Holocaust survivor waits for reparations
Colleague Brent Jones has a compelling story in today's newspaper about Morris Kornberg, a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor awaiting word on whether he will receive 2,000 Euros (about $2,827) in reparations from the German government.
The Waldorf man, a Polish Jew who was arrested in 1941, describes hard labor and starvation at Auschwitz. He says he doesn't know why he didn't follow fellow prisoners who killed themselves by running into the electric fence that enclosed the camp.
Now he is waiting to hear whether he will be approved for the check from the German Ghetto Workers Fund, established by the German government in 2007 to distribute money to camp survivors who have not participated in other compensation programs. If he gets the money, he says, he will donate it to The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
"For going through [ the Holocaust], 2,000 is not a big deal," he told Jones. "This is not for my enjoyment. I just don't want to leave the money for [the government]."
Read the rest of the story at baltimoresun.com.
Chiaki Kawajiri/Baltimore Sun
Comments
I find it appalling...that so much effort is made to compensate WWII era Jews for property taken by the Nazis, yet so many people are resistant to any discussion of reparations for the descendants of captured Africans, who live here in America. The pain, suffering and degradation experienced by African descendants (and we are still experiencing the effects) far outweighs anything that happened to jews in WWII.
Posted by: nat turner | August 18, 2009 10:32 PM
You cannot weigh or measure pain Turner--your pain weighs 20 pounds versus my pain weighs 30 pounds. What sort of compensation do you want? Who should pay? The government of the USA? Alright the government has no money of its own--so the taxpayers should pay. But look at the wide variety of taxpayers today--people from all over the world, who had nothing to do with slavery, nor did their ancestors. Should they still pay?
You could of course make this a human rights issue and argue, by virtue of living in the USA every taxpayer has to share in the blame and the burden of the land, past and present.
Then how much money Turner? How should government calculate the compensation for the incalculable losses and tragedies? There is one way of looking at this:slaves were insured--Aetna was involved in this form of insurance. Should the insurers be made to pay for their past involvement with slavery?
By now there are many Blacks in this country from Africa and the Caribbean Islands and so on--we want only the descendants of the people born over here to get restitution and not the others. Won't that create confusion?
Barack Obama once all fired up about restitution is mum about this now. Why? It is an inflammatory issue that is not easily resolved. There are people who would argue affirmative action makes up for lack of restitution. I don't think so at all.
I actually agree with you Nat Turner that there should be reparations but the US would go completely broke if it truly addressed compensation for slavery. This country was built on the backs of slaves and indentured servants--several whites, Chinese and now Hispanics have been or are being exploited. But the Blacks have had it the most tragic and the most gruesome. What are your ideas on how to calculate the compensation?
Posted by: Anonymous | August 20, 2009 1:41 AM
Mr. Turner....have you ever talked to a survivor of the holocaust? I am just stunned that you would be so bold to compare the two experiences of captured slaves and those affected by the holocaust and determine that once was worse than the other. I would imagine that both situations are horrible and require justice!
Posted by: Deb | August 22, 2009 10:06 AM