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HOLOCAUST

Holocaust survivor denied Swedish pension

Sweden's Supreme Administrative Court (Regeringsrätten) is to consider whether damages paid to a Holocaust survivor by the German state should be deducted from her Swedish pension.

Published: 10 March 2009 14:56 CET

Miriam Landau, who moved to Sweden with her husband in the 1950s after having survived living in a concentration camp, has since received payments from the German state as recompense for her work while living in a ghetto.

The Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) has ruled that the payments should be classified as a pension and the sum deducted from Miriam Landau’s Swedish pension.

Miriam Landau argues that the agency has illegally confiscated some of the remuneration she received as indemnity for the Nazi persecution.

A decision by the Gothenburg administrative court of appeal (Kammarrätten) in November 2007 ruled that the retroactive payment of 80,000 kronor ($8,812) made under the German ZRBG law of 2002 should be considered a pension, in favour of the Social Insurance Agency.

Miriam Landau has appealed the decision and argues that the payment should be classified under the spirit of the German indemnity law and that the Social Insurance Agency had no right to confiscate 42,942 kronor of her pay out.

She argues that the ZRBG law classifies the payments as a “pension” only because it is paid out after the recipient has reached the age of 65 but should be seen as indemnity for work in the ghetto.

In court papers Miriam Landau points out the ZRBG law states that the payments should not be considered social security and stipulates that payment be made only if it directly benefits the intended recipient.

The Social Insurance Agency therefore has no right to any of the money, Miriam Landau argues.

As a result of the payment the agency recalculated the Holocaust survivor’s pension which is now based on a residency in Sweden of 35 years as opposed to the 40 years previously considered.

The Supreme Administrative Court has granted leave to appeal the court’s decision and will consider whether the payment should be classified under Council Regulation (EEC) 1408/71 of June 14th, 1971 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to members of their families moving within the Community.

Miriam Landau is born in 1924 and came to Sweden in the 1950s under a help program for the victims of Nazi persecution.

She was diagnosed in 1945 with double lung tuberculosis as a consequence of her time in the ghetto and concentration camp and has therefore been unable to work since moving to Sweden.

ANTI-SEMITISM

‘We will fight for our Germany’: Holocaust survivor issues warning to far right

Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch on Wednesday called for a stronger defence of the country's "fragile" democracy and issued a searing rebuke to the far right: "We will fight for our Germany".

Published: 27 January 2021 16:00 CET
'We will fight for our Germany': Holocaust survivor issues warning to far right
Knobloch addressing the Bundestag on Wednesday. Photo: DPA

In an emotional speech to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Knobloch told the Bundestag lower house of parliament that extremists and conspiracy theorists were exploiting fears around the pandemic and a diversifying society.

“We must not forget for a single day how fragile the precious achievements of the last 76 years are” since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp on January 27th, 1945.

“Anti-Semitic thought and words draw votes again, are socially acceptable again — from schools to corona protests and of course the internet, that catalyst for hatred and incitement of all kinds.”

Knobloch, 88, a former leader of Germany's 200,000-strong Jewish community who survived the Holocaust in hiding as a child in Bavaria, warned that the enemies of democracy are stronger than many think”.

“I call on you: take care of our country,” she said, describing right-wing extremism as “the greatest danger for all” in Germany.

'You lost your fight'

Addressing deputies of the hard-right Alternative for Germany, the largest opposition group in parliament with nearly 100 seats, Knobloch accused many of its followers of “picking up the tradition” of the Nazis.

“I tell you: you lost your fight 76 years ago,” Knobloch said. “You will continue to fight for your Germany and we will keep fighting for our Germany.”

Knobloch fought back tears as she recounted the terror of the Nazis' rise and the deportation of her grandmother, Albertine Neuland, to the Theresienstadt concentration camp where she starved to death in 1944.

READ ALSO: 'Fight against forgetting': Germany marks Holocaust anniversary in shadow of coronavirus

“I stand before you as a proud German, against all odds and although much still makes it unlikely. Sadness, pain, desperation and loneliness accompany me.”

The window of a new synagogue which opened in Konstanz in November 2019. Photo: DPA

But she said Germany's enduring commitment to reckon with its history made her hopeful.

“I am proud of the young people in our country. They are free of guilt for the past but they assume responsibility for today and tomorrow: interested,
passionate and courageous.”

However Bundestag speaker Wolfgang Schaeuble, a respected elder statesman,
warned that the German consensus around atonement for the Nazis' crimes, long
seen as part of the bedrock of the post-war order, was showing signs of vulnerability.

He told the chamber it was “devastating” to admit that “our remembrance culture does not protect us from a brazen reinterpretation or even a denial of history”.

“And it doesn't protect us from new forms of racism and anti-Semitism,” said Schaeuble, 78.

Jewish journalist and activist Marina Weisband, 33, also urged continued vigilance.

“To be Jewish in Germany is to know it happened and can happen again,” she said.

“Anti-Semitism doesn't begin when shots are fired at a synagogue,” she said, referring to an extremist attack in the eastern city of Halle in October 2019.

READ ALSO: 'It doesn't change my feeling about Germany': Jewish community fearful but defiant after Halle attack

“The Shoah did not begin with gas chambers… It is not extinct, this conviction that there are people whose dignity is worth more than others'.”

Germany has officially marked Holocaust Remembrance Day every January 27th
since 1996 with a solemn ceremony at the Bundestag featuring a speech by a survivor and commemorations across the country.

Of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, more than one million were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau, most in its notorious gas chambers, along with tens of thousands of others including homosexuals, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war.

This year's anniversary is marked by growing concerns about extremist violence and incitement in Germany.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken of her “shame” over rising anti-Semitism, as the Jewish community has warned that coronavirus conspiracy theories are being used to stir hatred.

In a speech recorded for Remembrance Day, Merkel thanked the elderly survivors “who muster the strength to tell the story of their lives”.

“Their first-hand accounts show us just how vulnerable human dignity is and
how easily the values that underpin peaceful coexistence can be violated,” she
said.

Anti-Jewish crimes have risen steadily, with 2,032 offences recorded in 2019, up 13 percent on the previous year, according to the latest official figures.

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