Kentucky's state treasurer is taking on an international responsibility: helping Holocaust survivors claim seized assets and restitution.

        Jonathan Miller was named to the Executive Monitoring Committee in early May, becoming one of 10 state and city financial officers across the nation who negotiate the return of assets. The committee is headed by New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi.

        Mr. Miller said there are two battles facing committee members: the legal battle to persuade governments to return money, and the challenge of finding survivors due compensation.

        The EMC has been partly successful in the first battle, according to Eric Wollman, associate general counsel to Mr. Hevesi. It has negotiated the return of $1.25 billion in confiscated Jewish assets locked up in Swiss bank accounts and $6 billion from the German government in compensation for slave labor.

        The biggest challenge, Mr. Miller said, is finding the survivors, and the committee's toughest opponent is time.

        Mr. Miller said he plans to locate survivors by publicizing compensation opportunities as best he can.

        “I view my role as to get the word out,” Mr. Miller said. “With five to 10 (Holocaust) survivors dying each day, it's a race against time.”

        Some area survivors have put in claims and are still waiting for German government reimbursement.

        Roma Kaltman, a Holocaust survivor now living in Kennedy Heights, was refused slave labor compensation two years ago for her experience at the Lodz ghetto in central Poland. She was taken from her home at age 13 and spent five grueling years at Lodz until the end of the war.

        Mrs. Kaltman reapplied for slave labor compensation and has not heard whether her second claim will be accepted.

        “I feel very annoyed they (German government) are not willing to pay me,” Mrs. Kaltman said. “It seems to me that the Germans are waiting for all of us to die out.”

        Many Holocaust survivors are reluctant to come forward about their experience and put in a claim, said Gail Mermelstein, president of Combined Generations of the Holocaust of Greater Cincinnati.

        “This latest round of restitution has brought back many horrible memories for survivors as they fill out the forms,” she said. “Their expectations have been raised, and now they're faced with long waits or rejections.”

        Of the three main types of compensation — slave/forced labor, Article 2 funding and lost property/insurance claims — survivors can expect to get about 1 percent of the value of their lost property. Also, thanks to strained negotiations and legal battles, getting this 1 percent means a wait, which for many survivors has already amounted to more than 50 years.

        Mrs. Kaltman and other Holocaust survivors said no amount of money can compensate for the torture they went through.

        Paul Szekely, of Maineville, said he was forced by the German military to build airports on the Austro-Hungarian border. The worst torture, he said, was the loss of his mother, who was taken on a forced march and never came back.

        Money might compensate for his forced labor, but it won't touch his sense of loss.

        “You can't have money for your parents,” Mr. Szekely said. “It is an eternal pain and will only be resolved when this generation is gone.”

        Hillary Kessler-Godin, spokeswoman for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, agrees the money doesn't come close to mending the damage caused by the Holocaust, but it is an acknowledgement of wrongs.

        Ms. Kessler-Godin said she understands the pain of those who are denied compensation; her own mother was rejected.

        “You are trying to reconcile the greatest moral dilemma with the basest element of our society, money,” Ms. Kessler-Godin said.

        The Conference on Jewish Material Claims distributes money to survivors once groups such as the EMC locate the funds. Other groups offering compensation include the Jewish Federation, which has offices around the country and Cincinnati, and the World Jewish Congress.

        Rachel Belin, policy director in Mr. Miller's office, said getting money back to the survivors is more about justice than finances.

        “It just recognizes that you shouldn't escape justice,” Ms. Belin said.

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