(15 Sep 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Berlin - 15 September 2022
1. Close of 101-year-old Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlaender
2. Friedlaender talking to Holocaust survivor Eva Umlauf
3. Close of Friedlaender's hand
4. Sign reading (German) "70 years Luxembourg Agreements"
5. Wide of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz walking to lectern
6. Audience members listening
7. SOUNDBITE (German) Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor:
"This agreement could not relieve the heavy guilt that Germans had brought upon themselves. The Luxembourg Agreement was rather an attempt to take moral responsibility for the failure of morality."
8. Friedlaender listening
9. SOUNDBITE (German) Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor:
"That is why the Federal Government is committed, now and in the future, to securing ongoing compensation payments for the aged Holocaust survivors and to examining what is needed to enable them to live out their twilight years in dignity."
10. Wide of audience
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Gideon Taylor, Claims Conference president:
"We don't have much time left. The next time that we all gather in a big room like this, we may be living in a world with very few, if any, Holocaust survivors. A world where there will not be Holocaust survivors to tell their own stories in their own words. I have confidence, every confidence that this leadership of Germany, which may be the last to shape the closing chapter for those who survived the unimaginable, will fulfil the vision that those inspiring leaders commenced 70 years ago."
12. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Scholz listening
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, Claims Conference Chief Negotiator:
"We cannot celebrate the last 70 years of negotiations. We can only commemorate them because our historic achievements occurred due to the terrible suffering and murder of millions of men, women and children who could never live out their hopes and dreams."
14. Close of rabbi
15. Wide of audience
STORYLINE:
The organization that handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered under the Nazis said Thursday that Germany had agreed to pay approximately $1.2 billion (euros) for home care and compensation for Holocaust survivors living around the world in 2023, bringing the overall amount of compensation Germany has paid to more than 80 billion euros.
The announcement came as Germany marked the 70th anniversary of the signing of the compensation agreement that made it possible for Holocaust survivors to receive a measure of justice - the so-called Luxembourg Agreements.
More than 6 million European Jews were murdered by Germany's Nazis and their henchmen during the Third Reich.
On Thursday, the German government invited hundreds of guests - including Holocaust survivors and members of the Claims Conference - to a ceremony at Berlin's Jewish Museum to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the agreement and underline the special responsibility the country bears for the past, the present, and for the future.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who also attended the ceremony, said that "this agreement could not relieve the heavy guilt that Germans had brought upon themselves".
"The Luxembourg Agreement was rather an attempt to take moral responsibility for the failure of morality", Scholz added.
Among other payments, 12 million euros emergency humanitarian payments will be given to 8,500 Ukrainian Holocaust survivors, and 170 million euros will go to a special hardship fund that will impact approximately 143,000 Holocaust survivors worldwide.
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