Israel to seek another 1b euros Holocaust in reparations from Germany

pay it to survivors personally not the ISRAELI GOVT!!! I support Israel but this is getting out of hand now.

Please stop that continual request for money for what happened more than 60 years ago! Im ashame as a jew to see that and read how we are greedy and make business with the Shoah! We now have succeeded to give weapons to our haters who make constant baseless comparisons between Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the nazi crimes.

Expcet that Hizbollah and Hamas both provoked those events,

Without going into the details, I've had a pretty hard life. It seems clear to me that I deserve a check. My children as well. You can send it. Unless you can top my list of complaints.

Something stinking in that request from Israel for 1 billion Euro from Germany. Second worldwar starting in 1940 and suppose the forced labourers on that time has the age of 20 years old than now in 2010 their age is 90 years old! That age is only reachable in Japan and not in Israel!

Israel has stolen billions in the name of Holocaust survivors and siphoned the money to dozens of radical Zionist organizations rather than the people it was intended to help. Even though the facts are well known that Israel stole billions from those that were affected by the Holocaust. Germany should tell the state of Israel to punt. Germany should also hold the state of Israel to account for all the wrongs it has committed against the Palestinian people the Lebanese and should therefore take responsibility for it's war crimes and start paying for it's own sins.

to help commit another massive crime against Jews now living in Israel. Stop trading with Iran and your conscience would be clean. Same applies to all other EU countries, past helpers in the Holocaust.

Haaretz Thu., August 16, 2007 By Daniel Ben Simon. Survivors' protest makes foreign journalists gasp, security vanish ?I want the Germans to know where the money they gave Israel went,? he said angrily. ?I want the Germans to know that Israel took the money we should have received. I want them to answer one question: Where did our money go?? ?I don?t think any government in Europe could resist the demands of people who have suffered so much,? one of them said. Ze?ev Dratva, a Holocaust survivor, was among the marchers. ?How many years do the survivors have left? Barely a year or two,? he shouted. He said he knew survivors who were miserable, and could not afford false teeth or one warm meal a day. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/890263.html

Indeed Daniel Finkelstein was right.

We can state, every ones of babies are innocent. What is the crime of the people under age of 64 yrs, they born after nazis ? How and why can be people forced to pay penalty without crime evidences ? It?s antagonistic , out of human rights ! It is the terrorisme itself !

The word is Chutzbah. A wonderful "yiddisch" word I think. Its one of those words that just seems to have no translation, like schadenfreude. When will Israeli gov start to be responsible and pay their own way. The people who live in Germany have nothing to do with the problems of Israel. Maybe they should have gone to the Oblast if they wanted a Jewish land. They would have been welcomed there. Enough is enough. How much will the Israeli Arabs get?

Do I have a right to ask reparations from Jews because of communism? (Marx, Trostky and other high-level commies were Jews) How can new generation of Germans be responsible for what small group of people decided to do? And what about blacks, they should have a nice fat check for the Christmas too from America...

appropriate word because Haaretz has reported on several occasions, lately, that there are only a few survivors left, Germany paid billions; the survivors were begging for a few shekels to eat as they are now elderly. Who stole the money? Survivors are still trying to get money. It's a shakedown pure and simple as all except a few posting can see, as will the int'l community. As for poor Jews, blahdy, blahdy, old and sick Jews were not welcomed in the new Palestine. Try reading about the Kastner trial or go to "Jews Against Zionism" and there you will see how many Jews were complicit in the death of fellow jews. These folks are simply gangsters in business suits!!

It is estimated that 12+ million people were killed during the Holocaust. Only six million of these were Jews. How come no-one else is demanding money? This happened a long time ago enough is enough

You, obviously, have not viewed the comparative photos. Barbed-wire, special passes, concentration camps, humiliation, theft of property, checkpoints, death, destruction of homes and families...

How exactly does a protracted war between 2 peoples (both armed and both aggressing and defending) bear any relation to the Holocaust?

Swiss Dino - I usually refrain from responding to your narrow-minded posts. I'm making an exception! Israel absorbed thousands of expelled and barely alive survivors from Germany. Israel had no money, no economy, no political standing, very little food and was at war with most of the eastern world. Germany's reparations were not "charity" or "milking". It was (and still is) the very least that could be done. Germany stole more than 6 million human souls from our people - they stole safety, family, home, hope and history. The survivors still suffer.

This is where our government needs to grow a backbone. Any money they settle on with Germany should go to a fund for the survivors living in Israel - and be used exclusively for them. There are too many survivors in our state, living so far below basic standards.

Palestinian family lost homes about 1 million for each family member would be appropriate. For each family members death about 5 million per person. For orchards and farm land well that is worth a lifetimes living so about 1 million per acre. For the children's loss of parents who have been murdered at checkpoints about 10 million for each death. Trauma you know. Any court in most court rulings would agree. Israel should pay as much if not more. Those who have been forced into refugee camps should also be compensated as well. Israel should pay the same as Germany has. No difference in my mind.

I also think there should be Palestinian reparations. The Palestinians and other Arabs should compensate the Jews for their part in the Holocaust. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the political representative of the Palestinians during WWII helped with Hitler's final solution by inciting anti-Semitism and helping to raise two Bosnian Muslim Nazi brigades. Pro-Nazi regimes in Iraq and Libya. Free hideouts for former Nazis in Syria and Egypt. The idea of branding Jews with stars of David was invented in Iran. Hundreds of dead Jews from pogroms in Morocco, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya. Hundreds of thousands of Jews uprooted and exiled from their land (totaling more than 3 times the size of Israel). Terrorist attacks, hijackings, kidnappings, against Jews and other civilians worldwide. Jordan kicking out over ten thousand Jews from homes in Jerusalem in 1948. Hebron massacre. Oh, and let's not forget over a thousand years as second-class citizens under Islamic rule (dhimmis)...

We haven't even begun to talk about the psychological dameges and appropriate compensation money.

Please, please keep your sense of humour. It is the only thing that might get you through this holocaust.

The question that begs to be asked is why haven't the holocaust survivors received reparations decades ago, and where has all the money gone that they were supposed to have received thus far?

Germany will pay up so have no fear when it comes to Israel they take out the credit card. After the 1991 Gulf War Germany did a deal where they built as a gift for Israel 2 submarines & Israel pay a reduced price for a thrid and the reason was some German companies had been involved in selling Saddam Hussian what he needed for his chemical weapons programs. Israel recently took delivery of 2 more subs both bought at heavily subsidised prices and now the navy is looking to get a sixth one but no deals have been done. Israel is looking to buy German ships they currently have in the Gulf or build under license in Israel rather than buy from the US. Germany will usually deliver the goods when it comes to Israel but there must be some kind of regulation to make sure all this money goes to holocaust survivors because in the past the bulk of it has just gone straight into the bank and not reached the people its intended for.

How much should Iraq, Iran,Yemen,Syria, etc give to 800,000 Jewish families persecuted from 1948? The Heshemite Kingdom of Jordan is THE PALESTINIAN homeland albert

Good letter! Everyone needs to read Avram Burg's "The Holocaust is Over, We Must Rise from Its Ashes." He makes precisely your point about the need for Jews to stop clinging to the Shoah as a protective blanket and rejoin the world.

Germany paid Isreal money near the creation of Isreal. The money went for infrstructure... rather than preparing for the retirement of holocaust survivor

My Rabbi survived 4 camps, does this mean he will get 60K Euros, surely thats right for 4X the suffering?

Israel's appetite for more is endless. I would like to suggest that Israel take a short cut and start demanding Nazi Germany's land as compensation. If the Germans refuse, send them settlers, preferably those living in Palestine. They are experienced. I will most probably pull for them.

Peter Sm as usual your hasbara ignores facts. The Palestinians are not responsible for the expulsion of Jews, Egypt and Iraq are. Of course Israel engineered this with attacks on synagogues and espionage, but the fault lies with the regimes. The UN contineed the balfour declaration's policy and the resolution was imposed on the Palestinians robbing them of most of their country - if the Un resolves to hand over Caulfield to Muslims, what will you do ?

Since the money/stocks/property confiscated by the Nazis through the Judenbuesse etc was laundered in, and ultimately kept by, Jewish-owned banks like the Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Kommerz Bank, Reichscredit gesellschaft, Berliner Handelsgesellschaft etc, shouldn't the Rothschilds, Dresdners, Warburgs etc be paying these reparations? Especially when one considers that they financed the Nazis, co-owned I G Fahrben which used forced labor, and, in the case of the Dresdners, became the Third Reich's and Hitler's personal bankers?

Stanley you have a very sharp observation about some Eropeans and some others who point a proud finger at the shame of the Jews. I wonder what will become of the world if every goodfornothing victim will ask for reparations for such a side event as the Holocaust. I am sure that you will agree that they should be grateful and thankful to some of the proud Eropeans and others for just being alive.

Greed knows no limits, does it?

Israel is all about taking; they take from the Palestinians, they take from the American taxpayers and now trying to take from Germany, they take, take, take and NEVER have anything to give.

No amount of money will bring back those whom died. But in the end Israel came into being, and eversince over the generations strong ties have been forged between us and the Germans whom would be on Irans case before Obama can say the word go should the Iranians do something stupid. Infact the Germans made it clear that they will not allow Israel to be destroyed, even though we might be capable of defending ourselves now we still have a dependable ally to fall back unto. something tells me Obama is in lalaland while the Germans know exactly what dangers we face.

No one is twisting their arm. If Germany passed the law, then they are accountable. To demand that the Israeli government not accept the compensation would be rude to the older German people who deep down are still occupied with purging their collective soul. Israel doesn't need the money. That is not what this is about.

From those who are consumed with guilt to those who know no shame.

Sir, with all due respect to what you want to explain, I don't favour Germany paying further funds to the Israeli government. My family did not get any support from the Germans after the war because there was no one available to support our claim. I visited school after WW II, why should I pay taxes for Israel more than 60 years after WW II. I will not support any German government paying this sort of money where we don't know for what it will be used in the end.

You ask me that as: .."`Germany` into a dirty word. What do you do about that?" Answer is I do nothing. Germans need make amends,redeem themselves, take and do acts to improve the world.is not only Holocaust which, according to you, made 'Germany' [and Austria I add] dirty word: the nations' and its peoples acts before and during WW II all over Europe made them loathsome by all of good wil

The destruction of Europes Jewish community is priceless and Germany does not have the money to ever compensate the historical crime they committed. Keep the billions coming as it at least admits the Guilt of Germany for its horrible Genocide.

I think, it is good news for the Holocaust survivors, if the money is not diverted. The Germans are already exploiting the former Guest workers; 50% prosperty of the Germans is built on the blood of the Guest workers. During my long stay in this country, I would not get any pension. So I understand the demands of Israel. Do it.

"No amount of money in the world can possibly compensate ..." Exactly, And because no amount of money can, we should quit trying ...

Who gets the money? The state? I will look up thre Sommerfdeld case. There are things that money cant change and we should not try it. Lets face reality, yesterday and today and maybe tomorrow

some entered courts in 44-46 but decisions were made finally only now or still pending . here in rio we have one process of compensation for confiscated land from 1911 and still in first instance - lowest level court.

'It's time Germany paid up ... The debt isn`t going away, and use of force may one day become the only option.' Dr Brnd, I found myself in strong agreement with your post, save the part quoted above. Pray tell me, how would the use of force against today's democratic and philo-Semitic Germany further attempts at Holocaust reparation collections? Dr Merkel particularly is to be admired for taking pro-Israeli stances which are not always in Germany's narrow interests. What you suggest strikes me as the most counter-productive of courses. MV

It's pathetic in this day and age it takes the theft of a Holocaust sign to put the Holocaust back in the media and in the minds and consciousness people throughout the world. No amount of money in the world can possibly compensate for the desecration of the "Arbeit macht frei" sign at the hands of Neo-Nazis - nor can it atone for the tens of millions of lives lost at Auschwitz. With the Holocaust back in the consciousness of the world, perhaps it's time again to help compensate the millions of Holocaust survivors for their losses.

I think Israel might look to its own house first. Did not the government and bank Leumi take billions in compensation funds that should have gone to the survivors? Do they now need to make up for that theft by trying to get it back from the Germans?

I am sure most of the posters would agree that the Palestinian refugees be compensated in a final peace agreement. Do they also agree and realize that the larger number of Jewish refugees who fled their homes in Arab countries also be compensated?

For the Finance Minister of a government that promotes seizure of Palestinian land, (no-one here genuinely believes the so-called settlement freeze do they?), and the diminishing of non-jewish civil rights, to demand money from Germany for the sins of its grandfathers smacks of complete moral bankruptcy. If Germany does make any payment it must made either to individual family descendents for which there are records or to Jewish philanthropic organisations around the world who are caring for the remaining survivors of the nazi's. Not a single penny must be paid to the Israeli state

Agree: pay the money only to individuals, not to the Israeli government. The nuclear subs which Germany has already given to Israel might even surpass all other monies owed. And did anyone else read today's article about harvesting body parts by the institute for forensics in Israel? It was all done without permission by the families. Who is to say, then, that kidneys were not in that mix? Why should we believe anything that comes from propaganda?

One would expect that the claims would cease under some form of statute of limitation or other. At the rate this is being handled, cases and claims of all sorts may well continue for the next 200 years - which is ridiculous. The war ended in 1945 and one would expect that claims made after that date would no longer be considered and would therefore nullified. What's over is over.

Germany should retain the funds until the genocide of the Palestinains can be computed and then paid to the victim's of Israel's criminality. Justice requires that Gaza be rebuilt, these funds wwould be better used there than in fattening the pensions of those already well off.

whose property they confiscated. The UN is not responsible for the Arabs chosing war instead of peaceful transition of Jews and Arabs.

'Germany makes a law and most talk-bakers complain about the Jws.. It is a German law' That is true -- and to a great extent, what to do about the Holocaust is now a German problem. Others make use of it, but it's the Germans who are going to have a hard time moving on. It made 'Germany' into a dirty word. What do you do about that?

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time for Israel to grow up and stop living with 'the Holocaust' as its sole 'raison d'etre' excuse!

Germany makes a law and most talk-bakers complain about the Jws.. It is a German law

Maybe the Palestinians can sue Suha Arafat for the few billion dollars she stashed abroad.

Jews received to date from Germany less than 6% of their property losses. 6 cents on the dollar. And unlike the "Palestinians", they never launched any wars or threatened to throw anybody into the sea or hijacked planes or bombed any pizza restaurants. Totally blameless, unlike the Arabs who chose war rather than the UN 1947 Partition. But if 6% is OK, I'm sure that can be arranged. Want more like 100%? Then the Jews deserve 100% from the Germans, too. Then there's the matter of 6 million murder victims, for whom germany has never paid a pfennig - property losses only. 15,000 Euros for each slave laborer who survived? At least the same restitution to the Jewish people for the 6 million murdered in German death factories comes to 90 billion Euros. Its time Germany paid up, instead of endless foot-dragging, fighting lawsuits in hopes survivors will die off and then claiming "too much time has passed". The debt isn't going away, and use of force may one day become the only option.

Don't expect we will fill Swiss accounts of Palestinian leaders forever. Wanna money? Then stop terror and follow flourishing West Bank example.

In all fairness, the Nazis did it so let them pay: Haredim dub women Western Wall worshippers ‘Nazis’ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1136083.html No conviction for settler who called Ethiopian cops ‘Nazis’ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1136083.html

While the request for more reparations is warranted to a point, I too question how "much is enough". But this isn't germane to what I want to address. It seems that nobody who reads Haaretz is aware of the 1947 partition plan which promised a much smaller Israel and a Palestinian state was rejected, in lieu of a multinational coalition of forces consisting of 7 Arabs states. Unless you wish Israel didn't exist altogether, which seems to be the general gist of the comments, any logical person realizes that Israeli leaders from the very beginning offered a compromise. But no, everyone remembers 1967 and is simply upset Israel wasn't eviscerated. This whole Palestinian issue is so blown out of proportion that it defies rationality. What about African refugees, or S. American journalists and other dissidents locked up by leftist crazy regimes (read Chavez). The Palestinian issue is just too great of an excuse to feign not being an anti-Semite, while concomitantly bashing Jews.

I am a believer of justice. Pay reparations to the Palestinians first. Germany should show you the door!

Its been over 60 years and Germany has already paid probably many billions in reparations to crimes that ended decades ago. Add to that the insolence and hypocrisy that this is being demanded not by individual jews but by Israel and its ongoing crimes and occupation of the Palestinians. The Palestinians should include billions of dollars from Israel in any final-status agreement as compensation for over 60 years of occupation, crimes against civilians, destruction of infrastructure, dispossession and deportation of millions of refugees, etc. (such demands can not be expected, of course, when a defeatist Israeli puppet as Abu Mazen is "in charge").

certainly deserve some recognition from all of us.I dont think a value could be placed on holocaust victims for reparations.This subject gives me a lump in my throat.I thought the Germans had paid out to these poor people.Its also a shame for the young Germans having to carry the sins of their fathers.I think we should have a special day the world over for the victims of the holocaust and the world should give some money to them not just the Germans.

This is now ridiculous.

we can be sure that the survivors will get the money this time, right............Israel.....the jig is up and the world knows how well you guys can run a scam.

and give the money directly to the Palestinians.

Reparations ? lol, you will need it. Because every displaced palestinian in the western world is going to sue israeli companies for supporting the zionists terrorists over seas.

When do the Israelis start to pay reparations to the Palestinians? Also,has the Holocaust merely become the gift that keeps on giving?

Almost 70 years have passed, and while I myself lost alot of family in the Holocaust, at this point Israel is beginning to look like a crack user blackmailing Germany for another hit. It is embarrassing and adds fuel to the already lousy image of jews as money grubbers, and makes it more difficult to defend israel in public conversations. There is no justification for this extortion, except to fill some corrupt politicians pockets, and someone in Jersualem HAS to wake up and realize how awful this looks - and rescind this request, immediately.

How much should Israel give to each Palestinian family who was made homeless by the establishment of the Jewish State? How much should it give each family whose land and orchards were stolen or damaged by settlers? How much should it give to each family whose children were shot at checkpoints, or whose relative died in an ambulance waiting to be transported to a hospital? How much would it add up to? Or do only some people deserve reparation and justice and not others?

"The Zionists later sold the homes to their occupants, who are now the owners. Seizures of property from Palestinians continued through the 1940s, culminating in the Nakba."

I suppose. 100 million Euros per annum? how much do the survivors want each? The youngest has to be in their eighteis and even then they would have only be Ten. Wouldn't it be better if Israel passed a budget?

Continually going back to the trough for reparations while you sit on stolen land yourself. Is there no pride?

....for Israel in the long term. Behind close doors there is already today quite a bit of grumbling among all German parties, when it comes to the continued reparations demands coming from Israels political establishment. And especially the young generation in Germany views those demands more and more as (rather unwelcomed) Israeli chuzpah. Israel will need Germany more than ever as a reliable political friend over the next years/ decades, not sure whether it is really worth to endanger that friendship for a few additional Shekels....

Germany should give it to the Pals to build their own state and arm them selves

Join the club. Austrian Jews who owned real estate in East Germany were also robbed and never compensated.

Leave germany alone. and let israel give gaza money for the ghetto that its made it into!!

That subject rings a bell...

It's funny & ironic that an Israeli would try to sue for land that was taken from him by someone else. Isn't the hypocrisy glaring? Your country steals all the land from the indigenous people of the region, & without exception refuses to even give them the time of day. It's also interesting that there are few if any Germans alive today that were alive during WWII, & yet the German people are somehow still responsible for the sins of their ancestors??? I seem to recall the Catholic Church permanently charging the entirety of world Jewry with Deicide, & it didn't feel too good, did it? Germany has acted as Israel's staunch benefactor for decades now. It has sent billions of dollars to Israel, & has shared important military technology with Israel against the wishes of it's regional friends. What else does Modern Germany owe Modern Israel? Maybe it's time nuclear armed, wealthy Israel stopped playing the victim card & became a responsible mature member of the community of Nations...

They get three billion a year out of us, and we didn't even do anything.

What gaul!

There is no question that the Germans ought to compensate Jews for property taken from them. By the same token, the United Nations should compensate Palestinians for the property that the UN took from the Palestinians when the UN created Israel in 1948.

By the time the Israeli government and the banks get through with this, the surviors, as usual, will get almost nothing.

if israel has the right to ask 1b euros holocaust from germany. then russia has the right to do the same. what in russia happened in world war 2 was also a holocaust of 27 million russian deaths. without russian sacrefices hitler would have won the war, if they were defeated. the chinese also have the right to ask compensation to japan, for in w.w. 2 the japanese killed at least 20 million chinese. you can also call this a holocaust. the chinese had also an important contribution in defeating the japanese empire. if the chinese were totaly defeated by japan w.w. 2 would have lasted (much) longer and perhaps other countries also have the right to ask compensation to germany and japan.

.. the repair for the destruction of Gaza and Lebanon wars? This is not a one way street.

It is just for survivors of Nazi brutality to receive compensation for unpaid labor. But Israel does not represent "the Jews" or the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. If Israel were to get the money there would be no guarantees that the labor camp survivors would actually get the money, and it is very likely that the money would go to Israel's military-industrial complex (where Israel spends the vast majority of its money). Israel has been milking the cow of Jewish oppression for far too long, and its about time that we stop. There's a fundamental difference between the State of Israel and the Jewish people's history of suffering

If Germany pays, it should absolutely insist on making the payments directly, and only after verifying the individuals' claims. The Israeli government record isn't pristine, rather far from it. Too much survivor money has been diverted.

There can be no doubt that former forced labourers have to be compensated, point. But why call it reparations Israel demands, it's not for the state of Israel but for those who survived the camps. And what is with those "reparations" already paid but withheld by the Israeli government from the lawfully entitled persons?