Getting Reparations

     Back in I guess the summer of 2001 I saw an article in the paper saying that Holocaust survivors could apply for reparations.   They were required to write up their experience with enough detail and any supporting documentation so that they could in effect prove they were victims.  My mom decided to do it and did receive money  (several thousand US dollars).  She said that the important thing was the writing she had to do.  She said it helped to get it out on paper.  And I guess it was a kind of validation of what she had been through given that certain people close to her didn't believe her stories.  The note from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which was handling reparations, said that my mom's claims were "resolved on the following basis:  R- EVI ("the claim was resolved on the basis of evidence provided by you in your claim"), R-ITS ("The claim was resolved on the basis of evidence that IOM obtained from the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany").

     Of the copies of the IOM letters with attached checks my mother kept, I have the following information:

1.  "Award for Forced Labour for a Company/Public Authority"
2.  "Award for Forced Labour/Slave Labour" (not sure of the difference between numbers 1 and 2)
3.  "Award for Other Personal Injury/ Category 1...Claim resolved in the following category: R - MED ("Medical Experiments")

I am scanning in the papers from the IOM that my mother kept.  We are still looking for the reparations story she wrote out.  When we find it, I will type it up here.  If we don't find it, I sure hope the IOM archived these stories somewhere.  If they didn't, it would be a moral outrage.