Victim of Nazis seeks reparations
Denver woman among thousands who may be eligible for German fund
By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Darin McGregor / The Rocky
Denver resident Goldie Farkas worked under the eyes of Nazis in a sewing shop in Budapest, Hungary, during World War II. She has applied to receive a $3,000 payment that Germany is offering to Jews who were forced to labor in the ghettos.
Farkas Family Photo
A family photo shows Goldie Maskovich, now Goldie Farkas, from left, and sisters Udit and Bertha, wearing yellow stars to mark being Jews while living in Hungary in 1943.
- Email this
- Print this
- Comments
- Change text size
- Subscribe to print edition
- iPod friendly
Goldie Farkas lived in three rooms with three families when she was a young woman. She was allowed to leave her cramped apartment in Budapest, Hungary, only to work in a sewing shop under the eyes of the Nazis.
Today, Farkas hopes to be compensated by the German government for that painful episode in her life.
Farkas, a Denver resident since 1958, has applied for one of the newest reparation programs offered to Jewish Holocaust survivors. The Ghetto Labor Compensation Fund, established last September, is for Jews who worked at jobs with little or no pay while living in German-controlled ghettos.
As to whether today's money can make up for that time, "Oh no, never!" Farkas said. "My husband suffered a lot, even more than I did. You can never make up for that. Some people can't even imagine the way it was. If I wasn't there, I wouldn't believe it either."
Reparations date to 1952
Farkas, who turns 81 this week, is among an estimated 20,000 people in the U.S. who may be eligible for the ghetto labor program. The one-time payment would be about $3,000.
In the metro area, several survivors have applied for the fund, says Mirella Schreiber at Jewish Family Service of Colorado, which handles the application process for Coloradans seeking compensation from the German government.
Since Germany first agreed to make Holocaust reparations in 1952, there have been more than 60 programs worldwide, each designed for various categories of victims.
Some programs made reparations to those forced into concentration camps, others for slave labor. Some survivors have received reparation for being deprived of their livelihoods.
Most of the programs have expired. Some provide ongoing sums.
Indeed, every three months, the German government sends Goldie Farkas about $900. She describes it as a Holocaust "hardship" payment, which she applied for in 1990.
Still, Farkas says she lost years of compensation. In the post-war chaos, first as a refugee in Israel and then in the U.S., she didn't know she was even eligible for anything. When she did learn of the programs, many had expired.
All in all, she said, "I didn't get enough for what I went through."
'How can this be repaid?'
Germany also makes reparations to Denver resident Zachary Kutner, 82, a semi-retired fabric salesman and a longtime cantor at Congregation BMH/BJ.
Kutner, who was born in a Polish village so small he says it wasn't on the map, was just 14 when the Nazis came for him.
So began a merciless odyssey through some of history's most notorious death camps, ultimately leading him to Auschwitz and Dachau.
Kutner says at various times he worked back-breaking hours at everything from feeding chickens and polishing boots to building Nazi factories and making powder for grenades.
Today, he receives about $700 a month from a compensation program, the amount fluctuating with the dollar's value.
Does the money make up for those years?
"I really don't know," Kutner said. "There are so many things they should pay me for. I lost my parents, my two sisters and my brother. I worked for 4 1/2 years in concentration camps. I lived in Poland, but I can never go back there. I never finished school.
"There are so many things. How can this be repaid?"
Help for survivors
A number of the compensation packages, including the recent Ghetto Labor reparation, have been negotiated by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany Inc., which is based in New York. For information on Holocaust compensation packages from the German government:
* Jewish Family Service of Colorado:
jewishfamilyservice.org or 303-597-5000, ask for Mirella Schreiber at extension 302
* Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc.: claimscon.org
Comments
Posted by mytwosense on March 27, 2008 at 8:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
lcdrjjxant, I always enjoy your spirited posts, and am wondering if you will respond to three questions I have for you about reparations.
Do you really think a payment for each black person in this country would wipe out the leftover anger and resentment blacks hold about the slavery years?
Would reparations help to heal the racial divides in this country, or backfire and cause more resentment among whites, as none living today had anything to do with the slavery days of hundreds of years ago?
Would more taxes diverted back to public schools, especially in hard-hit urban areas, be just as good a way to show a renewed commitment to an equal playing ground for everyone in this country, no matter their race?
I would be interested in your viewpoint, as it might enlighten me on one or more perspectives that haven't occurred to me yet about this issue.
Posted by MarineGrunt on March 27, 2008 at 8:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
OH MY GOD.... we should give reparations to people over something that went down over 100 yrs ago! I do not think Germany should be doing this so late after the War.
Is it a nice gesture? Yes.
Do they rate it? Yes.
Is it REALLY late and something that should have been done 50 yrs ago? Yes!!
Your right lcdrjjxant... you should get reparations! I would LOVE to see one of Dave Chappel's skits come true!!! "I'm rich, b*tch!"
Why work when your forefathers were slaves!! You should be compensated for something that has NOTHING to do with you. But you sure do want that check!!! Gimme Gimme Gimme...
Where the hell is A. Sharpton and J. Jackson when you need them!!!
Posted by MarineGrunt on March 27, 2008 at 8:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
In that case.. I am buying stock in KFC and Old E!!
Posted by mytwosense on March 27, 2008 at 8:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It would be so refreshing if people could express their opinions with at least some modicum of respect and civility. Isn't that supposed to be one of the capabilities we acquire when we become adults?
Posted by MarineGrunt on March 27, 2008 at 8:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
mytwosence.... What, are you new here?
This is the internet, you know!
Posted by mytwosense on March 27, 2008 at 8:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I know, MarineGrunt, and that's just my point. We talk to each other in ways we never would face-to-face. As Internet forums are increasingly a "conduit" of communication, it would be nice if we would take some of our everyday manners with us to these forums. I admit I'm sometimes guilty myself of not doing this.
Posted by Mtn__Gator on March 27, 2008 at 9:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Bad stuff happens to good people, that's just the way of the world. It happened yesterday and it will probably happen again tomorrow. Time to build that bridge and get over it! Why should people today pay for what they had no part in yesterday? How is that fair?
Posted by Logic1 on March 27, 2008 at 9:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with 2sense. There are stories and blogs that can be fun and you can go back to your adolesence with them, this is not one of them.
lcdrjjxant. Who do you want to repay you? The federal government? They went to war and in the end over 400,000 union lives were lost. How about the Confederate government, oh they do not exist anymore. So go to the south, 250,000 men were killed as a reprocution of slavery, homes were burnt and there lively hood and culture forever changed. Did they pay enough? Hard to say, but perhaps you should start thinking about your future generations instead of what is owed to you from the past.
BTW, It was a republican president that issued the emancipation proclimation. It was a Democrat (Andrew Johnson) who created carpet baggers and wanted to bring those same southern slave owners back to power that got him impeached by Republicans. So thank a republican for the end to slavery.
Posted by BiotchMAMA on March 27, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
marinegrunt, this wasn't over a 100 years ago, receiving reparations is the least that can be done for these survivors.
zogzapped, you think there's even the slightest possibility that this Holocaust did not happen?
These survivors have had to live their whole lives surviving what happened to them at their young ages, at the age you and I were going to parks and playing with barbie, they were working in sweat shops and watching their families get murdered.
Have some compassion
Posted by MarineGrunt on March 27, 2008 at 9:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Jebus... you have the right name, biotchmama!
I can see you education stretched well into your late single digit birthdays!! Could you please point to me where Americans OWNED slaves legally in 1908? Was the Emaciation Proclamation something the school system just made up?
WHY do I owe anyone anything for that? My family did not own slaves! My family did not profit off the backs of slaves! Not one person alive today has owned slaves. Not one person alive in America can claim to have been owned as a slave in this Country!
OH YEAH.. I remember in 1975 when I was at the park watching the slaves go out to the fields to work! Good times... Good thing to knwo that non of my Irish or Native American's forefathers were forced to work in sweat shops for pennies or forced off their land! Good thing the US Army never slaughtered any of them... again, that darn lying history book!
Where do you think all this money will come from? OH YEAH.. those folks who never owned a slaves! "Make 'em feel the pain for something they never did!!!"
Posted by Logic1 on March 27, 2008 at 9:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
lcdrjjxant. Here's a link for you, radical republicans wanted to take southern land and give it to the freed slaves. They also wanted to give them citizenship, the democrats did not want that.
http://www.crf-usa.org/impeachment/im...
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
MarineGrunt,
Biotch thought you were referring to the Jews. Afterall, this is what the article is about. But I know your comment was in response to the mule lover.
Posted by Vonikins on March 27, 2008 at 9:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I personally feel that reparation has its place in making amends, but it should be directed only to those directly suffering for the policies and practices that resulted in a reparation. When in comes to our history of slavery from the 19th century I would be the first to write a check to a currently living survivor of slavery. The woman in this story, her family and friends, suffered humiliation. She isn't expecting a hand out because an unknown ancestor suffered, she sufferd personally.
To zogzapped, you might want to reread the article. The woman is Hungarian and the the gentleman quoted is Polish. The Jews are a cultural/religious entity that was the primary (though not the only) target of the Nazi regime. The reparations handed out by Germany are for the Poles, Germans, Russians who were torn from their lives by the Nazis, many who are also Jews.
Posted by Vonikins on March 27, 2008 at 9:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Zogzapped -
and the jews are from many sectors of europe
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 10:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
zogzapped, I am an American, not a European-American, just an American. Aren't you the Nazi that directly affected the fate of the Jews?
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 10:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Heil Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen!
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 10:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
oops, Roentgen wasn't a Nazi
Posted by BiotchMAMA on March 27, 2008 at 10:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Gee, i guess my opinion stems from the fact that I am an uneducated Biotch!
So not even one person in America can claim to be owned as a slave, I guess that is because slavery also never existed. I don't believe the offspring should benefit from these programs, only the survivors, in any event what do I know, my lack of education also restricts my thinking
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 10:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hats off to you, zogzapped. I feel safer now, knowing you are indirectly protecting me.
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 10:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I am a slave to all of the people stealing what my taxes provide.
Posted by Vonikins on March 27, 2008 at 10:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Zogzapped - if you had read the history books the percentage of jews to other groups targeted by the nazis is far outweighed, which is why WWII reparation stories focus on the Jews. as for acknowledging scientific and engineering feats accomplished under the Nazi regime through testing and enslaving humans who were considered diminished beings unworthy of the advancement of the "aranian nation" I do not think they deserve the honor you think they should receive.
Posted by BiotchMAMA on March 27, 2008 at 10:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
my opinion had nothing to do with LEGAL slavery, or LEGAL holocaust, just to make an uneducated guess, i don't think sweatshops are legal either. But this article only has to do with holocaust survivors, not Poles, or Russians, or Slaves, or Mexicans, stick to the subject at hand.
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 10:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
At least Roentgen used his own hand to test the X-ray.
Posted by Vonikins on March 27, 2008 at 10:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Zogzapped - if you read any history you would know that being Jewish is both a cultural and religious entity and not all Jews are practicing jews and that the European culture was so ripe with prejudice agains Jews that even in the 17th century the size of the jewish society in europe was unknown because many lived in hiding or under pretenses of having a different heritage because of a fear of persecution. The spanish inquisition in the 15th and 16th century were equally directed and islamic and jewish societies. There is a reason the numbers are skewed about how many jews may or may not have lived in europe before wwII. Plus, if a neighbor suspected that you jew during the nazi area, it didn't matter whether you were or not - you were targeted.
Posted by TheDenverB on March 27, 2008 at 10:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
wow, what a surprise. zog on here spouting his antisemitic bulls*t over and over and over again.
i can't believe they haven't ip-blocked you and your worthless comments yet.
Posted by bropous on March 27, 2008 at 10:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
lcdrjjxant, you are a moron if you don't think that blacks have gouged the government for more than their fair share of welfare, racial set-asides, and reverse racist discrimination.
Ignore what zogzapped has to say on the issue - get a clue about his handle "Zionist Occupation Government", the guy is a Klan member, a racist leftist who deserves nothing more than being ignored. Quit calling for his censorship, just ignore his ignorant Jew-hating invective.
If funds can be extracted from the Nazi Party and the government of the Third Reich, I say reparatiosn are appropriate. If, however, they have to dig into the pockets of the current government, and have to gig citizens who had nothing to do with the death camps, I say no.
However, I would LOVE to see some lawsuits by victims of the Soviet Gulags and ChiCom Death Camps.
Posted by TheDenverB on March 27, 2008 at 10:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"I have made no comments that are "off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy" here."
keep telling yourself that. your attitude and presentation of your comments and thoughts tells EVERY ONE OF US otherwise. (even the rmn staffers that agree with the readers who constantly flag your hate-filled posts).
nothing like someone with hateful views that can't even own up to it, though.
Posted by bropous on March 27, 2008 at 10:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
BTW, lcdrjxxant: My ancestor was an enlisted man in the Confederate Army who fought at the Battle of Mobile. After the battle, he "liberated" a 50-pound sack of sugar and walked all the way from Mobile Bay to Tyler, Texas, without shoes.
Not a single ancestor of mine, not a single one, owned slaves. However, in 1860, in Louisiana, approximately 10% of slave owners were black. Also, about 10% of slaves were white, not black.
My distant ancestors, the Celts, were held as slaves by the Romans. Do I get reparations too?
EVERY society in history was either slave owning or enslaved. Blacks are nothing special, only that they were freed in spectacular fashion by....wait for it....A REPUBLICAN!!!
Posted by bropous on March 27, 2008 at 10:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
...and more human beings were murdered by Mao than by Stalin, and more by Stalin than by Hitler. You're still a moron for your racist, Jew-hating views. Enjoy your limited perceptions of humanity.
Posted by mytwosense on March 27, 2008 at 11:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
--Sigh---. Once again, Zogzapped the Troll hijacks a good thread on the RMN forums.
Posted by LuckyMe on March 27, 2008 at 12:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Let Zogzapped have his say. Free speech is not a oneway street, it's a twoway street that all are allowed to drive. Besides, it's keeping the dialogue open. And this time it's entertaining!
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 12:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
LuckyMe, you aint seen nuthin' yet!
Posted by LuckyMe on March 27, 2008 at 12:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It gets better? Can't wait. Where would we be without controversy and the freedom to express our views? In a dictatorship that's where.
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 12:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh yea, look for him on any article that has to do with Jews, minorities, illegal immigrants, Columbus Day, the aryan race, and anything silly or meaningless. What did I leave out zog? I am a little slow today. Oh yea, Valhalla.
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 12:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh yea, look for him on any article that has to do with Jews, minorities, illegal immigrants, Columbus Day, the aryan race, and anything silly or meaningless. What did I leave out zog? I am a little slow today. Oh yea, Valhalla.
Posted by rg on March 27, 2008 at 1:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yo there Icd.... perpetual complainer whose comment I always peruse; however, you are nuts in your request for reparation for Blacks. Why don't you clamor for reparations for the Indigenous Native or the Mexicans who lost the entire Southwest? Enough is enough: No reparations for Blacks; there is no justification for it. Richard Grimes, Deicide.
Deicide Corner: Yo there Icd...: Join me in slaying all these gods created by man like your "jew jesus" so responsible for wrenching your parents, parents, parents from their country aided by Blacks, themselves. You may as well seek reparations from the Blacks who rounded up Blacks and sold them to White Christians.
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I owe everything I have to men, since the enticement of Adam with the forbidden fruit.
Posted by rg on March 27, 2008 at 1:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Heidi: In Brooklyn-speak, here is how it came down the pike:
"Eve was mad stoopid!" "After they ate da apple,they said, 'Yo god, why is we nekked?'"
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 2:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
hahaha! I am so ashamed...
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 2:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
yo, maybe ya just need to pull them pants up a bit!
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 2:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Since there were no rabbi's at that time, I highly doubt it.
Posted by Heidi on March 27, 2008 at 2:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Double trouble, 2 sins in one bite.
Posted by mrNiceGuy on March 27, 2008 at 3:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow. Really? I wish I had that 3 minutes of my life back. What a waste of time.
Posted by mtnsrfer on March 27, 2008 at 6:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Luitenant Commander Jinx Ant will never anwser a question! He just wants to say the same tired things over and over again. Keep living in the past and you will have no future. He forgot to say how much he loves self admitted dog slayers, perjurors, and throat slashers. But yeah, we will listen to every inteligent thing you have to say(nothing)! Go choke on a Rooster!
Post your comment (Requires free registration.)
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.