Providing Sustainable Funding for Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research

1. Providing Sustainable Funding for Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research Holocaust Era Assets Conference Prague, June 2009

2. Funding sources for Holocaust education, remembrance and research • Ministries of education, local school systems, and universities • Ministries of culture and other relevant government authorities • Private donations • Collective claims negotiated with industry/government and recovery of heirless and unclaimed Jewish properties

3. Use of monies from collective claims negotiated with industry/government and recovery of heirless and unclaimed Jewish properties • First priority: Social welfare of Holocaust survivors • Historically sense that at least small part should be used for Holocaust education, remembrance and research • Sense in all collective claims and settlements since 1990’s that at least small part should be used for Holocaust education, remembrance and research • Preservation of memory of six million killed • Ensure future generations learn of Holocaust • Measure of justice for the dead

4. Principal funds for Holocaust education, remembrance and research resulting from collective claims and recovery of heirless and unclaimed Jewish properties • Claims Conference: Rabbi Israel Miller Fund for Shoah Research, Education, and Documentation http://www.claimscon.org • Austria: Nationalfonds der Republik Ősterreich fűr Opfer des Nationalsozialismus http://www.nationalfonds.org • Belgium: Fondation du Judaïsme de Belgique http://www.fjb-sjb.be/fr • Czech Republic : Nadační fond obĕtem holocaustu http://www.fondholocaust.cz • France : Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, http://www.fondationshoah.org • Germany : Stiftung "Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft" http://www.stiftung-evz.de/ • Macedonia: The Jewish Holocaust Fund in Macedonia • Netherlands: Stichting Collectieve Maror-gelden Nederland (COM) http://www.maror.nl • Norway: Fund established by the Government of Norway and the Jewish Communities of Norway http://www.hlsenteret.no • Slovakia: Fund established by the Government of the Slovak Republic and the Central Union of Jewish Communities in the Slovak Republic www.holocaustslovakia.sk • International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) www.icheic.org • Victim List Project of the Swiss Banks Settlement • Hungarian Gold Train Settlement www.hungariangoldtrain.org

5. Impact of partial use of funds from collective claims and settlements on Holocaust education, remembrance and research • Enormous progress in Holocaust education, remembrance and research • Relevant countries have particularly benefited • Some settlements have focused support on particular institutions

6. These funds are only small part of total of financing throughout the world of Holocaust education, remembrance and research • Claims Conference grants constitute only about 5% of total annual budgets of institutions applying that are listed in Task Force’s Directory of Organizations • Likely that contribution of settlements to Holocaust education, remembrance and research is no more than 5% worldwide

7. General observations and recommendations for the future • Even if parts of funds from collective claims and settlements are made available for educational and related purposes, they will not be nearly sufficient. There is no substitute for governmental support of Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. • Continuing need for grant programs to support innovative projects beyond the base budgets of Holocaust-related institutions. Unmet demand as shown by large number of applications received by Task Force. Funds created from collective claims and settlements can help but will not be enough. • Some funds have been made endowments in perpetuity, but others have not. Unless additional settlements are reached, total amounts that will be available from such funds in future years can be expected actually to decrease. Yet the need for Holocaust education is, if anything, growing. • Important for settlements to support at least in part programs and institutions outside the given country.

8. Terezin Declaration • The Terezin Declaration notes “the need to enshrine and to remember forever, for the benefit of future generations, the unique history and the legacy of the Holocaust (Shoah), which exterminated three fourths of European Jewry, including its premeditated nature as well as other Nazi crimes.” • The Participating States further “encourage all countries as a matter of priority to include education about the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes in the curriculum of their public education systems and to provide funding for the training of teachers and the development or procurement of the resources and materials required for such education” and are “committed to including human rights education into the curricula of [their] educational systems.” • “Countries may wish to consider using a variety of additional means to support such education, including heirless property where appropriate.” • A variety of additional means will indeed be necessary.