I thought this was interesting... but, I wonder

I found this article about "restitution" being paid to Hungarian Holocaust survivors rather interesting. Sad, but interesting. Hungarian Holocaust survivors are being compensated, not for their actual losses and suffering during that time, but for their family members who were killed with the help of domestic collaborators. The survivors are being "compensated" in the amount of $1,800 for each parent lost, and $900 for each sibling. That "compensation" seems rather paltry to me, especially in light of the amounts paid here in the US for families who lost loved ones on 9/11. While I understand that you cannot compare one tragedy to another, that Hungary and the United States are not in the same financial position, etc., etc., I cannot help but wonder who decides the appropriate amount for compensating such a loss, and how do they make that decision.

Hopefully this money will help Hungarian Holocaust survivors in need, but it seems to me to be "a little too little, and a little too late," as far as responses to the suffering endured during the Holocaust across the world.

Holocaust survivors in L.A. rush to get restitution from Hungary

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of Holocaust survivors flocked to the city's Jewish social service agencies to get help as they rush to apply for a restitution program offered by the Hungarian government.

The paperwork must be postmarked and on its way to Budapest by July 31.

The large turnout overwhelmed the legal service group Bet Tzedek, whose officials hastily scheduled extra sessions to help with the complicated paperwork. Officials there said they expected about 50 or so of the approximately 10,000 Holocaust survivors in Los Angeles to sign up for the sessions. Instead, five times as many have sought help.

Advocates see the surge as a sign that elderly survivors, no longer working and in ill health, need aid more than ever.

"They are willing to overcome the insult of what they could view as blood money," said Mark Rothman, Bet Tzedek's Holocaust services advocate.

The money comes at a time when other restitution funds from other governments and insurance companies across Europe are dwindling.

"As the need becomes greater, the availability of funds become less," said Michael Bazyler, a Whittier Law School professor who has written a book about Holocaust restitution. The problem is worldwide, he said, with survivors in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe facing the worst crisis.

This year, Jewish Family Service is helping 600 Los Angeles survivors with utility bills, food, medication and home care. Bet Tzedek officials say their organization has offered 3,000 Holocaust survivors help in staving off eviction and getting Supplemental Security Income and Medicare benefits.

Hungary's program is designed to provide some compensation to people for the loss of relatives; its focus is not restitution for having been in a concentration camp. Family members are eligible to receive $1,800 for each parent and $900 for each sibling who died in Nazi extermination campaigns with the help of Hungarian collaborators.

"If I could get anything from them, I would take it," said Irving Goldberger, 82, who went to Bet Tzedek's office in North Hollywood to make claims for half a dozen family members lost in the Holocaust.


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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/