Nazi 'Death Train' Survivors Get 'Small Measure of Justice'

After years of fighting for it, about 1,000 living survivors of Nazi persecution in Romania are now eligible for compensation from the German government. The New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany on Wednesday said Jews who survived the 1941 pogrom in the Romanian city of Iasi and the subsequent "death trains" where many died of suffocation and dehydration can now start receiving monthly payments. Under the agreement the Claims Conference reached with Berlin earlier this month, survivors will receive payments of $384 per month, the AP reports.

"These survivors endured unimaginable suffering," Claims Conference negotiator Stuart Eizenstat said in a statement. "For those still with us, we have obtained a small measure of justice." NBC News reports the Claims Conference has been fighting for retribution for Iasi for three years, with Germany three times declining to label the city a ghetto. NBC explains that 100,000 Jews lived in Iasi in the early years of World War II; 8,000 were killed on-site in an initial massacre, and many of the 7,000 put on the "death trains" died. Those who survived were pushed into one part of the city. In total, Germany has paid more than $80 billion in compensation for Nazi crimes, primarily to Jewish survivors. (More Nazi stories.)