By Jay Weaver, McClatchy Newspapers –
MIAMI — Legislation that would allow Holocaust survivors to sue European companies for unpaid life insurance benefits worth an estimated $20 billion has passed its first test in Congress.
The bill, authored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., was unanimously approved by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday. Next stop: the House Judiciary Committee, then possibly the full House.
The legislation would give thousands of survivors the right to sue Germany’s Allianz SE, Italy’s Assicurazioni Generali and other major European companies in U.S. courts to recover the value of life insurance policies bought before World War II. It would also force those companies to disclose lists of policies held by Jews during that era.
“This bill is the last hope for Holocaust survivors to obtain justice,” said Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the foreign affairs committee. She filed the bill on behalf of the Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation USA, with members from her Miami-Dade district.
The Republican lawmaker accused Allianz and other insurers of refusing to pay the debts of thousands of Jews murdered in Nazi death camps.
“Opponents of the legislation argue that the insurance companies have made contributions to reparations agreements and should be exempt from additional payments,” she said during Wednesday’s hearing.
“Let me set the record straight. Contributions to reparations agreements are not a substitute for addressing the breach of contract that is the failure to pay legitimate claims of policyholders.”
Opposition to her legislation is formidable: The European insurers and their governments assert that they have already met their obligations to the vast majority of Holocaust survivors with unpaid policies through the International Commission on Holocaust Insurance Claims. It was supported by the U.S. and European governments, as well as major Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Congress.
The Obama administration and State Department continue to side with the Europeans, saying the legislation would reopen long-settled Holocaust-era insurance cases.
