Around 80,000 Holocaust survivors will receive a payment of approximately $300 million, following negotiations on Monday between Claims Conference representatives and German officials in Washington.

The majority of the money will be distributed to victims of Nazi brutality in the former Soviet Union, who have never received payments or compensation from previous German restitution agreements.

The money will be distributed from the Claims Conference’s Hardship Fund, which grants one-off payments of $3,150 to the Jews who fled the horrors of the Nazi regime.

Claims Conference officials, speaking from Washington where the negotiations took place, have described the agreement as a historic breakthrough.

The eligibility requirements for restitution have also been relaxed, and Germany will now compensate those who went into hiding during the war for six months; previously the threshold required the individual to be in hiding for a minimum of 12 months.