Outspoken determination marked the tenor of the 150 Holocaust survivors, Second Generation survivors and advocates at a December 9 briefing on survivor financial settlements. The group came to listen to Congressman Robert Wexler, and Ambassador J. Christian Kennedy, the special envoy for Holocaust issues at the U.S. State Department, at the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.

“While we can never give back what was taken from them, our survivors are an extremely important part of our community. Their presence is a testament and an honor,” said Steven Mendelsohn, Chair of the Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council, which sponsored the event with Congressman Wexler. “Many have few resources and extensive physical and mental health needs as a result of their experiences, and require special care as well as financial justice. While the Federation receives and allocates funds to assist them, our survivors need, are due and deserve far more.”

The audience was particularly concerned with having European insurance companies fulfill additional 60- to 70-year-old obligations toward Holocaust survivors and their families. Zelda Fuksman, who survived the Holocaust hiding in forests with her family, explained, “People paid for insurance policies and then in many cases there was no one left to file claims. These funds must be turned over to help the remaining survivors.”

“There must be no more unjust enrichment from atrocities,” asserted Wexler. He explained how current House Resolution 1746, which he introduced with Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, would require insurance companies doing business in the United States to disclose all Holocaust-era policies, and provide a federal legal avenue for survivors or heirs to sue the companies for payouts.

Kennedy reported on the International Commission of Holocaust Era Claims (ICHEIC) process that, since 1998, achieved several agreements with European countries, made headway on others, distributing $306 million to 48,000 Holocaust survivors and heirs, as well as an additional $169 million for humanitarian programs to benefit survivors and train hundreds of Eastern European master teachers in Holocaust curricula. Although ICHEIC ended in March 2007, many insurance companies have stated their intent to continue processing claims.

However, proponents of HR 1746 claim there are thousands of policies outstanding, that many families, particularly in Eastern Europe, understandably did not have access to necessary documentation, and that only three to five percent of survivors received restitution.

Local survivors Alex Moskovic and Jack Rubin of Holocaust Survivors of the USA, reiterated the plea they had made in Washington, DC at a Congressional Subcommittee hearing on HR 1746. “There is so much poverty among survivors, while insurers are holding hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to alleviate suffering. There is almost no time left,” said Moskovic. “I don’t need the money, but I am fighting to help those who need it.” Rubin stated that the insurance companies are holding $17 million owed to survivors.

Many in the audience spoke of claims denied by ICHEIC, or what they saw as grossly unfair valuation of their policies. Immediately after the event, Kennedy and Congressman Wexler’s staff met individually with survivors pursuing individual claims issues, or wishing to access the Bad Arolsen archives of deportations, camps and executions; opened last month through an agreement from the ICHEIC proceedings, these archives may provide documentation for claims as well as closure for many survivors and families.

“But no matter how much money you can get in restitution or insurance claims – it doesn’t replace our families or the other parts of our lives torn away. Many survivors alive today lost not only their families and homes, but their childhoods,” Norman Frajman, survivor of five camps and President of Child Survivors/Hidden Children of the Holocaust. “What we saw with our eyes never disappears.”

The Jewish Community Relations Council is the public policy voice of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County. The Federation serves the Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Highland Beach areas, raising funds to help locally, in Israel and in more than 60 countries. These funds enable the Federation to plan for, and address, the philanthropic, cultural, educational and social-service needs of the south county community.