1.08 billion in funds for home care for survivors for 2026, marking the largest budget for home care in its history of Holocaust reparations, reflecting the growing needs of an aging survivor population.
The funding, which was secured following negotiations with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, or Claims Conference, will now enable all Holocaust survivors currently on waitlists for home care to receive it, according to Stuart E. Eizenstat, who leads negotiations on behalf of the Claims Conference.
“We really believe now that, with the largest home care budget in the history of the Claims Conference’s negotiations with Germany, which go back to 1952, that we will be able to cover all those on waiting lists,” Eizenstat said in an interview.
Last year, Germany also set a record for Holocaust reparations, spending $1.5 billion overall. But as the survivor population ages, with the median age now at 87, the need for home care has become the dominant expense.
Nearly all of the Holocaust survivors who are alive today will be dead within 15 years and half will die by 2031, according to a demographic analysis published by the Claims Conference in April.
“As we’re in the last phase now of survivors — in 10 years, half of the survivors, and there’s about 200,000 now, will be gone — so we’re dealing with people in the very last stages of their life and and it’s very rewarding to provide a measure of dignity, both through these payments, but again, through home care,” Eizenstat said.
One difficulty during the negotiations, according to Eizenstat, came from explaining to German officials that although the survivor population has dramatically decreased over the years, the needs among the remaining population are much greater and require additional funding.
“Yes, there are fewer survivors, but those who live into their 80s and into their 90s are by definition in greater need of care,” said Eizenstat. “So even though the numbers are down, the needs are up, and that was a very difficult concept to get across.”
Eizenstat said that of the remaining estimated 200,000 survivors, over 80% of the population in countries that made up the Soviet Union are living below or near the poverty line. In the United States and Israel, around a third are living in or near the poverty line.
“I’m hoping that this can prompt local federations to supplement what we’ve done and to make sure that survivors in their last years don’t live impoverished, that they have a dignity that was denied them when they’re young,” said Eizenstat.
He added that this year’s negotiations had been the “most satisfying” since he began helming the organization’s Negotiations Delegation in 2009 given the distance of current-day Germans from the atrocities and the challenge posed by Germany’s economic crisis.
“These are people who literally weren’t born during the war, or if they were, they were young children, and yet they still feel a moral responsibility,” Eizenstat said. “It belies the notion that there’s Holocaust fatigue in Germany because it’s coming at a time of crushing financial burdens from Ukraine, from the need to stimulate their economy because of slow growth. This really is a combination of what Germany deserves great credit for under difficult circumstances.”
The negotiation also secured funding for a group the Claims Conference referred to as “Righteous Rescuers,” or non-Jewish people who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
“It demonstrates that we care deeply about making sure they get all the benefits of the Jewish survivors that they helped save,” said Eizenstat.
The German government also extended its support for Holocaust education programs through 2029, totalling $205 million over the next four years. The Claims Conference first negotiated support for Holocaust education from Germany in 2022.
“The survivors, the eye-witnesses, won’t be here, and we need Holocaust education desperately at a time of rising antisemitism, Holocaust distortion, denial and sheer ignorance,” Eizenstat said.
Eizenstat said he hopes the expanded funding for survivor care and Holocaust education will also carry a broader message about tolerance and empathy.
“I hope that these are the two major things that will draw as lessons and they remind us, at a time of traumatic intolerance in the United States and over the world, against minorities and others, that the real lesson of the Holocaust is to be tolerant of people who are different, to work out your differences and not to stigmatize,” Eizenstat said. “We need to be tolerant. We need to be humane. We need to all work together to solve our problems and not view each other as enemies.”
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New York’s Met Museum Sued for Selling Van Gogh Painting Allegedly Looted by Nazis From Jewish Couple
View of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Met, founded in 1870, the largest art museum in the Americas, New York City. Photo: IMAGO/robertharding via Reuters Connect
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is being sued for selling a Vincent van Gogh painting that was allegedly seized by the Nazis from a Jewish couple during World War II.
The iconic museum acquired “Olive Picking” (1889) in 1956 for $125,000 from the Knoedler Gallery and sold the artwork to a Greek collector in 1972, according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by The New York Times. The suit, reportedly filed Monday in the Federal District Court in Manhattan, argues that The Met should never have had possession of the painting because it allegedly belonged to Hedwig and Frederick Stern, a Jewish couple who lived in Munich, Germany, until December 1936, a year after they purchased the artwork.
The Sterns fled Germany with their six children to save themselves from Nazi persecution during the Holocaust. They were unable to take the Van Gogh painting with them because Nazi officials considered the artwork “German cultural property,” according to the lawsuit. After the painting was sold, the funds were put in a “blocked account” and later seized by the Nazis.
“In the decades since the end of World War II, this Nazi-looted painting has been repeatedly and secretly trafficked, purchased and sold in and through New York,” claimed the lawsuit filed by Judith Anne Silver, the heir of the Stern family. She also argued that The Met curator who bought and later sold the painting, Theodore Rousseau Jr., should have known the Van Gogh artwork was likely looted by the Nazis because he was “one of the world’s foremost experts on Nazi art looting,” noting his tenure as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy during World War II. Rousseau served in the Office of Strategic Services during the war and authored a report for the Art Looting Investigation Unit.
Silver is not only fighting to have the painting returned to her family but also seeking damages “for taking and detaining it,” as well as other fees.
The lawsuit targets The Met as well as the Athens-based Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, which is named after the Greek collector who bought “Olive Picking” from the New York institution. The foundation operates two museums – on the island of Andros and in Athens – and the oil on canvas painting is currently on view at the museum in Athens. According to the painting’s provenance listed on the foundation’s website, the Marlborough Fine Art gallery in London purchased “Olive Picking” from The Met before it was sold to the Goulandris private collection in 1972.
Heirs of the Stern family previously sued The Met and the Goulandris Foundation over the same painting in 2022 in California, but a judge dismissed the case. The family has now filed its lawsuit in New York.
‘To this day, the Goulandris Defendants continue to conceal how and when the BEG came into possession of the Painting; the Stern family’s ownership of the painting from 1935 to 1938; and the facts that the Nazis looted the painting from the Stern family, coerced the Sterns into selling it via a Nazi-appointed agent, and confiscated the proceeds of the sale,” the new lawsuit claims.
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Germany Allocates More Than $1 Billion in Home Care for Holocaust Survivors Globally
Negotiations between the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the German government, held this year in Berlin, Germany. Photo: Claims Conference
Germany has agreed to allocate more than $1 billion for home care for Holocaust survivors around the world in 2026, a nonprofit organization that negotiates and secures compensation for survivors of the Nazis’ atrocities announced on Wednesday.
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) said that following its latest negotiations with the German Federal Ministry of Finance, Germany agreed to increase home care funding for Holocaust survivors worldwide, bringing the total for next year to $1.08 billion. The amount is the largest budget secured for Holocaust survivor home care in the history of the Claims Conference. The assistance will better allow Holocaust survivors to live safely and comfortably in their own homes.
“It is deeply meaningful that, 80 years after liberation, the German government maintains its responsibility to those who suffered and survived,” said Ambassador Colette Avital, a Holocaust survivor and Claims Conference negotiation delegation member. “Every survivor — and every rescuer — deserves to live with dignity and to be seen, heard, and cared for.”
“This historic increase to home care funding reflects the complex and growing needs of Holocaust survivors worldwide,” Claims Conference President Gideon Taylor added in a statement. “While we are losing survivors at a rapid pace each year, those who remain are older, frailer, and in greater need than ever before. This budget is critical in providing each of them the opportunity to age in place, a dignity that was stolen from them in their youth.”
The average age of Holocaust survivors who receive home care through funding secured by the Claims Conference rose from 86 in 2018 to 88.5 in 2024. During the same time period, the number of survivors who qualified for full-time home care assistance due to a severe disability — such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and dementia — nearly doubled.
“I’m almost blind and have the use of only one arm. Since my wife passed away several years ago, life hasn’t been easy,” said Holocaust survivor Simon Reznik. “My caregiver is my light — I wait for her to bring life back into my days. Without her help, I couldn’t manage even the basics. She means the world to me.”
The German government has also committed $205 million over the next four years to support Holocaust education, the Claims Conference announced. The funding will be used for Holocaust education programs that will include teacher training, academic research, and virtual reality experiences, which can potentially spread the reach of Holocaust education to a wider audience.
“It is imperative that we invest in the future of Holocaust education while we still have living witnesses who can share their first-hand testimonies of survival,” said Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference. “Building strong curricula, forging new partnerships, and employing cutting-edge technology to preserve and share survivor testimonies will ensure the lessons of the Shoah are not forgotten. This is our moral obligation to the survivors of the Holocaust and to the six million who were murdered.”
Following negotiations with the Claims Conference, the German government also committed to extending Hardship Fund Supplemental Payments, which they previously pledged to pay annually to eligible Holocaust survivors through 2027. It has been extended through 2028 and will help more than 127,000 survivors worldwide. Also, non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, known as Righteous Rescuers, who are currently receiving a monthly pension from the Claims Conference will be eligible to receive home care similar to that provided to Jewish Holocaust survivors.
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Turkey’s Eurofighter Typhoon Jet Deal With UK Includes Weapons Package, Source Says
A Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet flies vertically over a beach during an airshow in Torre del Mar, southern Spain, July 31, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Jon Nazca
Turkey’s deal to buy 20 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets from Britain for 8 billion pounds ($10.7 billion) also includes a comprehensive weapons package, including MBDA Meteor air-to-air missiles and Brimstone ground attack missiles, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
NATO allies Turkey and Britain signed the deal at a ceremony in Ankara on Monday, in a move aimed at deepening bilateral ties and bolstering Turkish air defenses. Ankara has said it was also seeking 24 more jets, albeit lightly used, from Qatar and Oman.
Some analysts called the deal expensive, although details have not yet been disclosed officially by either party.
“The deal includes a comprehensive weapons package, including the MBDA Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, advanced short-range air-to-air missile and Brimstone ground-attack missile,” the person told Reuters.
The deal comes as Turkey, which is enjoying its warmest ties with the West in years, seeks to take advantage of the advanced warplanes to make up ground with regional rivals such as Israel, which has unleashed strikes across the Middle East this year targeting Iran-backed terrorists.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government have said Turkey would receive the first of the batch of 20 Typhoons in 2030, and that the deal, for which talks began in 2023, included an option to buy more.