January 1, 2012 /  6 Tevet 5722

In his talk to the participants in the Limmud FSU summit Rabbi Dr. Julius Berman, chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, explained the source of funds from which the Claims Conference makes allocations to welfare and education projects. He noted that when East and West Germany wished to reunify in 1990, the two countries required permission from the four Allied powers, the USA, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and France. “We pressured the US government to ensure that with reunification, East Germany, which had never restituted Jewish property confiscated by the Nazis, would be required to do so. “The Germans did their work very well,” he said, “so that the owners, and even the heirs of many properties, were no longer alive. The Claims Conference, acting as the Successor Organization, reclaims these properties and uses the money for humanitarian aid to Holocaust survivors and education on the Holocaust.

“We want to make sure that history can never be rewritten,” explained Berman, “and that at no time in the future can people say that the Holocaust did not take place. So we place an emphasis on teacher training, so that fully knowledgeable and highly-trained formal and informal educators, can teach future generations about historical truth and reality and what actually took place during those dark years.” The Claims Conference is one of the major financial supporters of Limmud FSU.