Germany Pledges $1 Billion for 200,000 Holocaust Survivors

THURSDAY, Oct. 30, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Germany has agreed to provide more than $1 billion in new funding to support Holocaust survivors worldwide, helping many continue to live independently in their own homes.

The deal, negotiated with Germany’s Finance Ministry, makes it the largest home care budget in the organization’s history, totaling $1.076 billion (923.9 million euros) for 2025. 

The funds will go toward essential daily care for elderly survivors, many of whom are now in their late 80s and 90s.

“This historic increase to home care funding reflects the complex and growing needs of Holocaust survivors worldwide,” said Gideon Taylor, president of the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which is also known as the Claims Conference.

“While we are losing survivors at a rapid pace each year, those who remain are older, frailer and in greater need than ever before,” Taylor added. “This budget is critical in providing each of them the opportunity to age in place, a dignity that was stolen from them in their youth.”

The average age of Holocaust survivors receiving home care rose from 86 in 2018 to 88.5 in 2024, according to the Claims Conference. As they age, survivors are facing more complex health issues. 

The number who now qualify for full-time assistance due to extreme disabilities such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and dementia has nearly doubled in the last six years.

In addition to the new funding, Hardship Fund Supplemental payments — yearly payments of €1,450 (about $1,680) per eligible survivor — will be extended through 2028, benefiting more than 127,000 Holocaust survivors around the world.

The group estimates that roughly 200,000 Holocaust survivors remain alive today, most living in Israel, the U.S. and Europe.

For the first time, non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust will also be eligible to receive home care benefits through the Claims Conference.

"It is deeply meaningful that, 80 years after the liberation, the German government maintains its responsibility to those who suffered and survived,” Colette Avital, a Holocaust survivor and member of the group’s negotiation team, told The Associated Press.

“Every survivor — and every rescuer — deserves to live with dignity and to be seen, heard and cared for,” Avital added.

Germany has also committed €175 million (about $202.8 million) to extend Holocaust education programs through 2029. The funds will support teacher training, academic research and new educational tools such as films, games and virtual reality experiences designed to reach wider audiences.

“It is imperative that we invest in the future of Holocaust education while we still have living witnesses who can share their firsthand testimonies of survival,” Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference, told The Associated Press. “This is our moral obligation to the survivors of the Holocaust and to the 6 million who were murdered.”

More information

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has more on the holocaust.

SOURCE: The Associated Press, Oct. 28, 2025