AMERICANS IN HOLOCAUST GETTING DUE.Byline: Keith Stone Daily News Staff Writer The Germans didn't care that Hugo Princz was an American when they locked him in a Nazi death camp and murdered his family. But after the war, the Germans cared a lot about his American citizenship because they said it automatically disqualified dis·qual·i·fy tr.v. dis·qual·i·fied, dis·qual·i·fy·ing, dis·qual·i·fies 1. a. To render unqualified or unfit. b. To declare unqualified or ineligible. 2. him for the same reparations reparations, payments or other compensation offered as an indemnity for loss or damage. Although the term is used to cover payments made to Holocaust survivors and to Japanese Americans interned during World War II in so-called relocation camps (and used as well to they had to pay other Holocaust victims While victims of the Holocaust were primarily Jews, the Nazis also persecuted and often killed millions of members of other groups they considered inferior, undesirable or dangerous. . Outraged, the retired New Jersey grocer battled the Germans for 40 years, until finally last year, he and 10 other Americans were paid $2.1 million in compensation. And Thursday, Attorney General Janet Reno Janet Reno (born July 21, 1938) was the first and to date only female Attorney General of the United States (1993–2001). She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11. announced in Los Angeles that the German government has agreed to extend payments to an undetermined number of other Americans whom the Nazis had imprisoned im·pris·on tr.v. im·pris·oned, im·pris·on·ing, im·pris·ons To put in or as if in prison; confine. [Middle English emprisonen, from Old French emprisoner : en- . It is a bittersweet bittersweet, name for two unrelated plants, belonging to different families, both fall-fruiting woody vines sometimes cultivated for their decorative scarlet berries. victory for the 72-year-old Princz. ``Why did they fight me? The only answer I can say is: A country that can do a horrible thing like they did - kill 6 million people - what can you expect? That they will change overnight?'' he asked in a telephone interview from his home in Highland Park, N.J. Princz and the Justice Department would not comment on how the $2.1 million was divided. ``There is no money in the world that could compensate for the loss - the loss of my family, the torture I went through for 38 months,'' Princz said. ``I watched my two brothers die; one they practically starved to death, a 13-year-old!'' Reno, speaking before an audience of 350 people at the Simon Wiesenthal Center  This article is currently semi-protected to prevent sock puppets of currently blocked or banned users from editing it. , said the payments will come too late for many.
``There is no list of these individuals entitled to compensation. They are old. They may be ill. There may be five or 50. There are not likely many more,'' Reno said. ``Help us to find those who are entitled to compensation. There is little time, and this is the least we can do,'' she said. To be eligible for compensation, Holocaust survivors must have been U.S. citizens at the time of their Nazi persecution and must have been interned in a concentration camp or under comparable conditions. Those who are not eligible include people whom the Germans already have compensated and people whom the Nazis drafted into forced labor but did not imprison im·pris·on tr.v. im·pris·oned, im·pris·on·ing, im·pris·ons To put in or as if in prison; confine. [Middle English emprisonen, from Old French emprisoner : en- . A three-judge panel will evaluate claims before passing them to German authorities. Claims must be submitted by Sept. 30. For more information, contact the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission at (202) 616-6975. Reno singled out Princz for having the endurance to fight the German government and win support from such members of Congress as Rep. Howard Berman, D-Panorama City. |
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