BOCA RATON, Fla., June 27 (UPI) -- Volunteers say as many as 16,000 aging Holocaust survivors in Florida could get special pensions under the terms of a recent court ruling in Germany.
The ruling last year liberalized the qualifications for applicants, most of whom are in their 80s and 90s, who spent World War II doing forced labor under the Nazis.
Volunteer organizations have been assisting potential new recipients with their paperwork.
"It's about time the Germans paid us something for our troubles, for what they did to us," said Morris Jay, 83, Boca Raton, who toiled on farms and factories in Hungary.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Sunday agencies in Florida assisting Holocaust survivors received more than $4 million from the German fund this year, a 40 percent increase from the previous year.
