London (CNN) The German government will make a one-off compensation payment to survivors of the Kindertransport program, which rescued Jewish children from Nazi Germany and brought them to Britain.

From January 1, the now elderly survivors -- most of whom arrived without any relatives in Britain eight decades ago -- will be eligible to claim compensation of €2,500 ($2,800) per person.

The announcement comes 80 years after the start of the humanitarian rescue operation, which saved the lives of around 10,000 children and teenagers from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk in Poland).

The program was set up as a result of ongoing negotiations between the German government and the Claims Conference, which administers compensation for Holocaust survivors.

The organization's president, Julius Berman, announced the news on its website. "Our team has never given up hope that the moment would come when we could make this historic announcement," he said.

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