June 9, 1999
Children
of Holocaust survivors to sue Germany:
report TEL
AVIV, June 9 (AFP) - Children of
Jewish survivors of the Holocaust are
preparing to sue Germany for reparations
for the trauma of growing up with
psychologically damaged parents, the
Maariv newspaper reported on
Wednesday. Yaffa Golan, a Tel Aviv attorney
representing the plaintiffs, told
Maariv she had written to German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
seeking an out-of-court settlement of the
demands for reparations. "We are waiting for an answer and if it
is not satisfactory we will go to court,"
she said. Golan said she had gathered testimony
from hundreds of children of Holocaust
survivors who claim their childhood was
ruined "by the psychological effects of
living alongside parents who came back
from the Nazi death camps." "There are thousands of people from
this second generation who have trouble
working, who need psychological treatment
and have no one to help them," she
said. "We don't think it's possible for all
the descendants of the second generation
to obtain compensation, but there are many
people who were crippled by the Holocaust
and have a right to help," she said. The German government has paid billions
of dollars in compensation for Holocaust
survivors but this would be the first case
of children of the death camp inmates
demanding reparations for their indirect
suffering. | 
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to David Irving