Claims Conference (Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany)

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Claims Conference (Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany) Seeking a measure of justice for Holocaust victims since 1951 and providing care for them worldwide.

For more than 65 years, the Claims Conference has negotiated for compensation for individual Jewish victims of N**i persecution; distributed compensation programs to Holocaust victims; negotiated for restitution for Jewish-owned properties and assets confiscated or destroyed by the N**is; obtained funds to aid Jewish victims of N**i persecution; recovered unclaimed East German Jewish property and allocated the proceeds from their sale to institutions that provide social services to elderly, needy N**i victims and that engage in Holocaust research, education and documentation.

10/09/2026

Born Marcus Arpels Lezer in 1936, he was just a young child when the N**i occupation of the Netherlands tore his family apart. His father went into hiding, while his mother was arrested in 1942 and deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered.

His father desperately searched for a place to hide his young son. He eventually found Ype and Boukje Wetterauw, a Christian couple in Friesland who took Marcus into their home. Although people in the village knew that Marcus was Jewish, he was never betrayed.

Marcus lived with the Wetterauw family until 1948, using different names to conceal his identity. His father survived the war and returned, but his mother never did. The Wetterauws had become his family, and the transition back to life with his father was difficult. Marcus ran away from home several times, returning twice to the family who had sheltered him.

In 1961, Marcus married Sofia Noek, who had also survived the Holocaust in hiding as a child. Today, he serves as President of the European Association of Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust, continuing to honor the experiences of survivors and preserve their stories.

Bring a Survivor Speakers Bureau speaker to your school, organization, or community and hear directly from those who witnessed history firsthand. Learn more and request a speaker: https://www.claimscon.org/speakers/

10/07/2026

On October 7, 2023, Holocaust survivor Elyahu Megira witnessed Hamas terrorists shooting people in the streets of Sderot. He tried to warn his son, Avi, of the attack, not knowing that he had already been killed.

Now, Elyahu and his wife cry every night, mourning their Avi.

The Claims Conference is with Holocaust survivors as they grieve the friends, family members and loved ones who were murdered on October 7. We pray for quieter and more peaceful days in the year ahead for the Jewish people, for Israel, and all humanity.

10/07/2026

“A European noblewoman, who narrowly escaped the N**i monster, made Aliyah to Israel, chose to settle in Beersheba, and from there began to change the world. She was a kindergarten teacher, an educator, and a family therapist who touched the most open wounds of the most complex families in the toughest neighborhoods. She touched and healed, embraced and helped’ - Chen Avigdori honoring his mother-in-law, Holocaust survivor Ruth Haran Herzman z"l.

Born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1936, Holocaust survivor Ruth Haran Herzman spent her childhood fleeing persecution. After her father was expelled from Romania, the family eventually reunited in Czernowitz. As German forces advanced, they fled with the hospital her father managed and reached Central Asia.

Her father died of typhus after the war. Ruth, her mother and her younger brother later boarded a crowded refugee ship and made Aliyah to Israel.
She eventually made her home in Kibbutz Be’eri, near the Gaza border.

On October 7, 2023, her son, Avshalom Shoham, was killed, and her daughter, daughter-in-law and grandchildren were taken hostage.

Her family members were released in November 2023 and February 2025.

That the horrors they experienced on October 7 are now interwoven with their Holocaust persecution testimonies is painful. However, even as this trauma endures within them – as it does across Israel and Jewish communities around the world – we learn lessons in resilience from these Holocaust survivors.

10/06/2026

“I completely lost my memory. Before this, I used to remember; I had dates in my head that served as anchors.”

Holocaust survivor Francine Burshtein was born in Paris in 1938. When the N**is invaded France, her family fled the city and she survived the war in hiding on a farm and concealing her Jewishness. Having made Aliyah and living in Kibbutz Nirim, near the Gaza border, she hid in her home’s safe room on October 7, 2023, while Hamas terrorists attacked and killed her neighbors and took others hostage.

The Claims Conference is dedicated to sharing Holocaust survivors’ testimonies of the hatred they suffered in their youth and preserving their traumatic experiences of October 7. Sadly, their trauma endures. Thankfully, we can learn lessons of resilience and courage from these survivors and pass them along to future generations.

Our thoughts are with them and with everyone impacted by October 7th. We are with them as they mourn and remember.

10/04/2026

Pampenai (Pumpėnai [Lith.], Pumpian [Yid.], Pompiany [Rus.]) had a Jewish population of 583 in 1766, 694 in 1847 and 1,007 in 1897.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Jewish community of Pampenai, a village in northern Lithuania, was falsely accused of blood libel, and the rabbi was burned to death. A stone memorial was later erected in his memory in the synagogue's yard.

By the end of the 19th century, many Jews had emigrated to Palestine, the Americas and South Africa.

During World War I, many of the Jews who remained in Pampenai evacuated to the interior of Russia. When they returned after the war, they found their homes looted and burned.

Only a few Jews resettled in Pampenai.

In 1921, 75 Jewish families lived there, and by 1923, the Jewish population had reached 372. The synagogue remained in use during the Republic of Lithuania, when a Hebrew school operated and Zionist movements were active.

Before World War II, approximately 60 Jewish families lived in Pampenai, and today there are no Jewish residents left.

10/02/2026

Whenever Holocaust survivors gather with us on Sukkot, the Claims Conference is privileged to welcome our own living ushpizin. They are heroes not only because they survived, but because they rebuilt homes and families, created careers and communities, and found the courage to believe.

Earlier this week, we joined 50 Holocaust survivors at the annual Sukkot celebration organized by Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS).
Throughout the year, WJCS, led by Seth Diamond, Chief Executive Officer of WJCS, and Allison Danzig, Coordinator of Holocaust Survivor Services, provides Holocaust survivors with home care, social work, food assistance and other essential services supported by the Claims Conference.

The connection between the survivors and the professionals, social workers and aides who care for and accompany them throughout the year could be felt across the room. They were not simply service providers and recipients; they knew one another, cared about one another and shared a genuine sense of community.

The Claims Conference supports gatherings like this throughout the year and around the world. For survivors who may be alone, or for whom the holidays awaken memories of loss, these gatherings provide companionship, dignity and joy.

As the lulav and etrog were passed around at the WJCS celebration, one survivor refused to shake the lulav downward. She explained, with characteristic defiance

10/02/2026

“The Holocaust doesn't identify me. What identifies me is what I do.” — Sami Steigmann

Sami Steigmann’s life story spans countries, borders, and generations. Born in 1939 in Czernovitz, Bukovina, Sami was just a young child when he and his parents were imprisoned in a labor camp in Mogilev-Podolsky, in Transnistria, from 1941 to 1944.

After the war, Sami grew up in Transylvania before his family emigrated to Israel in 1961. He served in the Israeli Air Force and later, at 28, came alone to the United States without knowing the language or having money. After years of building a life across two countries, he eventually made New York City his home.

Today, Sami is an incredible speaker whose goal in life is to share the truth and educate younger generations. Through his testimony, he reminds us that while the Holocaust is part of his history, it does not define who he is or what he chooses to do with his life.

We are grateful to the Center for Jewish History for helping make this interview possible and for supporting the preservation of Sami’s testimony.

Bring a Survivor Speakers Bureau speaker to your school, organization, or community and hear directly from those who witnessed history firsthand. Learn more and request a speaker: https://www.claimscon.org/speakers/

09/29/2026

Three children. Three photographs. Three lives taken at Babi Yar.

Velvele Valentin Krayz was a Jewish child. He was photographed in 1939.
He was murdered at Babi Yar on September 28–29, 1941.

Anna Glinberg was three years old when she was photographed in 1935.
She was murdered at Babi Yar on September 28–29, 1941.

Mania Halef was two years old when she was photographed in 1936.
She was murdered at Babi Yar on September 28–29, 1941.

On September 28–29, 1941, Jews were marched to the ravine, forced to surrender their valuables and remove their clothing, and led in groups toward the edge of the ravine. There, they were murdered by automatic gunfire.

In two days, 33,771 Jews were murdered at Babi Yar.



Photo: Yad Vashem / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

09/29/2026

“The Holocaust occurred because good men and women averted their eyes from unprecedented evil. And the N**is fell when good men and women opened their eyes, summoned their courage and faith, and fought for democracy, liberty, and justice and decency” – President George Bush at the Babyn Yar Memorial in Kyiv, August 1991.

Before the German invasion, some 160,000 Jews resided in Kyiv – approximately 20% of the city’s population. Following the start of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, approximately 100,000 of them had fled Kyiv or were serving in the Soviet military.

By the time the Germans occupied Kyiv on September 19, 1941, those who remained were unable or unwilling to flee. This included mainly women, children, the elderly and the ill.

On September 29–30, 1941, SS and German police units and their auxiliaries massacred the Jewish population of Kyiv at Babyn Yar. According to reports by the Einsatzgruppe to headquarters, 33,771 Jews were murdered in two days.

The killings at the Babyn Yar ravine continued until the fall of 1943, when N**i authorities suspended them days before the Soviets retook control of Kyiv on November 6.

According to Soviet investigations, some 100,000 people, Jews and non-Jews, were murdered at Babyn Yar under the German occupation.

Information from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and photo courtesy of Yad Vashem.

09/24/2026

"Caught up in the evil of the Holocaust, Norman and Amalie Petranker Salsitz survive, move forward, but do not forget. Their story... touches us because it is a personal story," Holocaust survivor Abe H. Foxman.

Holocaust survivor Norman Salsitz, born Naftali Saleschutz on May 6, 1920, and grew up in Kolbuszowa, Poland, honored his mother Ester’s dying wish and kept the stories of their family alive.

He did this by writing books, including one with his wife, Holocaust survivor Amalie Petranker Salsitz, titled “Against All Odds,” and speaking about his experiences.

Norman also saved hundreds of pictures of Jews during World War II and donated more than 1,000 photographs to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Amalie’s parents and one sister were murdered in the Holocaust. Another sister survived by moving to Palestine weeks ahead of the Soviet occupation of their hometown, Stanislav, Poland.

Norman and one of his brothers lived to see World War II end. The other nine members of their immediate family did not survive the Holocaust.

Amalie passed away on August 13, 2003, and Norman died on October 11, 2006.

There were around 2,500 Jews residing in Kolbuszowa at the outbreak of World War II. A few survived in hiding, in the camps, or as partisans in the forests. However, the Jewish community was not reestablished.

The photos in this video are courtesy of Norman Salsitz via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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