Scholars make finds in Nazi archive

By ARTHUR MAX – 3 days ago

BAD AROLSEN, Germany (AP) — From prison brothels to slave labor camps, 15 scholars concluded a two-week probe Thursday of an untapped repository of millions of Nazi records, and hailed it as a rich vein of raw material that will deepen the study of the Holocaust.

It was the first concentrated academic sweep of the long-private archive administered by the International Tracing Service since it opened its doors last November to Holocaust survivors, victims relatives and historical researchers.

German historian Christel Trouve said the nameless millions of forced laborers began to take shape as individual people as she studied small labor camps — which existed in astonishing numbers.

more.

by Marilyn Henry

It is another season of finger-pointing about the failure to care for Nazi victims. In the last year, there was Isaac Herzog’s plan for the Social Welfare Ministry to redress the mistakes of the Finance Ministry; the Lindenstrauss report; Knesset members’ complaints about the Claims Conference; and now the Dorner Commission.

Does any of this serve any useful purpose?

Yes, the State of Israel deserves a lot of criticism, but by now it must be immune to it. Certainly this is not the government’s most pressing, or embarrassing, issue. For those who cry about survivors’ needs, it is worth recalling that grievances about survivors’ care are not new, and little ever changed. Interest in survivors seems episodic and ephemeral. Survivors as a group were poorly served before and they remain poorly served, in part because no one persisted in holding the government accountable.

more

AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE TO H.R. 1746

OFFERED BY MR. FRANK OF MASSACHUSETTS
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the following:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act of 2008’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Holocaust was one of the most heinous crimes in history, causing the suffering of millions of people through torture and other violence, including the murder of 6,000,000 Jews and millions of others, the destruction of families and communities, and the theft of their assets.

(2) After World War II, many Holocaust survivors and heirs of Holocaust victims presenting claims to insurance companies lacked policy information and vital records needed to satisfy the burden of proof required to bring an insurance claim because such documentation was confiscated by the Nazis or lost in the devastation of World War II.

(3) Following the end of the Cold War, efforts to address open issues concerning restitution and compensation to the victims of Nazi persecution were renewed. International talks involving the United States, Germany, Austria, France, Israel, and other nations occurred and agreements were reached to enable restitution for a variety of claims, including claims based on Holocaust-era insurance policies.

(4) In response to the unique difficulties faced by those seeking to bring claims based on Holocaust era insurance policies, Insurance Commissioners of the several States, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), major Jewish organizations and various European insurance companies established the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims to provide a forum in which claimants could bring claims based on Holocaust-era insurance policies.

(5) In recognition of the preeminence of the States in protecting consumers in the insurance marketplace, Congress and the executive branch have a limited role in facilitating and assisting the Holocaust-era insurance restitution efforts of the several States as embodied principally in the ICHEIC process.

(6) After ICHEIC and its partner entities paid approximately $300 million to more than 47,000 claimants and approximately $200 million to Holocaust-related humanitarian organizations, ICHEIC formally concluded its operation in March 2007.

(7) Experts agree that, by the conclusion of the ICHEIC process, claims based on a substantial portion of Holocaust-era insurance policies issued to Holocaust victims in Western Europe had been addressed.

(8) Due to the political and economic conditions in Eastern Europe until the end of the Cold War, compensation efforts there have been more limited. The ICHEIC process did provide compensation for policies issued by the Eastern European branches and subsidiaries of Western European companies as well as for policies issued by nationalized or liquidated Eastern European insurers, drawing from ICHEIC’s humanitarian funds. However, the Eastern European companies and countries did not participate in ICHEIC or any of the related compensation processes. Now that the nations of Eastern Europe have joined the community of free and modern nations, it is imperative that the nations of Eastern Europe proactively seek to identify and provide restitution for Holocaust-era insurance policies issued within their borders.

(9) All insurers that participated in ICHEIC re now willing to address all inquiries made by Holocaust victims and victims’ heirs, check their archives, and settle legitimate claims based on relaxed standards of proof. To facilitate the ongoing monitoring of claims based on Holocaust-era insurance policies, the Insurance Commissioners of the several States have agreed to coordinate their Holocaust-era insurance restitution efforts through the NAIC and the Holocaust Claims Processing Office. Similarly, entities that worked in partnership with ICHEIC,such as the Dutch Sjoa Foundation, have agreed to maintain their claims processing facilities and cooperate with the HCPO in the resolution of Holocaust-era insurance claims.

(10) It has been the policy of the executive branch to support the resolution of Holocaust-era insurance claims through an alternative to litigation. To that end, the executive branch has filed statements of interest in court seeking the dismissal of cases involving claims for non-payment of Holocaust-era insurance policies where there have been independent legal grounds to support such dismissal.

(11) This Act does not endorse any State law cause of action and does not alter any applicable law, legal precedent or principle in effect at the time of its enactment that may be applicable to the resolution of Holocaust-era insurance claims. Nor does this Act alter the binding effect of any class action settlement involving Holocaust-era insurance claims.

10 SEC. 3. INSURER RESPONSE TO INQUIRIES ABOUT COVERED POLICIES.
(a) REQUIREMENT.— (1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), an insurer receiving a written inquiry from an eligible person regarding a covered policy for which the person may be a beneficiary shall—

(A) not later than 90 days after such insurer receives such written inquiry, acknowledge the inquiry in writing and indicate whether such insurer is in possession of information specifically relating to such covered policy;

(B) within a reasonable period of time, provide to such eligible person all information in the possession of such insurer regarding whether such person is a potential beneficiaryof such policy; and

(C) immediately notify the Holocaust Claims Processing Office in writing of the inquiry and provide a copy of all acknowledgments and information provided to such eligible
person under subparagraph (A) or (B) to the HCPO.

(2) TERMINATION OF REQUIREMENT.—An insurer receiving a written inquiry under paragraph (1) is not required to comply with the requirements of such paragraph for any written inquiry received on or after the date that is 10 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.

(b) AGREEMENTS WITH EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.—

(1) AGREEMENTS.—The Secretary of State shall seek to enter into an agreement with each European country with which no appropriate agreement exists to facilitate the response requirements of subsection (a).

(2) REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit to Congress a report on efforts to carry out this subsection.

SEC. 4. MONITORING BY THE HOLOCAUST CLAIMS PROCESSING OFFICE.

The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and encouraged to enter into an agreement with the Holocaust Claims Processing Office to provide for—

(1) the HCPO to monitor compliance with the requirements of section 3(a);

(2) the HCPO to notify the Secretary of the Treasury of the identity of any insurer that the HCPO is aware of that is not in compliance with the requirements of section 3(a) not later than 30 days after the failure of such insurer to comply with such requirements;

3) the HCPO to annually notify the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives, the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of State of the identity of each insurer that fails to comply with the requirement of section 3(a);

(4) subject to appropriations, the transfer to the HCPO of amounts equal to the amounts received by the Government under section 5 for use in carrying out paragraphs (1) and (2); and (5) the issuance of such guidelines and regulations as are necessary to carry out this section and sections 3 and 5.

SEC. 5. PENALTY.
The Secretary of the Treasury shall assess a civil penalty of not less than $5,000 for each day that an insurer fails to comply with the requirements of section 3(a) for an inquiry referred to in such section, as determined by the Secretary after consideration of information provided by the Holocaust Claims Processing Office. Each failure to comply with the requirements of section 3(a) for an inquiry under such section shall be considered a separate offense.

SEC. 6. FEDERAL CAUSES OF ACTION.

(a) FEDERAL CAUSE OF ACTION.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—There shall exist a Federal cause of action for any claim arising out of or related to a covered policy against any insurer.

(2) STANDING.—A claim under paragraph (1) may be brought by an eligible person.

(3) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.—Any action brought under this Act shall be filed not later than 10 years after the effective date of this Act.

(b) RIGHT TO OPT OUT OF CLASS ACTION PROCEEDINGS.—

(1) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress that claimants have the right to opt out of new or ongoing class action proceedings relating to claims based on Holocaust-era insurance policies in accordance with Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

(2) CLARIFICATION.—Nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect any class action settlement
agreement, or releases given therein, made before the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 7. LIMITATION ON FEDERAL CAUSE OF ACTION AND REQUIREMENT TO RESPOND TO INQUIRY.

(a) IN GENERAL.—No cause of action shall exist for a claim against an insurer relating to, and an insurer is not required to comply with the requirements of section 3(a) for a written inquiry regarding, a covered policy for which—
(1) payment has been made or release has been granted;

(2) payment has been received or denied under the process of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, any similar process that was conducted in partnership with ICHEIC,
any government sponsored Holocaust claims process,the Holocaust Claims Processing Office, or any process for the resolution of Holocaust-era insurance claims established pursuant to a class action settlement; or (3) the claimant previously filed an action against such insurer.

(b) CLARIFICATION OF APPLICABILITY.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to a claim for which a humanitarian payment has been received from ICHEIC and that is being asserted— (1) against an insurer that did not participate in ICHEIC; or (2) based on information not reasonably available before the conclusion of the ICHEIC process.

SEC. 8. EUROPEAN BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT.

(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States Executive Director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to use the voice and vote of the United States to create and advocate the policies of the Bank to encourage Eastern European countries to engage in and pursue restitution programs in compliance with this Act.

(b) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, and three years thereafter, the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to Congress a report on the progress of carrying out subsection (a).

SEC. 9. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:

(1) COMMISSIONER OF INSURANCE.—The term ‘‘commissioner of insurance’’ means the highest ranking officer of a State responsible for regulating insurance.

(2) COVERED POLICY.—The term ‘‘covered policy’’ means any insurance policy that was—(A) in effect at any time after January 30, 1933, and before December 31, 1945; and (B) issued to a policyholder or named a beneficiary who was deprived of their life, suffered damage to their mental or physical health, suffered loss or deprivation of financial or other assets, or suffered any other loss or damage to their property as a result of racial, religious, political, or ideological persecution by organs of the National Socialist Government of Germany or by other Governmental authorities or entities controlled by such Governmental authorities in the territories occupied by the National Socialist Government of Germany or its European allies during the period described in subparagraph (A).

(3) ELIGIBLE PERSON.—The term ‘‘eligible person’’ means a person who purchased a covered policy, a beneficiary of such person with respect to such policy, an heir of such person or such beneficiary with respect to such policy, or an assignee of such person, such beneficiary, or such heir with respect to such policy.

(4) HOLOCAUST CLAIMS PROCESSING OFFICE;
HCPO.—The terms ‘‘Holocaust Claims Processing Office’’ and ‘‘HCPO’’ mean the Holocaust Claims Processing Office of the New York State Banking Department.

(5) INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON HOLOCAUST ERA INSURANCE CLAIMS; ICHEIC—The terms ‘‘International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims’’ and ‘‘ICHEIC’’ mean the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims established through the memorandum of understanding and bilateral or multilateral agreements between the Commission, relevant foreign governments, and the following insurers and their successors in interest:

(A) The Dutch Association of Insurers and the members of the Association.
(B) The AXA Group.
(C) Generali.
(D) Zurich.
(E) Allianz.
(F) Winterthur.
(G) All insurers participating in the process of the Commission through bilateral or multilateral agreements.

(6) INSURER.—The term ‘‘insurer’’ means any person engaged in the business of insurance in interstate or foreign commerce, if the person issued a covered policy, or a successor in interest to such person. Amend the title so as to read: ‘‘A bill to further facilitate payment of Holocaust-era insurance claims.’’.
◊

Holocaust Survivors Bill To Be Toned Down

By RUSSELL BERMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 25, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/national/holocaust-survivors-bill-to-be-toned-down/80617/

WASHINGTON — A key House panel plans to scale back a bill that would allow Holocaust survivors to sue European insurers for unpaid claims and force the companies to publish the names of all policyholders during the Nazi era.

The measure, known as the Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act, has divided some in the Jewish community, pitting survivors who believe the companies haven’t paid enough against leaders who say the legislation threatens years of official negotiations for restitution and would undermine American credibility.

Sponsored by two Florida lawmakers, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, and Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat, the original bill would allow Holocaust survivors or their heirs to sue European insurers in American courts, and it would require companies to create a registry of policyholders with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In a statement last month, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said Holocaust victims had “waited too long for fair and honest treatment by life insurance companies.”

Five prominent Jewish organizations wrote lawmakers of their opposition to the bill, including the Anti-Defamation League, B’nai B’rith International, and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. They noted that the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, established and recognized by the federal government in 1998, had already succeeded in securing more than $300 million in insurance claims, in addition to more funds for home care and other social service benefits for survivors worldwide.

The House Financial Services Committee will consider the bill today, and the panel’s Democratic chairman, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, plans to scrap the registry requirement and limit the lawsuits that survivors can bring, House aides told The New York Sun yesterday.

The aides said that although several Jewish groups praised the changes, they remained opposed to the bill.

A Holocaust survivor who is treasurer of the Claims Conference, Roman Kent, said in an interview that advocates of the bill were well-intentioned but misguided. “They thought — and many of them still think — that what they are doing is good for the survivors. This I think is absolutely wrong,” he said. Supporters of the bill had overstated the potential for additional unpaid claims, he said, and opening the gates for lawsuits that would leave survivors mired in years of expensive litigation. The legal standards for restitution would be much higher than those agreed upon during official negotiations with the insurers.

The bill, Mr. Kent said, “would do tremendous damage to 99.9% of survivors.”

Audit: Israel’s Holocaust survivors cheated
E-mail article
Share on Facebook
Digg this
Tell the Editors
What bloggers
are saying

Published: 06/22/2008

Holocaust survivors in Israel have received less than two-thirds of the German reparations allotted to them, an audit found.

A report issued Sunday by a commission of inquiry under retired Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner found that of the Holocaust reparations paid to Israel under a 1952 deal with Germany, only about 62 percent found their way to survivors living in the Jewish state.

On average, each survivor was underpaid by an aggregate $400,000 to $700,000, the Dorner Commission concluded. It urged the state to make compensation available to entitled recipients who are still alive.

The commission was established following revelations lastdan year that many Holocaust survivors in Israel are destitute because of shortfalls in the welfare payouts they receive from the state. At the time, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised swift redress.

“My government has indeed treated this issue will all due seriousness and took upon itself this issue, which had not been dealt with for many years. We tried to provide the best response possible,” he said in a statement after the Dorner Commission’s report was delivered.

“Ahead of the 2009 state budget as well, we will take various steps in order to ensure that the survivors will not suffer privation,” he said. “Beyond the monetary issues, the issues here are the moral ethos that we, as a country, would like to instill in future generations, and our degree of obligation toward the survivors.”

Israeli governments have long discriminated against Holocaust survivors living in the Jewish state, and has underpaid each survivor by about NIS 2 million over the years, a state commission of inquiry said in a report released on Sunday.

‘Israeli governments have been neglecting survivors over the generations’

The panel, which was headed by former Supreme Court justice Dalia Dorner, found that Holocaust survivors living in Israel were receiving about 50 percent less than those who live in Germany.

A reparations agreement reached with Germany in 1952 stipulated that Israel would look after the survivors here, who would not be permitted to sue Germany directly.

more.

Panel: Germany gave Israel NIS 61.5 billion, Holocaust survivors got about half

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent

The government has paid Israeli Holocaust survivors just over a half of the compensation funds transferred as part of the reparation agreement with Germany, a report published on Sunday by the state commission of inquiry into the government’s treatment of Holocaust survivors.

The panel, headed by former Supreme Court judge Dalia Dorner, stated that the reparation money Germany has paid Israel adds up to NIS 61.5 billion according to current rates, whereas a mere NIS 38 billion have been paid to the survivors themselves to date.

more.

Holocaust survivors from former USSR denied reparations

By Anshel Pfeffer

Some 11,000 Holocaust survivors who moved to Israel from the former Soviet Union are not receiving reparations from Germany because the Claims Conference, an international body that grants compensation to survivors, did not translate the payment request regulations into Russian, MK Michael Nudelman (Kadima) charged at a Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee meeting yesterday.

Nudelman, the committee chairman, said that many Russian-speaking survivors were disqualified from receiving compensation because they filed their requests before they reached the designated age, but were unaware of the problem because they did not understand the regulations. Advertisement

Reuven Merhav, who heads the Claims Conference’s executive committee, acknowledged that it was a mistake not to have translated the regulations, but a conference representative said all the explanatory material has been available in Russian for more than a decade. Merhav also told the Knesset committee that the Claims Conference does not have the funds available to pay reparations to 11,000 additional Holocaust survivors

more.

The Holocaust survivors facing war-crimes trials
06/06/2008
By Dana Gloger
Elderly Jews say they are outraged that Lithuania is pursuing them over their wartime role as anti-Nazi partisans

Fania Branstovsky was just 20 when she joined the Jewish partisan movement fighting the Nazis in her home country of Lithuania. In the Vilnius ghetto, she and her fellow partisans carried out attacks against the occupying German forces. By the end of the war, almost her entire family — more than 50 people –— had perished at the hands of the Nazis. Yet now, over 60 years later, she is the one being branded unpatriotic, and is reportedly under investigation by Lithuanian authorities for alleged war crimes.

more.

By Milton J. Valencia and Manny Veiga
Globe Staff And Globe Correspondent / June 22, 2008

SHARON - A man who authorities say stole a cherished heirloom painting from a Sharon family has been arraigned, but what the family really wants - the painting’s return - remains elusive.

Steven Zaharoff, 57, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham on charges of entering a dwelling for a felony by false pretenses; larceny from a person over age 65; and larceny of property valued at under $250. He was released on personal recognizance. He is expected to return to court on Aug. 5 for a pre-trial conference.

Zaharoff had also pleaded not guilty to similar charges in March in Stoughton District Court.

more.