The General Settlement Fund: Waiting for an End to Litigation
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VOLUME 5 NO. 6 JUNE 2005 The General Settlement Fund: Monument to Frank Foley unveiled waiting for an end to litigation More than four years since the General evidence to substantiate claims has been Settlement Fund was created following the sought in Austrian archives. signing of the Washington Agreement - a Since General Settlement Fund awards bilateral accord between the US and Austria - are calculated on a pro rata basis, before not a single payment has been made from the payments can be made it is necessary to indemnification programme established to process all 19,400 applications and to pay compensation for a comprehensive range establish the total amount being claimed. of Jewish-owned asset expropriation and This process is in sharp contrast with other Nazi persecution following the Anschluss of compensation measures, such as the Swiss March 1938. bank account awards, which provide for a Ll negotiating the Washington Agreement, single category or a lump sum payment Austria insisted on including a clause that the based on claimants' actual bank balances. To distribution of payments from the $210m implement this complex system, the staff of fund could proceed only when any outstanding the General Settlement Fund has been lawsuits being pursued in the US were either increased and the premises of their offices dismissed or withdrawn. One long-running extended. A monument to British agent Frank Foley lawsuit in a US court brought by Austrian is unveiled in his hometown of Highbridge, The Fund's decision-taking body, the Somerset survivors claims real estate and other independent Claims Committee, consists of possessions seized while the Nazi Reich one member appointed by the United The AJR, which generously supported the controlled Austria between 1938 and 1945. States, Professor Vivian Curran, one project to commemorate Frank Foley, 'the The Washington Agreement also member appointed by the Republic of spy who saved 10,000 Jews', witnessed enshrines the system of processing claims by Austria, Dr Kurt Hofmann, and, the unveiling of a monument to him in the General Settlement Fund that was agreed representing the UK, the Chairman, Sir Highbridge, Somerset, where Foley was by the US Govemment and a number of Franklin Berman. born and educated. Holocaust victims' organisations. As distinct Payments firom the General Settlement The date was 8 May, chosen well before from other Holocaust-era compensation Fund are the final element in Austria's the publicity machine for celebrating the measures worldwide, the General Holocaust compensation programme. Also 60th anniversary of VE Day went into Settlement Fund is unique both in the provided for in the Washington Agreement action. It was selected by the Highbridge number of categories that are compensated were lump sum ex-gratia awards of $7,000 Frank Foley Committee as the anniversary for and in the individual calculation of (firom a $150m fund), which were distributed of his death in 1958 at the age of 73. the losses. in 2002 and to which top-up awards of €1,000 The Portland stone white monument, By the claims submission deadline of 28 are now being made. An extension of social set on the green outside the community May 2003, the General Settlement Fund had security legislation forms the third pillar of hall in the small market town, shows a received 19,400 applications, with the the Agreement, allowing any Austrian Nazi bespectacled Foley stamping a visa for a victim born before 13 March 1938 to claim a average applicant claiming for losses and father whose little daughter stands next pension together with improvements in the damages sustained by three or four victims of to him. Symbols abound, including a provision of care monies (Pflegegeld) to the Nazis. On average, each of these victims train, which signifies transport to the survivors with the greatest medical needs. had sustained between two and five single camps or away to freedom as well as the losses, totalling an estimated 120,000 to As the Claims Office knows very well days when trains ran to Highbridge. A 240,000 claims that are currently being fi-om the enquiries it receives on this matter boat is linked to escape and Highbridge's researched and individually calculated. every day, it is ofthe greatest concern that a maritime connections. A clock symbolises At the time of going to press, more than way be found as soon as possible of ending the urgency of the situation. A bridge 7,000 applications containing some 85,000 this logjam so that the process of making due refers to Highbridge and somewhere is an individual claims have been researched. Of payments to claimants can finally go ahead. apple, the symbol of Somerset. the approximate 25,000 claims for individual This article was written with the assistance of Sculptor Jonathan Sells of Corfe Castle, losses, decisions on around 2,000 Ms Hannah Lessing, General Secretary ofthe Dorset, explained that the stone bar applications have been prepared. Where National Fund for Victims of Nazism in linking the two men's heads showed the claimants were unable to provide detailed Austria. bond of sympathy. "We don't want hatred information on their femilies' lost assets, the Michael Newman (Continued on page 2) AJR JOURNAL JUNE 2005 but one world,'he said. Guests at the event included David Yom Hashoah commemorated Rothenberg, the AJR's Vice-Chairman, and John Curtis, an active supporter of the project since chancing upon it three years ago while on a visit to Somerset. 'My father could leave after Kristallnacht as he was the director of a British subsidiary of a German textile firm, but I have often wondered how he managed to get his elderly parents out. I suspect Foley helped,' Mr Curtis ruminated. 'He saved so many people. Martin Lewis recites Kaddish at the AJR Day Pictured in front of the Zachor Holocaust Many did not realise he was Centre's Yom Hashoah ceremony Memorial sculpture at Pinner Synagogue: instrumental, while those who did (clockwise) Charles Salt, a liberator who know have mostly gone.' entered Bergen-Belsen on day 3, Most beneficiaries finished up in Alice Svarin, Nicole David, Bobbie Feiler, Logan Hall Helen Bamber, Leon Greenman Israel, as Foley issued visas for Palestine. Leaders of the Jewish community After Foley's death they planted a grove addressed more than 500 guests at the for him. But his story was unknown in Yom Hashoah event hosted by the UK's Britain until the publication of his Pinner Synagogue Yad Vashem committee at Logan Hall. biography by Da/7y Telegraph defence Leon Greenman OBE and Helen Bamber The event also commemorated the correspondent Michael Smith in 1999 - OBE spoke movingly of their contrasting Warsaw Ghetto uprising and VE Day, which also led to his being declared a experiences of Nazi tyranny as part of this marking the 60th anniversary of the end Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem. year's Yom Hashoah event, which is ofthe Second World War Now Frank Foley's moral stand and commemorated annually at Pinner Among the speakers were the Chief tearing up of the rule book' is lauded by Synagogue. Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, and Rabbi government ministers, as represented Steven Katz of the Hendon Reform Speaking in front of the Lady Mayor of by Des Browne at the ceremony and by Synagogue. Both spoke ofthe need to be Harrow, their Excellencies the the plaque placed in the British vigilant with regard to rising Ambassadors of the Netherlands, the embassy in Berlin last November But at antisemitism in Britain. Czech Republic and Hungary and the time it was a different story - when representatives of the Polish and Russian he was considered a nuisance to British The audience also heard from Ben embassies, Leon Greenman, a survivor of interests but too valuable a spy Helfgott, Chairman of the Yad Vashem several concentration camps who was (officially a passport control officer) to committee and survivor of several Nazi deported from Holland to Auschwitz in be ditched. concentration camps, on his experiences in Poland in the first days of the Second 1943, described his ordeal at the hands of In addition to Highbridge committee World War, as well as from His Excellency the Nazis. members and clerics - Foley was a the Ambassador of Israel, Zvi Heifetz. devout Catholic - the ceremony was Helen Bamber, who established the addressed by Baroness Rabbi Dr Julia Sir Martin Gilbert CBE described Medical Foundation for the Care of Neuberger, Jonathan Lewis from the movingly the impact made by Holocaust Victims of Torture in 1985, recalled her Board of Deputies, and Malcolm survivors and refugees who came to memories of entering Bergen-Belsen Weisman, representing the Chief Rabbi. Britain before and after the Second shortly after its liberation to help World War. The Chairman of the A choir of pupils from Clifton rehabilitate former inmates and spoke of Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and College's Jewish house, Polack's House, her promise to one dying man: 'I will be Women, Ronald Shelley, spoke of the came from Bristol to give a flavour of yourwitness.' courage of the 50,000 British Jewish Jewish song, adding to the inter- In his opening address. His Excellency members of the British forces as his cultural atmosphere with Adon Otam The Ambassador of the Netherlands, members, bearing AJEX flags, marched sung to the tune of The Yellow CountJandeMarchantetd'Ansembourg, into the auditorium. Submarine. referred to the efforts his country made The event was chaired by Henry Ruth Rotherberg to come to terms with its history on the Grunwald, President of the Board of sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Deputies Holland. Michael Newman Members of the Third Generation JACKMAN • AJR Heads of Department performed the play The Story of Max and Gordon Greenfield Finance Shmiiek Farber and participated in a SILVERMAN Carol Rossen Administration and Personnel moving candle-lighting ceremony along COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS Marcia Goodman Social Services with survivors and liberators of Michael Newman Media and concentration camps.