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Survivors Of Romania ‘Death Trains’ Get German Compensation

(JTA) — Jewish Holocaust survivors of the 1941 pogrom in Iasi, Romania, and “death trains” are now eligible to receive compensation pensions, the Claims Conference announced.

Under an agreement negotiated with Germany, the Romanian survivors will receive an increase for home care provision and other services offered through Claims Conference programs worldwide. Some of the additional funds also will be used to provide pensions to Iasi survivors.

About 15,000 Jews were murdered in the June 1941 pogrom and on the trains, which took many survivors of the massacre across the country for eight days until the cars’ occupants died of suffocation, dehydration and starvation. The Jews left behind in Iasi were forced to live in a designated section of the town.

“The horrors inflicted on the Jews of Iasi have finally been recognized more than 70 years later,” Stuart Eizenstat, a Claims Conference special negotiator, said in a statement. “These survivors endured unimaginable suffering. For those who are still with us, we have obtained a small measure of justice, even after all this time.”

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