Claims Conference

Since 1951 seeking acknowledgment from the German government by negotiating for compensation, restitution and home care for those in need who endured so much.

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

The Claims Conference, in partnership with the Austrian government, is proud to unveil “Benno’s Light,” an immersive mixed-reality experience that allows users to explore Holocaust survivor Benno Kern’s family history through VR headsets, computers or handheld devices. The project represents the latest achievement from the Claims Conference in our quest to expand access to Holocaust education by engaging younger generations through innovative technology.

Today’s launch of “Benno’s Light” – a VR project integrating real-life footage, photographs and audio from the period spanning the Anschluss to Auschwitz into the hand-drawn world of Mr. Kern’s story of survival and loss – at the University of Vienna carries profound historical significance.

Following the destruction of Vienna’s medieval synagogue and the murder and expulsion of Jews in 1421, stones from the synagogue were incorporated into some of the earliest buildings that would become part of the University of Vienna. More than 500 years later, the university serves as a place to confront that history, transforming a site once linked to the erasure of Jewish life into a space dedicated to remembrance, education and the preservation of Holocaust survivor testimony for future generations.

The immersive technology company makemepulse created the artwork for “Benno’s Light,” which will be exhibited in museums and film festivals alongside educational materials currently under development.

The experience can be accessed here: https://t.co/0NxbfQL73v

#RememberThis #HolocaustEducation #NeverForget

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

“Benno’s Light was never about using technology for spectacle. The challenge was finding a way to preserve the intimacy and humanity of Benno’s testimony while creating a format capable of reaching new generations.

"What moved us most during the process was realizing that Benno’s memories were shaped less by places and more by the people who helped him survive. That insight fundamentally changed the experience we designed.

"We shifted away from historical reconstruction alone and focused instead on emotional proximity, presence and human connection. Immersive technology gave us the opportunity to transform testimony into something audiences could feel around them rather than simply observe from a distance” - Nicolas Rajabaly, Co-Founder, Chief Creative Officer, @makemepulse.

#HolocaustEducation

[Mediashotz @mediashotz]

Some stories must never be forgotten.
A powerful new mixed reality experience from @ClaimsCon by @makemepulse is helping preserve and share the testimony of a #Holocaust survivor, using immersive technology to connect new generations with living history.
#XR #MixedReality #Storytelling #HolocaustMemorial
https://t.co/bwXBtVT9NI

[Boro Park JCC @bpjcc]

A moving moment at the BPJCC Community Center:

Holocaust survivors are gathered now for a special art therapy program centered on healing and connection.

We are honored to partner with Project Witness and deeply grateful to Mrs. Ruth Lichtenstein for helping make it possible.

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

“In 1943 we woke up to the fact that German army occupied Tunisia, and made life for Jews there very difficult.” — Gilbert Uzan, 86

Born in Tunis in 1939, Gilbert survived the German occupation of Tunisia and now shares his story through the Survivor Speakers Bureau.

Request a speaker for your institution and hear history firsthand: https://t.co/HfP00aXnoG

#VanishingWitnesses #HolocaustEducation #SurvivorSpeakersBureau

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

Congratulations to former Claims Conference Kagan Fellow Amber Nickell on receiving the 2025 Ernst Fraenkel Prize from The Wiener Holocaust Library (@wienerlibrary) for her upcoming book!
https://t.co/JvMylq0Ivl

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

“We need to keep sharing these stories and hope to make it a better world for all of us.” — Celia Kener

Chag Sameach. As of May 2026, 356 Holocaust survivors are active speakers in the Survivor Speakers Bureau, reaching 5,200+ students and 150,000+ viewers worldwide.

Request a survivor speaker for your school or institution:
https://t.co/pFpESAOV2y

#VanishingWitnesses #HolocaustEducation #SurvivorSpeakersBureau

[Board of Deputies of British Jews @BoardofDeputies]

Today, Acting President Adrian Cohen and Past President Marie van der Zyl, in their capacity as Trustees of the Claims Conference, alongside Public Affairs Manager David Robinson met with Austrian Ambassador Bernhard Wrabetz and Political Counsellor Sandra Kowald to discuss the ongoing partnership on Holocaust restitution, education and keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive.

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

“Confronting goodness may be more painfully challenging than confronting evil. It is one thing to study and condemn the sadistic behavior of a Klaus Barbie but quite another to study and acknowledge the rescue behavior of a John Weidner. The latter presents us with a hard mirror. Would I rescue a pregnant woman, a hungry or homeless child, an aged, frightened couple – provide them with food and shelter, dispose of their refuse, and care for them in their sickness – knowing that doing so might bring disaster upon my family from Nazi pursuers and their informers? The rescuer’s goodness shakes the foundations of my claims to virtue. The behavior of flesh-and-blood rescuers compels me to think long and hard about my own goodness and to imaginatively rehearse my choices in analogous situations” – Rabbi Harold Schulweis speaking at John Weidner’s funeral in 1994.

From his Los Angeles Times obituary: The pacifist son of a Seventh-day Adventist minister, Johan Weidner was a leader of the Dutch-Paris underground, which operated escape routes from war-torn Holland, Belgium and France into Switzerland.

Named a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, he was decorated by many nations for rescuing more than 1,000 Jews and Allied airmen from the Nazis during World War II. Johan Weidner was 81 when he passed away.

During the war, he was captured repeatedly, interrogated by Klaus Barbie and tortured by the Gestapo and France’s Milice secret police. But he always escaped, jumping off trains, swimming the Rhine under Nazi fire, and once diving out a third-floor prison window before his scheduled execution.

“During my father’s lifetime,” Johan said in a speech honoring Holocaust victims in 1989, “he taught me, my family, his parishioners and the community that the most important quality in a human being was to love, respect and treat our fellow man as we wished to be loved, respected and treated.

“I was a witness to the barbaric treatment of the Jews by the Nazis,” he said. “I was determined to heed the teachings and example of my father and I did everything that I could to save as many lives as possible.”

#DontBeABystander #RememberThis #JohanWeidner

[Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center @Kennedy_HRC]

.@YoavPotash, Anita Friedman, and Headfirst Arts & Media are the 2026 RFK Book & Journalism Awards International Television Award winner for their work "Among Neighbors."

@amongneighbors reveals both love and betrayal as it zeroes in on a crime committed among neighbors: the murder of Holocaust survivors in Poland, six months after the end of World War II. The chilling facts revealed in this documentary have led the office of Poland’s nationalist president to call for a ban on the film.

"Among Neighbors" is now available for streaming on Apple TV and Prime Video.

Our heartfelt congratulations to Yoav, Anita, and Headfirst Arts & Media. To learn more about this year’s winners, please visit: https://t.co/NAz1ChfCd4

@ClaimsCon, @USCShoahFdn, @jstorypartners.

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

“Do you think I’m going to sleep tonight? No. But that’s a small price to pay for what we owe our loved ones.”

We say goodbye to Holocaust survivor Sonia Klein, the oldest of Itzack and Jospa Joskowicz’s three children, who passed away on March 31, 2026. The Claims Conference was honored that Sonia shared her family’s history in our Holocaust education and social media projects. This video was recorded in 2023 for the #OurHolocaustStory/#PledgeToRemember campaign. She was joined by her son Alan Klein and grandson Jordan Mello-Klein.

Sonia was born in Warsaw, Poland, on Jun 16, 1925. With their home destroyed shortly after the start of the war, the family moved in with relatives until the Warsaw ghetto was established in 1940.

In early 1943, as rumors spread inside the ghetto of deportations to Treblinka, Itzack, together with fellow ghetto inhabitants, built an underground bunker to hide their families. However, when German tanks arrived to suppress the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Joskowicz family was discovered and arrested.

They were deported to Majdanek, where Jospa and her 10-year-old son were separated from the family upon arrival; never to be seen again.

Sonia and her sister, Sophie, were transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau while their father remained in Majdanek. He was murdered the next day.

In Jan 1945, the sisters were taken to Ravensbrück. As the Allied armed forces drew near, they were transferred to Taucha and from there sent on a death march.

Sonia and Sophie were liberated by the United States Army in April 1945.

#RememberThis

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

85 years after the first major roundup of Jews in occupied Paris, an exhibition at the French Embassy in Berlin is showing 98 photographs that had been lost for decades. For 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Liliane Ryszfeld, the discovery is particularly significant.

Liliane was six when she accompanied her mother to the police station in Vincennes, where her father, Mosjez Stoczyk, had been summoned. He came from Warsaw, loved France, and had volunteered for the army in 1939. After the summons, he never returned home. He was interned in Pithiviers, deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in June 1942, and murdered there.

Liliane's life was forever changed.

#RememberThis

[JewishClaimsCon @JewishClaimsCon]

Die Ausstellung “Gesichter der Erinnerung” der @ClaimsCon in Kooperation mit @Shoah_Memorial und @FranzBotschaft dokumentiert die erste #Razzia gegen #Juden im besetzten #Paris, die “Rafle du billet vert”.
https://t.co/RoxzZ1i13r

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

The "new" Jewish cemetery in Kraśnik was established in the first half of the 19th century.

The Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and occupied the town two weeks later.

In December 1939, some 1,230 Jewish refugees arrived from Lodz, and by January 1941, approximately 6,300 Jews were residing in Kraśnik.

From April to November 1942, the Germans conducted mass executions of the Jews in the cemetery they eventually destroyed; many of the cemetery’s matzevot were used to harden the streets of Kraśnik during the war.

The last known burial in the cemetery was held in 1943.

Of the approximately 7,500 Jews who passed through the Kraśnik ghetto, only 400 -500 survived; almost all were native or wartime residents of Kraśnik.

Abraham Bergman was one of those.

Born to a Jewish family in Kraśnik, he was the son of a tailor. But when Abraham was 2, his mother passed away, and his grandmother raised him.

In 1942, Abraham was deported to the Budzyn, Majdanek and Auschwitz camps in Poland, and then Oranienburg and Flossenbürg in Germany. By spring 1945, he was in a group of 500 taken to a farm area in Bavaria. Abraham escaped the farm and was liberated in the village of Gern.

After the war, Abraham lived in Bavaria for three years. He immigrated to Canada in 1949 and then moved to the United States in 1959.

Thanks to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for the history of Abraham Bergman; may we never forget him.

#RememberThis #VanishingCommunities

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

Now is the time to pay tribute to Holocaust survivors, who serve as a source of inspiration and examples of resilience and rebirth.

Last week in Israel, hundreds of Holocaust survivors from Netanya and the surrounding areas gathered for an appreciation event initiated by the Netanya Municipality (Senior Citizens Department of the Social Welfare and Security Administration) and the Claims Conference.

Tziona Koenig-Yair, VP of the Claims Conference (@claimsconil) Israel, addressed the audience:

"This event is an integral part of the national program we lead in collaboration with the Ministry of Welfare and local authorities, through which we fund dedicated social workers for Holocaust survivors. Our goal is to ensure a holistic support envelope for every survivor, ranging from mapping needs and exercising rights to providing a listening ear within the community.

“For the Claims Conference, the opportunity to see the survivors here in Netanya enjoying themselves together, singing with Hanan Yovel, and connecting as a community, is a deeply moving realization of our commitment, not only to their economic well-being but also to their mental and emotional welfare."

Holocaust survivor Amalia (Helena) Assa (nee Zimmerman) was in attendance.

Amalia was born on June 5, 1941, in the city of Lviv weeks before the German invasion of the USSR began.

Her parents managed to protect Amalia and her brother, who was born during the war. The family moved from one hiding place to another; her mother posed as Christian and worked at the Nazi officers' headquarters in town.

Thankfully, the Zimmermans survived the Holocaust.

Sadly, most of their extended family did not.

Amalia's message: "Be thankful for the good things in life. People are divided into good and bad, but there are many more good people in the world, and the light will ultimately triumph. My mother believed with all her strength that she would live and that I would live, and so it was, despite all the bad people. Because the good people were the ones who helped us, and belief in goodness holds tremendous power."

#PartnersInCare #HolocaustSurvivors #RememberThis

[JewishClaimsCon @JewishClaimsCon]

„Die Razzia des grünen Zettels hat mein Leben für immer verändert“, berichtet die 91 Jahre alte #Holocaust-Überlebende Liliane Ryszfeld. Danke @faznet für den Bericht über die Ausstellung der @ClaimsCon in der @FranzBotschaft zum 85. Jahrestag der ersten #Razzia gegen #Juden im besetzten #Paris vom 14.5.1941.
https://t.co/8f4k1T4elG

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

https://t.co/N3fNMkVMKH

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

Abraham Foxman was close to the Claims Conference family, participating in many of our social media campaigns, speaking on our behalf, and importantly, serving on the Claims Conference Negotiating Delegation. An imposing figure in Jewish communal life, he survived the Holocaust as a hidden child and passed away on Sunday, May 10, at the age of 86.

It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye.

Abe’s lifelong commitment to fighting antisemitism and passionate support for a secure and democratic Israel made him one of the most recognizable Jewish voices of his generation. Throughout his career, he warned that the Holocaust did not begin with deportations and gas chambers, but with words — with rhetoric born of vitriol, prejudice and ignorance. Yet, despite witnessing humanity at its worst, he never lost faith that the menace of hatred could be defeated. “If I did not believe that I could change people’s minds and hearts,” he commented, “I wouldn’t go to work.”

Claims Conference Special Negotiator Amb Stuart E. Eizenstat stated, “Abe was a visionary leader and a voice for Holocaust survivors globally. He did not simply champion the fight against antisemitism for decades—he transformed it, while also fighting vigorously against Holocaust denial and distortion. He did so through humanity, grace, and unwavering conviction.”

The family immigrated to the US in 1950 and Abe graduated from the Yeshivah of Flatbush in Brooklyn, received his BA from the City College of New York and his law degree from NYU. After joining the Anti-Defamation League in 1965 as a legal assistant, he became its National Director in 1987. He led the organization until 2015, after which he served as the ADL’s National Director Emeritus.

From 2016 to 2021, he also served as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City and was named to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Council by four Presidents. He believed deeply that vigilance and education were the strongest weapons against hatred. Abe famously said, “Until we find an antidote, a vaccine, or something in the DNA that causes people to hate, the answer is education, education, education.”

Abe is survived by his wife Golda; two children, Michelle and Ariel; and four grandchildren, Cielo, Leila, Gideon and Amirit.

May his memory be a blessing.

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

“The resiliency of antisemitism is unparalleled.”

Holocaust survivor Abraham (Abe) Foxman (born Avraham Chanoch Hanach Fuksman) was born to Joseph and Helen (Radoshitzki) Fuksman on May 1, 1940, in the town of Baranavichy.

His parents fled Warsaw and moved east after the invasion of Germany in September 1939 and eventually ended in Vilnius.

However, in June 1941 the Germans seized Vilnius and Abe’s parents made the painful decision to separate and gave him to a nanny, Bronislawa Kurpi.

His mother Helen was able to escape Vilnius’s Jewish ghetto and secure Aryan papers, posing as a Christian. His father Joseph was sent to a series of labor camps before surviving the remainder of the war hiding in forests.

While Abe’s immediate family survived, 14 relatives perished in the Holocaust.

Abe spent half a century working for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and from 1987 to 2015 was its chief executive. He was a recipient of numerous distinguished honors including being named a Knight of the Legion of Honor (France's highest civilian honor) by French President Jacques Chirac; an appointee to the Honorary Delegation accompanying U.S. President George Bush to Jerusalem for the celebration of Israel’s 60th Anniversary; and recipient of the Interfaith Committee of Remembrance Lifetime Achievement Award "as a leader in the fight against anti-Semitism, bigotry, and discrimination."

Abe Foxman, a dear friend of the Claims Conference and an eager contributor to our work, passed away on Sunday, May 10, 2026 in New York City. He is survived by his wife, Golda (Bauman); a daughter, Michelle Foxman; a son, Ariel Foxman; and four grandchildren.

We will never forget him.

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

“The resiliency of antisemitism is unparalleled.”

Holocaust survivor Abraham (Abe) Foxman (born Avraham Chanoch Hanach Fuksman) was born to Joseph and Helen (Radoshitzki) Fuksman on May 1, 1940, in the town of Baranavichy.

His parents fled Warsaw and moved east after the invasion of Germany in September 1939 and eventually ended in Vilnius.

However, in June 1941 the Germans seized Vilnius and Abe’s parents made the painful decision to separate and gave him to a nanny, Bronislawa Kurpi.

His mother Helen was able to escape Vilnius’s Jewish ghetto and secure Aryan papers, posing as a Christian. His father Joseph was sent to a series of labor camps before surviving the remainder of the war hiding in forests.

While Abe’s immediate family survived, 14 relatives perished in the Holocaust.

Abe spent half a century working for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and from 1987 to 2015 was its chief executive. He was a recipient of numerous distinguished honors including being named a Knight of the Legion of Honor (France's highest civilian honor) by French President Jacques Chirac; an appointee to the Honorary Delegation accompanying U.S. President George Bush to Jerusalem for the celebration of Israel’s 60th Anniversary; and recipient of the Interfaith Committee of Remembrance Lifetime Achievement Award "as a leader in the fight against anti-Semitism, bigotry, and discrimination."

Abe Foxman, a dear friend of the Claims Conference and an eager contributor to our work, passed away on Sunday, May 10, 2026 in New York City. He is survived by his wife, Golda (Bauman); a daughter, Michelle Foxman; a son, Ariel Foxman; and four grandchildren.

We will never forget him.

[Claims Conference @ClaimsCon]

Students at Brooklyn College heard from Holocaust survivor Eugene Halpert, 88.

Born in Slovakia, Eugene survived by hiding with his family in the Tatra Mountains after fleeing deportation in 1944. About 100,000 Slovak Jews were deported during the Holocaust.

Invite a Survivor Speaker: https://t.co/pFpESAOV2y

#VanishingWitnesses #HolocaustEducation #SurvivorSpeakersBureau

[Fordham Law @FordhamLawNYC]

Fordham Law Adj. Prof. Gideon Taylor’s class, “Human Rights: Coming to Terms with Historical Justice Through Reparations,” had the chance to speak with 95-year-old Holocaust survivor Elizabeth Bellak & her daughter, Alexandra, during the final week of spring classes.

@ClaimsCon