How did the current liberalization come about?
In continuing discussions with the German government, the Claims Conference has strongly maintained that the eligibility criteria for the Ghetto Pension have been interpreted inconsistently and too stringently by local German Social Security authorities and courts. Out of 70,000 holocaust survivors who applied, more than 60,000 have been rejected. On June 2nd and June 3rd, 2009 the 13th and the 5th Senat of the German Federal Social Court ruled on the most important issues of interpretation of the ghetto pension law, potentially affecting tens of thousands of social security claims that had been denied on the basis of differing interpretations.
