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We call upon all Holocaust survivors and everyone who identifies with our plight and our justified demands, to sign this petition to the German government and the Claims Conference to recognize the unique tragedy suffered by us, who were deprived of our childhood by the Holocaust. 

We, actually, were never children!

In the formulative years of our lives, we were not only deprived of the food needed for our health and physical development; we were also deprived of the security and love needed for our emotional development. 
Today, in the autumn of our lives, we are still waiting for our unique tragedy to be recognized and to receive compensation for it.

When the war ended, we were so young that no one related to us or sought our opinions. Indeed, we only wanted to forget what had happened, deny all the horrors, and bury them so deep that they would never come back to haunt us.
All we wanted was to be like everyone else.

However, the traumatic experiences of those years distort our lives to this day. Now that we are in our 70s and 80s, we are paying the physical and emotional price for that black hole in our lives – a time that others call “childhood.”

The Reparations Agreement, in which the Claims Conference signed away our right to file direct claims against Germany, made no reference to us or to our unique tragedy.

While the orphans of fallen Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht soldiers continue to receive generous pensions, the German Government does not recognize our orphanhood.

We have been left by the wayside of the reparations track. Not only was our childhood denied us, but also our right to compensation.

We demand, therefore, that the German Government and the Claims Conference:

· recognize our right to compensation for our deprived childhood;
· recognize the damage we suffer as result of malnutrition;
· recognize the impairment to our ability to earn a living;
· guarantee that we will receive comprehensive physical and emotional care whenever needed;
· And above all: recognize our right to a pension that will enable us to live out our final years in dignity.

We call upon everyone who supports this petition to sign it and provide the requested details.
Please forward this petition to anyone who you feel should be made aware of it. .