Miklosh Stern collection

The Miklosh Stern papers consists of several hundred case files with testimonies, questionnaires, correspondence, physician notes, and other materials concerning restitution claims of Holocaust survivors, from the estate of attorney Miklosh (Mordechai) Stern, Israel, dated 1960s-1970s. Files contain documents reflecting correspondence with law and health authorities conducted while handling claims for compensation by Holocaust survivors according to the "Victims of Nazi Persecution Act 1957." Many of the files contain first and second hand testimonies about the lives of Mr. Stern's clients’ lives during the Holocaust and its consequences regarding their medical condition(s). Several files contain personal documents, such as identification documents, from the war period or right after the war. Most files examined imply a suspicious attitude on the part of the committee as far as the survivors' claims that their serious medical condition was caused by Nazi persecution, and some files contain appeals on the committee's decision according to which the ailments of the survivors were not caused by Nazi persecution. Also mentioned is the fact that during negotiations about reparations from Germany, Israel cancelled the right of its citizens, Holocaust survivors, to be compensated, and in several cases survivors were requested to return the reparation money which they had already received. Some files contain reparation claims from Germany. Many of the files in this archive pertain to survivors of Hungarian or Romanian origin.