Survivors form victims organization

One group, the Claims Conference, has for a half-century represented survivors in dealings with Germany. The second group, the World Jewish Restitution Organization, has assumed the lead role on restitution and compensation matters elsewhere in Europe.

"Survivors must raise their voices on all kinds of international issues," said Moshe Sanbar, the head of the Center of Organizations of Israeli Holocaust Survivors and a member of the presidium of the new confederation. "We will do our utmost to cooperate with the Claims Conference and the World Jewish Restitution Organization, but we will be independent."

Some survivors have complained that their positions have been compromised by or outvoted in the Claims Conference and the WJRO. The effect, they say, is that survivors often appear to endorse plans about which they have reservations.

The confederation apparently would permit survivors organizations to have one foot in and one foot out of these organizations, with the liberty to challenge any pact with which they disagreed.

The confederation has a four-person presidium made up of Sanbar, Stephan Grayek of the World Federation of Polish Jews, Eli Zborowski of the International Society of Yad Vashem Survivors, and Ben Helfgot of London.