Aiding Holocaust Survivors

A 1997 law, known by its acronym ZRBG, made Holocaust survivors who worked in Nazi-controlled ghettos potentially eligible for a lifetime monthly pension from Germany’s social insurance system. However, following its enactment, many survivors hesitated to pursue the complex, time-consuming application process on their own or encountered challenges understanding the complicated statutory language. Others, having had prior applications rejected, were reluctant to re-apply. In the early years of the program, some 70% to 80% of applications submitted by survivors in the US were denied.

To address these challenges, more than 350 lawyers from our Boston, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Houston, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Orange County, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. offices engaged in the years that followed to assist over 400 Holocaust survivors secure millions of dollars in both lump-sum and ongoing monthly payments.

This long-term effort was driven and sustained by a coordinated approach across offices to reach out to hundreds of Holocaust survivors and their families and initiate reviews by the German insurance agency on their behalf. In our New York office alone, teams secured over €2 million in back payments for survivor clients.

Much of our work on Holocaust reparations was conducted in partnership with Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit offering free legal assistance to Holocaust survivors, seniors, and low-income individuals in Southern California. According to Bet Tzedek, 25% of Holocaust survivors live beneath the poverty line. As most of our clients were in their 80s or older, the ZRBG pensions allowed these vulnerable seniors to access essential medical care, provide for their families, and live the remainder of their lives in dignity.

"As a result of Latham’s efforts, my mother received financial restitution in recognition of my father’s work in the ghetto. I feel such relief that we can breathe, that she's taken care of 24/7, and that she will have the best care she can have."

Isabelle Sarfati, client

The application process also provided survivors an opportunity to document and share their personal histories for future generations. In one instance, our client recounted his childhood experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto, helping us build a compelling narrative to submit reparations filings on his behalf.

While in the ghetto, our client helped his father, an expert in electroplating, run a small factory. They survived the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in different hiding places in 1944, but were eventually discovered and sent by German troops to a transit center in Germany as Polish slave laborers. Once in Germany, the father and son lived in constant fear that their Jewish identity might be discovered and carried cyanide pills to use if that happened. Ultimately, three family members narrowly survived the war and immigrated to the US via Israel. Latham’s advocacy resulted in our client receiving a back payment and monthly pension for the remainder of his life.

In another matter, a team of Latham colleagues helped a family secure much-needed funds following the death of their husband and father, who’d worked as a tailor in a Nazi-controlled ghetto during World War II. To learn more about our firm’s work on this matter, listen to our podcast.

Latham completed its final Holocaust Reparations matter in 2025. While no monetary sum could ever compensate our survivor clients for what they endured, the funds they receive under these programs provide meaningful, often much-needed financial support along with poignant acknowledgement of their experiences.