Jewish prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp

Germany to Pay Compensation to East European Holocaust Survivors

Over the next three months, a committee composed of members of the Jewish Claims Conference (JCC) and the German government will work out the details of the payments. The JCC represents 23 groups of Holocaust victims in their dealings with Germany.

Friedrich Bohl, a Minister at the Chancellery, told a press conference that Germany wanted a "rapid settlement". He said Germany recognised the compensation issue was a "special problem".

The agreement comes after two days of talks with the German Finance Ministry and the Chancellery, which is the official residence of Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The German side was represented by Mr Bohl. The JCC was led by ALexander Bergman, a 72 year old Holocaust survivor from Riga, the capital of Latvia.

Mr Bergman's parents and younger brother were murdered by the Nazis. He survived the concentration camps of Kaiserwald, Stutthof, Buchenwald and Magdeburg.

Even before the talks opened, however, the Germans said they would be willing to consider the claims of Holocaust victims who were unable to file for compensation because of the Cold War.

Israel Singer, the general secretary of the World Jewish Congress, said: "They were twice victims - once of the Nazism and the second time of communism. We saw to it today that they will not be victimised for a third time."

Estimates of the number of survivors able to claim compensation varies from 15,000 to 100,000. Most claimants live in Russia or Ukraine.

Ignatz Bubis, leader of Germany's Jewish community, said that compensation was made all the more urgent by the advanced years of the survivors. He suggested that each survivor receive $110 for every month detained.

Mr Bubis added that it was unfair that a former Latvian member of the SS would receive a war pension while his Jewish victim received nothing.

Since 1949, according to Bonn's calculation, Germany has paid $55 billion to survivors of the Holocaust.