A small sum of justice for German ghetto workers

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Melissa A. Hearne, of DLA Piper, interviews Holocaust survivors and helps them fill out the detailed forms to qualify for reparations from the German government. More than the $2,700 payment, she said, ‘It’s important for them to know that someone is interested in their story and interested in what happened to them.’

Certain Holocaust survivors stand to gain 2,000 euros in reparations from Germany, but John Moseley said it isn’t about the money.

Moseley, of the Pro Bono Resource Center, is helping to coordinate volunteer lawyers to help elderly survivors in Maryland apply for the reparations.

The survivors are “doing it out of a sense of propriety, what’s right, what’s just,” said Moseley, the resource center’s director of volunteer services and community outreach.

The reparations are for people who performed voluntary labor while living in a German-controlled ghetto during World War II. The German government has already paid reparations to those who were forced to work in the ghettos. The latest program is open only to those who sought work.

The jobs might have consisted of working for a farmer or in a community kitchen in hopes of securing a little more food, said DLA Piper US LLP attorney Melissa A. Hearne. She said the term “voluntary” is controversial because the workers hardly had a real choice.

Hearne, an environmental lawyer who works in both DLA Piper’s Washington office and Baltimore offices, was instrumental in bringing the pro bono program to Maryland and training other lawyers to take survivors’ testimony and fill out the forms.

All over the country

The program began in Los Angeles with an organization called Bet Tzedek, which provides free legal assistance for needy seniors.

Wendy Marantz Levine, a lawyer at Bet Tzedek, said social workers would normally help the seniors fill out the application forms, but the social work community in Los Angeles let Bet Tzedek know that they were overwhelmed by the number of people eligible for this round of reparations. Bet Tzedek — the name means “House of Justice” — took on the project, teaming up with lawyers all over the country.

By the end of last year, 2,600 volunteer lawyers and 1,000 other volunteers had worked at reparation legal clinics in 29 U.S. cities and Toronto to prepare the applications, Levine said. The German government is expecting 50,000 applications worldwide, Hearne said.

Because there is not much law involved in filling out the applications, lawyers from all jurisdictions and all practice areas have been able to participate, including in-house lawyers, who sometimes have trouble finding pro bono work that uses their expertise, Levine said.

Baltimore’s program grew out of the success of Washington, D.C.’s, she said. DLA Piper is one of five firms coordinating the application effort in Washington.

The German government limits the reparations to people who are alive at the time they apply. Survivors may not file on behalf of their deceased parents or spouses.

In U.S. dollars right now, the payment would be equal to about $2,700.

Considering that about a quarter of Holocaust survivors in the U.S. live below the poverty line, that money can make a real difference, Levine said.

She said in Los Angeles alone, the German government has so far approved 375 of 900 applications, paying out more than $1 million.

One woman used the money to pay for her grandson’s bar mitzvah, Hearne said.

But for most people, the money is secondary, she said.

“It’s important for them to know that someone is interested in their story and interested in what happened to them,” Hearne said.

Reliving the worst

Hearne and Moseley declined to allow a reporter or photographer to come to one of the clinics, saying that for the survivors, telling their stories again is often traumatic.

“I have to ask myself: Would I have the guts to turn over for three to four hours something that is the worst experience in my entire life?” Moseley said.

Volunteers get names of survivors through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. If it looks as though the person is eligible for reparations, the volunteers contact them to set up an appointment, either at one of the day clinics or at the survivor’s home.

The application itself is only six pages long, but it asks for a lot of details. The elderly survivors sometimes have trouble filling it out alone, Hearne said.

At an appointment, the volunteer lawyers will interview survivors about their war experiences, which can take anywhere from two to four hours, she said.

Hearne said some of the survivors do not understand why the lawyers want to help them.

“I had one client who the entire interview, every 20 minutes she would ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’” Hearne said.

“I’m surprised that you are surprised,” she said she replied. “This is something I’m absolutely thrilled to do, absolutely happy to do. Sometimes I just say, ‘Because.’”