By Hafsa Kara Mustapha
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The Holiday season as December is now referred to, is a time for parties, family gatherings, gift sharing and all the lovely things associated with the end of year festivities.
As the party season bids farewell and the cold weather intensifies it is also a time to reflect on those less fortunate.
In this context, charities work particularly hard to raise funds for the category of people they chose to support. Across social media, which have become major advertising platforms, appeals for funds are now a regular fixture on users’ feeds.
A recent request for donations that was of particular interest was one for money to help elderly Holocaust survivors in their twilight years.
The touching images of frail-looking men and woman are undoubtedly moving and force all those who see them feel much empathy towards a group of vulnerable people who suffered major trauma. Yet as the details of requested donations emerged it became increasingly odd to see these adverts. Of all the vulnerable groups existing today Holocaust survivors are, thanks to reparations paid by Germany, aptly provided for.
Claims Conference
In 1951, just under six years after the end of the Second World War, an organisation was set up called the Claims Conference.
It was tasked with obtaining reparations from Germany in order to compensate Jews for the persecution they suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime. It has to be noted however that Roma, gay, disabled as well as Communist activists who were equally interned in concentration camps, were not offered financial reparations.
Never the less the Claims Conference, set up by a group of Jewish organisations, has been working tirelessly to seek ‘a small measure of justice for Jewish victims’ as stated on its website.
This ‘small measure,’ obtained from Germany, has totalled over $70bn over the past seventy years.
This eye-watering sum that amounts to the state budgets of several countries would have been used to assist Jewish victims following the collapse of Hitler’s rule.
Yet the regular appeals for further donations, from ordinary citizens, implies that Holocaust survivors are still in need of monetary assistance, despite ongoing negotiations with the governments of Germany and Austria to pay further damages to Jewish claimants.
So the question is if Germany –and Austria – have released over $70bn to compensate survivors yet survivors are still in need of assistance, where has the money gone?
In July 2018 the German government agreed to release a further $88m towards care cost for the elderly.
Yet by Christmas adverts appealing for support for the very few survivors left were circulating again.
According to Claims Conference auditing is undertaken by KPMG however the body is regulated by the organisations that form it.
In 2013, a Holocaust survivor called Dora Roth made headlines when she accused the Israeli government of siphoning money destined for victims such as herself.
In April 2016 Haim Katz, Israel’s welfare minister, released a report revealing that more than 20,000 survivors in Israel had never received financial assistance owed to them.
The money, however, was regularly delivered by Germany yet it appears it never reached those it was intended for.
While Germany is only too happy to deliver the funds it is silent on who should be their recipients. According to one former German politician, now working in the financial sector, German politicians cannot stand up to Israel. ‘They know Israel will shout anti-Semitism at the first opportunity and are too terrified with being labelled with that fateful word.’ Asked if German media and politicians are not concerned about where these vast sums of money are ending, he added that issues relevant to compensation and Israel are taboo in his country.
‘Despite the economic downturn, we continue to be milked like cash cows, knowing full well it’s beyond reason to continue to demand such sums, yet there are no brave politicians or journalists willing to ask the questions.’
The Israeli minister who exposed the problem also went on to say that the problem is far worse than it appears as his report only took into account the surviving victims as of 2016 explaining that many more died throughout the years without ever seeing the money Israel claimed on their behalf.
Israel for its part blames the delay in delivering the funds to issues relating to heavy bureaucracy but many find that argument laughable.
Simon, an ex Israeli now living in Paris laughs at this excuse: ‘it didn’t take them 70 years to fleece the Germans but they –Israeli authorities- need 70 years to distribute the money.’
Disillusioned with Israel and its founding ideology Zionism, Simon is scathing towards his former country: ‘To get a permit to destroy a Palestinian home, they took 7 minutes, adding that his rejection of the country was a result of the abuse he received from other Israelis because he was a Holocaust survivor.’
We were viewed with absolute contempt by our ‘fellow countrymen’ (he insists on the brackets). They would tell us we were weak and went to the camps like ‘sheep to the slaughter’.
They would even make sheep noises when I used to walk in the streets when neighbours found out I was a survivor.
Confirming how unimportant Holocaust survivors are in Israeli society, and how oblivious the public is to their plight, Roth’s outburst had little consequences. From a European or American perspective, the fact survivors who have obtained so many reparations –unlike any other group in history- should be left to die in poverty should be major news and yet the money continues to be delivered while the victims continue to die destitute.
Ironically it is their legacy that is used as a justification for the existence of the nation that continues to neglect and despise them.
Who will dare ask the question?
Despite all the evidence of legitimate questions being raised, no one is raising them.
Where is this money ending up? Who is tasked with distributing and why is it failing?
Why should so much of it go through the Israeli government when not all survivors are or have remained in Israel?
Some claim Israel uses it as part of its nationwide budget others still say it is going to fund the military.
It is ironic that money made available to victims of war should now be invested in furthering wars by a country itself often accused of Nazi-like policies and routinely committing war crimes.
The spectre of being labelled an anti-Semite is, of course, a genuine concern no politician or journalist can ignore.
The mere fact of holding to account Israel over the possibility some are extorting funds would be spun as the ‘age-old accusations Jews love money.’
Anti-semitic ‘tropes’ as these bizarre semantic twists are called are casually thrown about wherever Israel or a Zionist person or organisation face questions.
If questions arise about misinformation from an Israeli source then claims of ‘Jews run the media’ will soon surface and bring the subject to a close.
Should claims of embezzlement surround an Israeli or Zionist body then its accusations of ‘Jews love money.’
Even high-profile cases of child abuse involving notable Zionist figures are inevitably spun as ‘Jews are using the blood of goyim children.’
For every Israeli/Zionist crime, there is its accompanying ‘anti-Semitism’ protection policy.
This time, however, victims of Israeli dishonesty are Jewish.
Who will speak up for them?
No one is the simple answer. According to varying reports, most if not all Holocaust victims will have died by 2025.
Israel is therefore just buying time. Meanwhile, now that Germany can no longer be ‘legally’ fleeced, Arab money is the next target for Israel’s appetite for easy ‘guilt money,’ as Simon puts it.
Israel- who expelled Palestinians from their ancestral homeland in 1948 yet refuses to compensate them- is going after Arab states in the hope of obtaining some $250bn in reparations. Though the overwhelming majority of Arab Jews left their Arab nations voluntarily and were never subjected to any treatment remotely equivalent to concentration camps, Israel, knowing it can manipulate international institutions, is launching its latest money-making scheme.
The only question that remains is who will be made to pay up next?
Gamblers are betting on Italy. After all the Roman Empire has a lot to answer for.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!
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