Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Claims commission pays holocaust survivors

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Claims commission pays holocaust survivors

    Jerusalem Post, Israel
    March 31 2004


    Claims commission pays holocaust survivors
    By MELISSA RADLER
    NEW YORK

    Nearly 16,000 Holocaust survivors whose families held insurance
    policies during the Second World War received $16m in humanitarian
    payments this week, the International Commission on Holocaust Era
    Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) announced Tuesday.

    The payments, of $1,000 each, were mailed to survivors and heirs who
    lacked documentation to prove their claims. Using anecdotal evidence
    or recollections of Holocaust-era policies, claims were evaluated
    according to criteria established by former National Security Advisor
    Sandy Berger, who now serves as senior counselor to ICHEIC's
    humanitarian claims process.

    "What we're doing now is a measure of belated justice, and all
    justice which is belated is faulty," said the president of the
    Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Israel Singer,
    at a press conference Tuesday announcing the payments. Calling the
    announcement a "muted triumph of justice," Roman Kent, chairman of
    the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, added: "I'm
    sorry that this meeting did not take place 50 years ago, when so many
    of us would be alive."

    Recipients in 60 countries spanning the globe from Armenia to
    Zimbabwe will receive payments within the next few days; of the
    15,890 recipients, of whom more than 90% are Holocaust survivors and
    less than 10% are heirs, 5,061 live in Israel and 4,867, including
    approximately 1,000 New Yorkers, live in the US, an ICHEIC release
    noted.

    The chief operating officer of ICHEIC, Mara Rudman, said that while
    just half of those who filed a claim with the commission were slated
    to receive payments this week, efforts to further identify eligible
    recipients are ongoing.

    Since it was established in 1998 by the National Association of
    Insurance Commissioners, European insurance companies, European
    regulators, Jewish leaders and the State of Israel, ICHEIC has
    received nearly $500m to settle Holocaust-era claims and provide
    humanitarian assistance to survivors. To date, the commission has
    paid out more than $80m to claimants.
Working...
X