Closing the Books: Jewish Insurance Claims from the Holocaust

A torrent of recent studies has attempted to set the record straight about the Holocaust, the most horrendous atrocity in modern history. First came the accusations that Swiss banks, those zealous keepers of a reputation for probity and integrity, had been silently hoarding countless millions of dollars that belonged to Jews who had perished in Nazi extermination camps. Backed into a corner, the banks agreed to pay, handing out more than one billion dollars to heirs of depositors and to humanitarian causes related to the Holocaust.

Lawyers then turned their attention to the German corporations and banks that had profited from the sweat and starvation of hundreds of thousands of slave and forced laborers. In an effort to settle all claims, the German government and the German business community established a foundation off erring up to five billion dollars for “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future.”

The question of all those life insurance policies that were never redeemed because the policyholders and the beneficiaries had simply vanished was next to be addressed. After class action suits, several large European insurance companies agreed to join in the establishment of an agency to pay those legitimate claims that were being found. The International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims was then born. The ICHEIC, as it is known, formed the entity where over seventy companies agreed to participate by providing compensation thoroughly while sparing no expense. It has offered an orderly form of closure after soliciting claims from the public worldwide. The ICHEIC ended its work in March 2007.

Charles Weiss, American foreign correspondent in the Middle East with Voice of America and The Jerusalem Post. He has covered most of the conflicts since 1948 as well as the trial of Adolf Eichmann. He lives in New York with his wife.