Suing Germany
July 16, 2007
Relatives of Holocaust survivors are demanding that the German government shoulder about 21.9 million euros ($30.1 million) for bi-weekly psychotherapy sessions over three years for about 15,000 to 20,000 people, the Associated Press reported.
"This is the very first time that the German government will be asked to take responsibility and to care for those of the second generation in Israel and indeed, worldwide," said Gideon Fisher, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, before filing the suit at Tel Aviv District Court on Monday.
Some 4,000 people have joined the lawsuit so far. But Baruch Mazor, who heads the Fisher Fund, a charity that looks after so-called second-generation Holocaust survivors, said that 4 to 5 percent of the 400,000 children of Holocaust survivors in Israel require psychotherapy as they suffer from an irrational fear of starvation and incapacitating bouts of depression.
Stocking bread, hiding pain
"I have an obsession about food, especially bread," a 58-year-old woman who was not named said on Israeli radio on Sunday, according to AP. She added that she was obsessed about stocking bread as her parents fought for bread crumbs at Auschwitz death camp.
"It was forbidden in our house to show pain or say that you're sad," she added. "My father taught us not to express our feelings and hide our hurt. That was very, very hard."
A first step towards recognition
Mazor said that many of the people involved in the suit cannot work because of their ailments and are therefore not able to pay for any treatment.
He called the lawsuit a first step towards recognizing the fate of the children of Holocaust survivors. AP reported that it's not clear whether a ruling by an Israeli court would be binding for a foreign defendant -- in this case, Germany. Mazor reportedly wants to use the Israeli verdict for a later lawsuit filed with a German or international court.
The German embassy in Israel declined to comment on the case.