The Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act of 2007 (H.R
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THE HOLOCAUST INSURANCE ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2007 (H.R. 1746): HOLOCAUST ERA INSURANCE RESTITUTION AFTER ICHEIC, THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON HOLOCAUST ERA INSURANCE CLAIMS HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION FEBRUARY 7, 2008 Printed for the use of the Committee on Financial Services Serial No. 110–85 ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 41–176 PDF WASHINGTON : 2008 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:57 Apr 08, 2008 Jkt 041176 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 K:\DOCS\41176.TXT TERRIE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES BARNEY FRANK, Massachusetts, Chairman PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania SPENCER BACHUS, Alabama MAXINE WATERS, California DEBORAH PRYCE, Ohio CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York MICHAEL N. CASTLE, Delaware LUIS V. GUTIERREZ, Illinois PETER T. KING, New York NYDIA M. VELA´ ZQUEZ, New York EDWARD R. ROYCE, California MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York RON PAUL, Texas BRAD SHERMAN, California STEVEN C. LATOURETTE, Ohio GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DENNIS MOORE, Kansas WALTER B. JONES, JR., North Carolina MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois RUBE´ N HINOJOSA, Texas CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri GARY G. MILLER, California CAROLYN MCCARTHY, New York SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia JOE BACA, California TOM FEENEY, Florida STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts JEB HENSARLING, Texas BRAD MILLER, North Carolina SCOTT GARRETT, New Jersey DAVID SCOTT, Georgia GINNY BROWN-WAITE, Florida AL GREEN, Texas J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina EMANUEL CLEAVER, Missouri JIM GERLACH, Pennsylvania MELISSA L. BEAN, Illinois STEVAN PEARCE, New Mexico GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin, RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas LINCOLN DAVIS, Tennessee TOM PRICE, Georgia PAUL W. HODES, New Hampshire GEOFF DAVIS, Kentucky KEITH ELLISON, Minnesota PATRICK T. MCHENRY, North Carolina RON KLEIN, Florida JOHN CAMPBELL, California TIM MAHONEY, Florida ADAM PUTNAM, Florida CHARLES WILSON, Ohio MICHELE BACHMANN, Minnesota ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado PETER J. ROSKAM, Illinois CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut KENNY MARCHANT, Texas JOE DONNELLY, Indiana THADDEUS G. McCOTTER, Michigan ROBERT WEXLER, Florida KEVIN McCARTHY, California JIM MARSHALL, Georgia DEAN HELLER, Nevada DAN BOREN, Oklahoma JEANNE M. ROSLANOWICK, Staff Director and Chief Counsel (II) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:57 Apr 08, 2008 Jkt 041176 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 K:\DOCS\41176.TXT TERRIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on: February 7, 2008 .............................................................................................. 1 Appendix: February 7, 2009 .............................................................................................. 59 WITNESSES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2008 Arbeiter, Israel, President, American Association of Jewish Holocaust Sur- vivors of Greater Boston ...................................................................................... 28 Dubbin, Sam, Esq., Attorney, Miami, Florida ....................................................... 36 Eizenstat, Stuart, Former Special Representative of the President & Sec- retary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues ............................................................ 31 Kennedy, Ambassador J. Christian, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, U.S. Department of State ............................................................................................ 10 Kent, Roman, Chairman, American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors . 39 Koken, Diane, Former Vice-Chairman, ICHEIC, and Former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner ..................................................................................... 34 Kurtz, Dr. Michael, Assistant Archivist for Records Services, National Ar- chives and Records Administration .................................................................... 12 Zabludoff, Sidney, Former Consultant, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. ......................................................................................... 41 APPENDIX Prepared statements: Ros-Lehtinen, Hon. Ileana ............................................................................... 60 Arbeiter, Israel .................................................................................................. 63 Dubbin, Sam ..................................................................................................... 66 Eizenstat, Stuart .............................................................................................. 102 Kennedy, Ambassador J. Christian ................................................................ 111 Kent, Roman ..................................................................................................... 119 Koken, Diane .................................................................................................... 128 Kurtz, Dr. Michael ............................................................................................ 142 Zabludoff, Sidney .............................................................................................. 148 ADDITIONAL MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD Frank, Hon. Barney: Letter from the American Jewish Committee, dated February 4, 2008 ...... 153 Letter from the Anti-Defamation League, dated February 4, 2008 ............. 155 Letter from B’Nai B’Rith International, dated February 6, 2008 ................ 156 Letter from the Association of Insurers in the Netherlands, dated Feb- ruary 1, 2008 ................................................................................................. 157 Letter from the World Jewish Congress, dated January 31, 2008 ............... 159 Ros-Lehtinen, Hon. Ileana: Dear Colleague letter from Representative Ros-Lehtinen and Representa- tive Robert Wexler, dated February 5, 2008 ............................................... 161 Collection of letters from Holocaust survivors ............................................... 162 Koken, Diane: Letter from AXA Group, dated January 31, 2008 ......................................... 179 Letter from Generali, dated February 4, 2008 ............................................... 180 Letter from Zurich Insurance Company, dated December 4, 2007 .............. 181 (III) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:57 Apr 08, 2008 Jkt 041176 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 K:\DOCS\41176.TXT TERRIE VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:57 Apr 08, 2008 Jkt 041176 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 K:\DOCS\41176.TXT TERRIE THE HOLOCAUST INSURANCE ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2007 (H.R. 1746): HOLOCAUST ERA INSURANCE RESTITUTION AFTER ICHEIC, THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON HOLOCAUST ERA INSURANCE CLAIMS Thursday, February 7, 2008 U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES, Washington, D.C. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:33 a.m., in room 2128, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Barney Frank, [chair- man of the committee] presiding. Members present: Representatives Frank, Waters, Maloney, Ack- erman, Sherman, Moore of Kansas, Capuano, Clay, Baca, Scott, Green, Klein, Mahoney, Wexler; Castle, and Shays. Also present: Representative Ros-Lehtinen. The CHAIRMAN. The hearing will come to order. To begin, the representative of the minority—one of the members of the minority is on the way up, but as soon as he gets here, I am going to ask unanimous consent that our colleague from the Foreign Affairs Committee, a major author of the bill, the gentlewoman from Flor- ida, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, be given by unanimous consent the right to participate as a member of the hearing. Is there any objection? [No response] The CHAIRMAN. There being none, the gentlewoman from Florida will participate as if she were a member of the committee. This is a very important hearing. It’s particularly relevant for us to be doing this, because I think it’s fair to say that this whole effort has been a result of congressional involvement. We are often told that we should stay out of foreign policy. That is in fact up to the Exec- utive, and we may from time to time send them notes expressing our opinion, but we should not anticipate any significant weight being given to those expressions of opinion. This is an example of why it is a mistake to pay attention to that argument. If it had not been for work that began in this particular committee under the chairmanship of our former member from Ohio, Jim Leach, things would not be nearly as far along as they are. Now they’re not where they should be in the opinion of many, but they are somewhere, and they would not have been had there not been this intervention. I was grateful to one of the advocates, (1) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:57 Apr 08, 2008 Jkt 041176 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 K:\DOCS\41176.TXT TERRIE 2 and my constituent, Mr. Arbeiter, who mentioned in his statement that this began, I think it was about 10 years ago, with hearings that Mr. Leach convened. And we will continue that. So this is a subject of particular interest to this Congress and to this committee. I cannot think of an issue, to touch briefly on the substance, that is more important than doing justice to the victims of the greatest crime in recent times, perhaps in all of history. And people should not be surprised when that insistence that