Jewish Group Shifts View on Nazi Benefit Payments

An influential Jewish advocacy group no longer supports allowing suspected Nazi war criminals to receive Social Security benefits.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said in a statement sent Tuesday to The Associated Press that U.S. law should be changed to stop the payments.

Lauder's statement follows an AP investigation that found dozens of Nazi suspects collected millions of dollars in benefits after being expelled from the United States.

The AP reported that payments flowed through a legal loophole that the World Jewish Congress lobbied to keep open during the 1990s. The thinking at the time was that Nazi suspects would agree to depart the U.S. voluntarily if they knew their Social Security benefits would continue.

Lauder says the time has come to end the payments.