German Cash Outflows To 'Atone' For Holocaust Survivors

Adolf Hitler with his troops (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - The German government has again provided compensation of 662 million dollars or equivalent to Rp9 trillion to help victims of the holocaust who are currently fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. The compensation will be given to about 240 thousand survivors of the atrocities of the Nazi regime's persecution under Adolf Hitler.

Launching the Assosiated Press , Wednesday, October 14, those who will be compensated are Jews who now live in Israel, North America, Western Europe, and the countries of the former Soviet Union. The process of disbursing funds is predicted to take up to two years, according to the claims of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

The survivors who are now elderly have raised demands for compensation. Apart from their old age, most survivors experienced serious medical problems as a result of their former life in poorly nourished and tortured Nazi concentration camps.

On the other hand, most of the holocaust survivors also live far isolated from society because of the psychological trauma they have suffered. Some have lost their families to those who have difficulty living their lives because they are always shadows of past persecution.

“There's a standard response like this for survivors, that we've been through the worse. I have been through worse and if I survive the Holocaust, through the deprivation of food and what we have to go through, I will go through this, ”said Claims Conference Executive Vice President Greg Schneider.

"But if you dig deeper, you understand the depth of the trauma that still resides in people," he added.

Schneider also revealed the reality that many holocaust survivors lived below the poverty line. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the condition. For them, let alone buying masks or other protective equipment, just for their daily meals is very difficult.

“They are teetering in making decisions every month. This is because they have to decide between buying food, medicine and renting a house, ”said Schneider.

The plan was for each victim to receive compensation twice, totaling $ 1,400 each over two years. Meanwhile, the total funds prepared by Germany reached 662 million dollars.

Guarantee survivors

In addition to funds to help survivors get through the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany has also agreed to increase funding for social welfare services for survivors by 36 million dollars. With that, the total funding that Germany spends on social welfare services for survivors in 2021 is $ 651 million.

However, the German Foreign Ministry has not yet commented on the final outcome of the aid-related negotiations. What is clear, the large funds for health services in question will be used to fund the treatment of more than 83 thousand victims of the holocaust, including ensuring food, medicine, transportation to doctors, and programs to reduce social isolation for survivors.

Germany, since 1952, has paid more than 80 billion dollars in compensation to Holocaust survivors. This attempt was made by Germany as a form of responsibility for the past sins of the Nazi atrocities against the Jews.

Concentration camp atrocities

Auschwitz concentration camp (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

One of the holocaust survivors who survived was Victor E. Frankl. In his masterpiece Man's Search For Meaning (1946), Frankl tells of the terrible life of living in the notorious Nazi Auschwitz camp, full of torture, and malnutrition in the 1930s.

"Suicide was almost pointless, for the life expectancy of most prisoners was extremely small. One could not be sure of being among the small number of people who could pass through any selection. The prisoners at Auschwitz who had gone through the first period of shock were no longer afraid of death. Even the gas chamber after a few days has lost its horror, on the contrary, the gas chamber can save them from committing suicide, "wrote Frankl.

Not only that. In every forced labor that was done in the vicinity of the camp, Nazi soldiers did not hesitate to whip anyone who seemed less active. Because they often heard the screams of prisoners who were beaten by Nazi soldiers. Frankl even took it for granted. It was the same scene as seeing a prisoner being led away with rifle butts.

"The prisoner often listened to the screams, and saw one of his fellow prisoners beaten down, stood back up, and once again fell," he added.

There was also a punishment that Nazi soldiers often gave to prisoners who did not obey was to put them outside in the snowy winter all night. Not infrequently, the prisoners' limbs looked numb so that the torture made them really want to end their lives.

Apart from punishment, malnutrition was another problem faced by Nazi prisoners. This is because the food rations distributed by Nazi soldiers were so limited and of almost no nutritional value. Because of this, most of the day had only food to eat, so that sexual arousal was barely felt by almost all of the prisoners.

"Apart from the impact of the shock that prisoners suffer early in camp life, the loss of sexual desire is the only answer to a phenomenon that psychologists in concentration camps tend to observe, which are all male," Frankl concluded.