A scam to span generations
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Thu May 3 14:00:32 EDT 2007
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Lawsuit: Recognize 2nd generation as Shoah victims
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3387483,00.html>http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3387483,00.html
Children of survivors plan to file class action against German
government, demanding that it recognize traumas caused by childhood
in shadow of Holocaust
Reuven Weiss
Published: 04.13.07,
More than 60 years after the Holocaust, the children of the
survivors are demanding compensation from the German government for
their suffering.
All this time they kept silent. Growing in the shadow of
post-traumatic Holocaust surviving parents, they suffered from
violence, over-protection and unrealistic expectations. Some of them
succeeded and even became famous, while others collapsed.
Following an initiative to file a joint class action to second
generation members from Israel, Germany and the United States, the
Fisher Fund is holding talks with senior German officials in a bid to
receive financing for mental treatments required by some
second-generation Holocaust survivors.
The Fisher Fund was established seven years ago by Attorney Gideon
Fisher, whose parents Mali and Yosef were Holocaust survivors. The
fund, an independent body, grants scholarships and assists in places
where other organizations are unable to help.
About a year and a half ago, after receiving a large number of
requests, Attorney Fisher established a legal department in his
office to deal with lawsuits filed by hundreds of Holocaust survivors
and their children.
Many of the second-generation survivors told Fisher about the
difficulties they were forced to experience as children to Holocaust
survivors, difficulties which affect their lives to this day, and due
to which they are in need of ongoing mental treatment.
This brought upon the initiative to form a class action against the
German government, demanding that it bear the costs of the
psychological and psychiatric treatment many of the survivors'
children are forced to undergo due to their childhood in the shadow
of the Holocaust.
According to data provided by the Amcha association, which offers
mental and social support to Holocaust survivors and second
generation members, about 4 percent of the 350,000 children of Shoah
survivors living in Israel (about 14,000 people) are in need of
mental treatment.
Amcha currently treats 878 members of the second generation who
finance the treatment themselves. On average, each patient receives
80 hours of treatment a year, at the cost of NIS 300 (about $73.75)
per hour.
According to the association, the annual cost of mental treatment for
the second generation Holocaust survivors living in Israel amounts to
approximately NIS 34 million ($8.35 million).
'We heard shocking stories'
Based on these data, a draft lawsuit was formed for members of the
second generation along with law offices in Germany and the United
States.
"The distorted connection developed between members of the second
generation and their parents has definitely delayed their independent
development and even caused them, in retrospect, to experience
significant regression in their relations with other people, as well
as severe mental and psychological damage," according to the draft
lawsuit.
"Therefore, it is time to make Germany who was the one to set in
motion the wheels of the Nazi machine for the destruction of the
Jewish people, and the one responsible for the death of 6 million
Jews, and who in its criminal acts violated the human rights of the
Jewish people and its descendants to recognize the fact that these
actions caused and still cause unbearable mental and psychological
damage to members of the second generation," the lawsuit continued.
"While working on the lawsuit, we heard shocking stories," Attorney
Fisher said Thursday. "We heard of people who put their shoes next to
the door every night preparing to escape, or of people who wake up
every morning at 4 am and look for their father under the bed.
"This is what they went through during their entire childhood. Every
night their father went under the bed, hid there and begged them not
to take him away, and they had to take him out of their and convince
him that everything was okay."
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According to the plan, the Fisher Fund will establish a daughter-fund
to collect the funds received from Germany, in addition to funds
collected from Israeli donors, which will be designated for two
goals: Mental treatment for second generation members, and a
photographed documentation of the second generation and its difficult
childhood experiences.
"We saw before our eyes the Dutch model, in which the German
government finances two weekly treatments for second generation
member for their entire life," explained Baruch Mazor, CEO of the
Fisher Fund, who is also a son of Holocaust survivors.
"The second generation members dont want compensation from the
Germans; they only want to be entitled for treatment which will get
them back on their feet," he said.
Second generation members in need of assistance, who would like to
join the move, as well as organizations wishing to help the second
generation members, can receive information by calling
972-77-200-9798.
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