On the 29 the of September, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) General Council Chairman, Chairman of the Association of Ukrainian Organizations and Communities of Ukraine (VAAD Ukraine) Joseph Zisels met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
of the Federal Republic of Germany Dr. Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth.

VAAD Ukraine pleaded on behalf of the Jewish community of Ukraine to make a positive decision on compensating Jews for property lost during the Holocaust.

Joseph Zisels noted that the long and intricate process of assignment and payment of German compensations to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who lost personal property during World War II has been carried on for more than 50 years. This process became possible due to the many stages of negotiations between the German government and the Claims Conference Organization.

Unfortunately, the compensations that Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in Western Europe, Israel, and America have been receiving for the last 50 years are still inaccessible to the Jews of the FSU due to the Soviet government refusing these compensations. This mistake has had dramatic consequences for these people, whose lives after the Holocaust have not been easy. These citizens of Ukraine are now forced to subsist on beggarly pensions. Many of them are ill, have various degrees of disability, have no family and thus no aid. According to Joseph Zisels, the territory of the former Soviet Union now has approximately 100 thousand people who have lost their property during the Holocaust. Ukraine houses 30 thousand from that number.

At the moment, the Claims Conference is holding another round of negotiations with the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, proposing to eliminate this historic imbroglio, thus aiding the still-living Holocaust survivors, not a numerous group any more, to lead a dignified life in their old age.

Questions related to Jewish cemeteries and mass burial sports were also discussed during the meeting. VAAD has been dealing with this problem since 1994. As Joseph Zisels noted, approximately 2000 Jewish cemeteries exist in Ukraine, usually abandoned, and as many places of mass burial. Because of a lack of funds, the process of their scientific description has been very slow, and may possible take dozens of years.

The problem has a juridical aspect, as well. The privatization of the land and real estate development threaten Jewish burial places. To preserve these memorial places, it is necessary to make decisions on the level of local authorities to create protective zones around Jewish cemeteries and places of mass burials.

Another important question is the erection of memorial signs. VAAD Ukraine and other Jewish organizations put up several markers a year. Howver, as Joseph Zisels underscored, only a third of the 2000 mass burials has memorial monuments. Many of them are in bad shape: not enclosed, crumbling, subject to vandalism.

VAAD has turned to Ambassador Hans-Jurgen Heimsoeth with a request to aid in finding funds that could help preserve the memory of Jews who have perished in the Holocaust.