Hundreds of Kindertransport refugees to receive one-off compensation payment

In a unique agreement, the last survivors of the Kindertransport — the 10,000 children who came to Britain in 1938 from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia — are to receive one-off compensation payments, as a result of prolonged negotiations between the Claims Conference and the German government.

Greg Schneider, executive vice-president of the Claims Conference, said that an estimated 1,000 Kinder were thought still to be alive. “They would be between 80 and 100 years old today,” he said. Half the Kinder are believed still to be living in the UK, with the rest spread throughout the US, Israel, Canada and Australia.

Mr Schneider said that each Kind would receive €2,500, (£2,245.98) out of a total fund of £2.2M (€2.5 m). But, he added: “There is no cap on the fund, so if there turn out to be more than 1,000 people eligible, everyone will still receive £2,245 (€2,500)”.

The Claims Conference has spent years negotiating with the German government for payments for the Kinder, some of whom, it is acknowledged, did receive some payment in the 1950s. Additionally, the Kinder were included in a variety of other payments such as pensions and help with home care and welfare. They remain eligible for these new payments.

But Mr Schneider said that the Kinder, currently marking the 80th anniversary of their historic journey to Britain, had never received anything to compensate for “lost childhood and the psychological trauma they endured, and we hope that people will take it as a validation of that suffering”.

He said that throughout the negotiations he had been thinking about the parents of the children. “Imagine, having to put your child on a train, and in some cases pick one sibling rather than another, put on a brave face and wave goodbye, knowing that you would almost certainly never see your son or daughter again. It is simply heartbreaking.”

Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, the Claims Conference special negotiator, said: “This payment comes at a time when we are commemorating 80 years since these children took their fateful journey from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Great Britain. After having to endure a life forever severed from their parents and families, no-one can ever profess to make them whole; [but] they are receiving a small measure of justice”.

The Kindertransport Fund will open on January 1 2019 and begin processing eligible applications.

READ MORE:

• Kinder compensation is ‘welcome news, but it’s too late for many’ 
• OPINION – Michael Newman of AJR:  Kinder inquiries have already started rolling in this week 
• Voice of the Jewish News: The children who lost their childhood