Germany pays millions to neo-Nazi victims

Anthony Weiss

(JTA) — The German government has paid some $2.6 million to victims of neo-Nazi violence, including more than $1.2 million to victims of the National Socialist Underground neo-Nazi cell discovered in 2011.

The compensation payments, issued to hundreds of victims since 2007, were first reported on Sunday by the German news weekly Focus, according to the French news agency AFP. Focus reported that Germany paid compensation for victims including 10 people, most of them Turkish, killed by the National Socialist Underground between 2000 and 2007, as well as victims of the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 and a 2011 attack on a Moscow airport.

German leaders had vowed to compensate the families of the victims of the National Socialist Underground when the group was uncovered in 2011.

Of the monies paid out, some $528,000 reportedly was recouped from those who committed the violent acts.