Romania Аpproves Financial Support for Holocaust Survivors

Romania's parliament has approved legislation allowing direct financial support to Holocaust survivors in the former Nazi ally state during World War Two, the architect of the law said on Friday, Reuters reported.

Lawmaker Silviu Vexler said beneficiaries would include those deported to ghettos or concentrations camps, survivors of the death trains and forced labor detachments, refugees and those imprisoned for ethnic reasons or forcefully removed from their homes.

"This law is a symbolic gesture to further recognize the terrifying suffering of people who have been through the darkest of moments," said Vexler, who represents the Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania.

The law will set a monthly payment of up to 400 lei (USD 97.98) per month for each year of deportation or detention. It will be enforced from July 1.

Its provisions also apply to survivors of the Holocaust who no longer have Romanian citizenship or reside in the country, as well as to the living partner of a Holocaust survivor who passed away if they did not remarry, Vexler said.

It was not immediately clear how many people might be eligible for the payments or what the total cost might be to the Romanian state.

Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany until August 1944 when it changed sides to the allies, and much of the Jewish property seized during the war was later nationalized by the communist dictatorship that followed.