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Righting the Enduring Wrongs of the Holocaust: Insurance Accountability and Rail Justice

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Righting the Enduring Wrongs of the Holocaust: Insurance Accountability and Rail Justice RIGHTING THE ENDURING WRONGS OF THE HOLOCAUST: INSURANCE ACCOUNTABILITY AND RAIL JUSTICE HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION NOVEMBER 16, 2011 Serial No. 112–86 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 71–263PDF WASHINGTON : 2011 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 16:36 Jan 24, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\FULL\111611\71263 HFA PsN: SHIRL COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey HOWARD L. BERMAN, California DAN BURTON, Indiana GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York ELTON GALLEGLY, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey EDWARD R. ROYCE, California BRAD SHERMAN, California STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York RON PAUL, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York MIKE PENCE, Indiana RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri JOE WILSON, South Carolina ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey CONNIE MACK, Florida GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas DENNIS CARDOZA, California TED POE, Texas BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida BRIAN HIGGINS, New York JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania BILL JOHNSON, Ohio CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut DAVID RIVERA, Florida FREDERICA WILSON, Florida MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania KAREN BASS, California TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina ROBERT TURNER, New York YLEEM D.S. POBLETE, Staff Director RICHARD J. KESSLER, Democratic Staff Director (II) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:36 Jan 24, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\111611\71263 HFA PsN: SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES The Honorable John Garamendi, a Representative in Congress from the State of California .......................................................................................................... 6 The Honorable Carolyn Maloney, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York ................................................................................................ 12 Mr. Leo Bretholz, Holocaust Survivor, Author, ‘‘Leap into Darkness’’ ............... 21 Ms. Renee Firestone, Holocaust Survivor .............................................................. 30 Mr. David Schaecter, Holocaust Survivor, President, Holocaust Survivors Foundation ............................................................................................................ 41 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable John Garamendi: Prepared statement ......................................... 8 The Honorable Carolyn Maloney: Prepared statement ........................................ 14 Mr. Leo Bretholz: Prepared statement .................................................................. 24 Ms. Renee Firestone: Prepared statement ............................................................. 32 Mr. David Schaecter: Prepared statement ............................................................ 43 APPENDIX Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 64 Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 65 Material submitted for the record by: The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida, and chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs ............. 67 The Honorable Howard L. Berman, a Representative in Congress from the State of California ...................................................................................... 70 The Honorable Ann Marie Buerkle, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York ...................................................................................... 81 The Honorable Carolyn Maloney ........................................................................ 90 Mr. Leo Bretholz .................................................................................................. 96 Ms. Renee Firestone and Mr. David Schaecter ................................................. 102 Ms. Renee Firestone ............................................................................................ 111 (III) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:36 Jan 24, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\111611\71263 HFA PsN: SHIRL VerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:36 Jan 24, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\111611\71263 HFA PsN: SHIRL RIGHTING THE ENDURING WRONGS OF THE HOLOCAUST: INSURANCE ACCOUNTABILITY AND RAIL JUSTICE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2011 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (chairman of the committee) presiding. Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. The committee will come to order. I will recognize myself, and the ranking member, my good friend, Mr. Berman, for 7 minutes each for our opening statements. We will then hear from our members for 1-minute opening statements. Following opening statements, we will hear from our distinguished witnesses and I would ask that you summarize your prepared statements to 5 minutes each before we move to the question and answers with members under the 5-minute rule. Without objection, the witnesses’ prepared statements will be made a part of the record. And members may have 5 days to insert statements and questions for the record subject to length limitation in the rules. The Chair now recognizes herself for 7 minutes. Good morning and thank you for joining us for this morning’s hearing: ‘‘Righting the Enduring Wrongs of the Holocaust: Insurance Accountability and Rail Justice.’’ I want to recognize Mr. Herbert Karliner who was scheduled to testify at our hearing this morning but he was injured while attending last week’s Kristallnacht ceremony. Mr. Karliner’s testimony will be submitted for the record without objec- tion and we wish him a speedy recovery. It pains me to say that survivors of one of the greatest atrocities of the 20th century continue to feel the pain of the Nazis’ brutality and oppression. These lingering injustices stem from those who sought to profit from the abuse of innocent victims and took advan- tage of circumstances to enrich themselves while others suffered. This morning, we will be discussing two situations linked by a common theme, the rights of Holocaust survivors as American citi- zens to bring legal action in Federal court. The first is the issue of unpaid Holocaust-era insurance policies. In pre-war Europe hun- dreds of thousands of individuals who would eventually be victims of Nazis’ crimes sought to protect their families’ futures by pur- chasing insurance policies. However, when the Nazis raided their homes and deported them to ghettos and concentration camps, doc- umentation of their insurance policies was lost. Those who survived (1) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:36 Jan 24, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\FULL\111611\71263 HFA PsN: SHIRL 2 the war approached the insurance companies expecting the compa- nies’ records to validate their claims and allow them access to the funds they were owed. Instead, they were turned away for lacking proper documentation and barred from accessing the companies’ records. The insurance companies refused to honor policies without documentation that they alone possessed and refused to disclose to claimants. In other cases, survivors made claims on insurance policies be- longing to relatives murdered by the Nazis, only to be told that their claim could not be honored without a death certificate. Can you imagine anything more outrageous than asking for a death cer- tificate for someone murdered in Auschwitz? In 1998, the Inter- national Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) was established to resolve these issues. However, ICHEIC suffered numerous flaws, including problems with accountability and over- sight, stemming from the fact that the process was greatly con- trolled by the insurance companies. Eighty-four percent, 70,000 of the 90,000 claims made, were rejected. Eighty-four percent, 70,000 of the 90,000 claims made, were rejected. Thirty-four thousand were offered a token humanitarian award, cold comfort in the face of a broader dismissal by ICHEIC. Worst of all, survivors were told this was the only forum in which they could make claims. So ICHEIC sought to limit the rights and access of Holocaust victims even though several States had passed laws enabling survivors to pursue legal action against these insurance companies since they had been summarily dis- missed by ICHEIC. These survivors deserve the opportunity to have their day in court and present evidence against these compa- nies who have failed to honor their business obligations. Holocaust survivors came here looking for the freedom, tolerance, and opportunity that they were denied in their homelands.
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