Eligible individuals can receive application information by calling the special application processing center set up by the World Jewish Restitution Organization, which will be handling all claims in the United States with the assistance of the New York state Banking Department.
Instructions are available in English, Russian and Yiddish.
Interested individuals must request applications from the center by Nov. 17. The deadline for filing is Nov. 30. In its first day, the center received 3,360 calls. Since the Swiss humanitarian fund was established last year by Switzerland's leading banks, more than 18,000 needy survivors in Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia have received payments. In the coming weeks, thousands of survivors in the Czech Republic, Croatia and Poland will receive checks from the fund, according to Gideon Taylor, treasurer of the WJRO, the body that is overseeing the distribution of the payments.