Anuraag Sanga ’24 was thrilled when he learned that LMU Loyola Law School’s Genocide Justice Clinic had created an opportunity for students to assist survivors of the Nazi Holocaust in their efforts to seek reparations. A new partnership with major pro bono provider Bet Tzedek Legal Services made the opportunity even more tantalizing.
“It’s a unique opportunity,” Sanga said. “You don’t often get the chance in law school to remedy such longstanding injustices.”
Students in the clinic generally work directly on behalf of victims of genocide and mass atrocities on real-world projects with outside partners, including prosecutors at international criminal tribunals. Beginning this academic year, they also have been able to partner with Bet Tzedek’s Holocaust Services Program. The program offers free assistance to Holocaust survivors applying for reparations, pensions, and other benefits from Germany and other European countries.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Bet Tzedek on this important work that aligns so closely with our social justice mission,” said Professor Rajika Shah, the clinic director. “Students often feel powerless in the face of mass atrocities, but this work shows them that, as lawyers, they have the tools and ability to bring some measure of justice to survivors.”
LLS clinic students help prepare the application documentation for Bet Tzedek clients. Often working in pairs, they research and draft a narrative describing the client’s experiences and hardships in the period leading up to and during World War II.
Shah said students review primary documents submitted by the clients and do independent fact research to support the applications, including hunting down documentation such as camp records and ships’ logs and passenger lists.
“We had to do a lot of research on not-very-well-documented concentration camps and small towns that didn’t exist after the Nazis invaded,” Sanga said. After that background research came what several of the students described as the high point of their clinic assignments: They interviewed the Holocaust survivors directly.
“Having that one-on-one with them was an incredible moment,” said Michelle Garabetian ‘24, who partnered with Sanga to help represent two clients. “You’re hearing the cracks in their voices as they speak, or you’re sitting in silence waiting for them to share some of their deepest moments.”
Current clinic student Emily Bernstein ‘24 said the goal is to capture the clients’ personal stories of their experiences, including the day-to-day hardships of living in Nazi-controlled ghettos. “We want to give the declaration that we write for the application a narrative that discusses their experiences from a first-person point of view,” Bernstein said.
Drafting the statement of claims for the application requires careful legal analysis and advocacy in addition to storytelling, Garabetian said. The various programs established to pay reparations all require that survivors meet detailed eligibility criteria, and the applications must show how the clients’ experiences satisfy each element.
“That’s where our legal research and analysis comes into play,” she said.
The clinic includes two hours of classroom instruction a week covering atrocity law and practice, as well as weekly project team meetings. Students said they also learned valuable interviewing, organizational and communication skills.
The students write up their research and narrative in a statement of claims for their clients that then goes to the director of Bet Tzedek’s Holocaust Services Program, Lisa D. Hoffman. She completes and files the clients’ applications with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which oversees many reparations programs. Shah said approval of a claim can take a year or more.
“We are very happy to be working with Professor Shah and the Genocide Justice Clinic,” said Hoffman, “Bet Tzedek offers many opportunities for law students to volunteer with our program, but our collaboration with the Genocide Justice Clinic is distinctive because the clinic students also receive Professor Shah’s expert guidance and instruction. I’ve been very impressed with the students’ skill in marshalling evidence and testimony, spotting relevant issues, and synthesizing the information obtained in a persuasive claim for reparations. The clinic’s students have also demonstrated great sensitivity in dealing with our elderly and vulnerable Holocaust survivor clients.”
And the feeling is mutual: Students said participating in the Bet Tzedek program through the clinic was meaningful for them beyond the educational value. “The best part was knowing we were able to finally provide long-deserved relief for decades-old injustices,” Sanga said.
Bernstein, whose family escaped from Poland in the 1930s, said the opportunity to speak with a Holocaust survivor was remarkable and touching. “This client could be my grandmother,” she said of the elderly woman she helped represent.
“Being able to even have the slightest effect on these individuals in my second year of law school is just mind-blowing to me,” Garabetian said. “There are always ways that we can promote restitution for genocide survivors. This clinic has given me the opportunity to do exactly that, and I would recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat.”
The Genocide Justice Clinic is part of the law school’s Center for the Study of Law & Genocide, which couples research and practical advocacy to help victims of genocide achieve justice. Founded in 2007, it aims to promote legal scholarship on genocide and mass violations of human rights with a particular focus on improving and making more accessible and effective legal resources and remedies both in the U.S. and internationally. It also seeks to train current and future legal practitioners on using existing remedies to help victims of genocide and mass violations of human rights achieve a measure of justice.