On Sunday 27 January, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day was commemorated throughout the world.
The Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman places great importance on the improvement of the state and welfare of Holocaust survivors.
In recent years, the following reports have been published (in Hebrew):
1. State Assistance to Holocaust Survivors - Special Audit Report, 19/4/2017
2. The Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims' Assets Ltd. and State Actions for the Location and Restitution of Victims' Assets, from Annual Report 67A, 01/11/2016
3. Treatment of Survivors by the Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority, from Annual Report 65A, 29/10/2014
The following are examples of complaints handled by the Office of the Ombudsman:
Holocaust survivor did not receive annual grant because of postal delay
In her complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman, an elderly Holocaust survivor related that on 21/12/2015 she sent by registered mail to the Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority a claim for the annual grant for the year 2015; this grant is paid yearly to Holocaust survivors who do not receive a monthly benefit. However, the Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority had rejected the claim on the grounds that it was only received on 03/01/2016; the Authority had provided legal references for the requirement that the claim for the annual grant be received by the Authority in the same year for which the grant was requested.
The complainant argued that she was not responsible for the delay in the dispatch of the claim by registered mail and that she should thus be entitled to the grant.
Following the inquiry of the Office of the Ombudsman, the Authority decided, ex gratia, to suffice with a confirmation that the claim had been sent by registered mail in 2015 and authorized payment of the grant for this year.
[The complaint was published in Annual Report 44 of the Office of the Ombudsman].
Holocaust survivor required to contribute to payment of medicines supposed to be free of charge
A blind Holocaust survivor complained to the Office of the Ombudsman that she was required to pay 1,000 NIS a month towards the cost of injections to her eye, these injections costing 5,000 NIS a month and covered mainly by the Clalit Health Fund.
The Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority informed the Office of the Ombudsman that in the framework of an agreement between the Authority and all the health funds, the latter are obligated to provide Holocaust survivors with free medical treatment for illnesses recognized by the Authority as being connected with Nazi persecution - including treatment and medicines not included in the "health basket".
Since the district doctor had determined that the injections of the Holocaust survivor were indeed related to the recognized disability, the health fund should have provided the complainant with the treatment free of charge.
As a result, the Authority demanded of the Clalit Health Fund to grant the complainant full exemption from payment. Consequently, in November 2018 the health fund authorized full exemption from payment for the injections and reimbursed the complainant for the sums paid by her until then.
Lecturer hurts feelings of Holocaust survivor
A Holocaust survivor complained to the Office of the Ombudsman that her feelings had been hurt during a lecture in a municipal club for the elderly. According to her, the lecturer had asserted that the experiments carried out on humans by Dr. Josef Mengele during the Second World War had contributed to the progress of medical science. The complainant had walked out of the lecture shaken and had been unable to sleep for several nights. Following the incident, the complainant had asked the director of the club to prevent the lecturer from giving lectures in the club, but the director had rejected her request. The complainant was thus forced to avoid attending the club on the days that the lecturer came to speak.
The Office of the Ombudsman referred the complaint to a mediation process conducted in the Office, in which the complainant, the lecturer and the director of the club participated. In the mediation session, the complainant received the genuine apology of the lecturer and consequently informed her that she could once again hear her lectures in the club. Furthermore, the two agreed on future cooperation in the framework of which they would give joint lectures on the subject of the Holocaust. [The complaint was published in Annual Report 44 of the Office of the Ombudsman].
Rectification of gravestone of Holocaust survivor couple
A complainant filed a complaint on behalf of two Holocaust survivors whom she had taken care of until their deaths. The gravestone of the couple had been damaged and the complainant's request to receive assistance from the Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority to restore the gravestones had, according to her, not been answered by the Authority.
The Office of the Ombudsman pointed out to the complainant that the Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority is not responsible for the maintenance of survivors' gravestones. The Office however referred the matter to the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel, which then referred it to the Ministry of Religious Services and from there to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa branch of the Burial Society.
Shortly afterwards, the Burial Society notified that the gravestone had been restored, attaching a photograph to illustrate.