ZGram - 9/19/2003 - "The Holocaust Industry - operating in the
Red!"
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Fri Sep 19 13:39:08 EDT 2003
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny: Now more than ever!
September 19, 2003
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
Just this: Can you imagine collecting from an insurance company
without having to supply any names?
[START]
Holocaust Insurance Effort Is Costing More Than It Wins
by Joseph B Treaster
WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 - Lawrence S. Eagleburger, the chairman of a
widely criticized commission to help Holocaust survivors collect
claims from European insurance companies, said today that his
organization had spent 60 percent more for operations than it had
persuaded insurers to pay in claims.
In testimony to the House Committee on Government Reform, Mr.
Eagleburger said that since its founding five years ago, his
organization, the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance
Claims, had spent $56 million and obtained offers of claims payments
of $35 million.
He also said that while the commission had received 54,000 claims
that it regarded as valid - a tiny fraction in relation to the
millions of policies that experts say were sold in Europe at the time
of the Holocaust - only 2,600, or less than 5 percent, have received
offers of payment.
Mr. Eagleburger said he did not know how many people had accepted the
offers. He said the insurance companies had offered to pay an
additional $7.5 million on 650 claims that had bypassed the
commission and gone directly to the insurers.
Mr. Eagleburger said he was encouraged that the pace of dealing with
claims was increasing, but he added, "The numbers are nowhere near
where they need to be." He said the commission had set a deadline of
Dec. 31 for survivors to file claims.
The commission was created in 1998 by American regulators and Jewish
organizations, and a half-dozen European insurers agreed to join in
hopes of avoiding lawsuits. The United States government has endorsed
the commission as the best hope for getting justice for Holocaust
victims. Most of the lawsuits have been dropped or settled, but about
20 are pending against Assicurazioni Generali, a big Italian insurer.
Independent Holocaust experts asserted at the hearing that the
commission had been outmaneuvered by the insurers.
Representative Henry A. Waxman of California (left), the committee's
ranking Democrat, said that based on commission data, the insurers
reject five claims for every one they pay.
"Denials do not have to be justified," said Daniel Kadden, a former
aide to the insurance commission in Washington State and a consultant
to survivors. "There is no follow-up to see that the companies act on
the evidence presented to them."
A major roadblock, Holocaust experts say, has been the refusal of the
European insurers to publish the names of owners of life insurance
policies sold at the time of the Holocaust.
In many cases the owners died in the Holocaust. Records of
transactions were often destroyed when families were ripped apart,
and potential beneficiaries have no way of knowing if insurance
existed.
At first many insurers refused to pay claims unless survivors could
produce copies of policies or death certificates. Now they say they
will accept less evidence, but survivors in most cases must determine
whether they might have a claim.
In the hearing, Republicans and Democrats as well as independent
Holocaust experts expressed support for legislation intended to force
the European insurers to publish the names of the policyholders.
Mr. Waxman and Representative Mark Foley, Republican of Florida, have
drafted such legislation.
But Mr. Eagleburger and a senior Bush administration official
objected today to forcing the companies to publish policyholders'
names. Mr. Eagleburger said a listing would provide a jumble of
information that would be difficult to process. The administration
official, Ambassador Randolph M. Bell, the special envoy for
Holocaust issues, said that requiring such a list "would not get any
additional claimants and would almost certainly stop the current, now
much improved process whereby claimants actually are getting paid."
Mr. Waxman told Mr. Bell, "I don't see the reasoning."
Mr. Eagleburger said that the commission had published the names of
500,000 policyholders on its Web site. He said the commission had not
determined how many families in the Holocaust bought life insurance.
[END]
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