U.S. Department of the Treasury

(Archived Content)

FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

I welcome today's announcement by former Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, chairman of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), that an agreement has been finalized with the Italian insurance company Assicurazioni Generali to provide $100 million plus earnings for the payment of Holocaust-era insurance claims. This agreement has been executed among Generali, the World Jewish Restitution Organization and Allied Organizations, and ICHEIC, which itself is comprised of representatives of international Jewish organizations, several European insurance companies, and U.S. state insurance regulators. I commend Generali, as well as the other parties, for this significant step to bring a measure of justice to Holocaust survivors and their heirs and move towards reconciliation.

I understand that efforts to secure agreements with the remaining ICHEIC member companies - the Swiss insurance companies Winterthur and Zurich and French insurer Axa - are nearing conclusion, and Chairman Eagleburger believes he will be able to announce a settlement in the near future. I encourage these companies to continue to work expeditiously together and within the ICHEIC so that insurance policies from the Holocaust era are paid. In this regard, I encourage the German Insurance Association to reach an agreement with ICHEIC as soon as possible on the processing of all Holocaust era insurance claims against German companies as mandated by the US-German executive agreement that entered into force on October 19, 2000.

Although we were not a party to, and did not participate in the negotiating of, the agreement, we hope that the ICHEIC will conclude their implementing negotiations quickly. The U.S. government continues to support and encourage parties, foreign governments and non-governmental organizations, like ICHEIC, to resolve matters of Holocaust-era restitution on a cooperative basis, rather than subject victims and their families to the prolonged uncertainty and delay that accompany litigation. It has been an important objective of U.S. policy over the past 50 years to bring some measure of justice to Holocaust survivors and other victims of the Nazi era who are elderly and are dying at an accelerated rate, in their lifetimes. We have supported ICHEIC since its inception in 1998 and believe it should be recognized as the exclusive remedy for resolving all insurance claims that relate to the Nazi era. ICHEIC helps further the United States' interest in maintaining good relations with Israel and with Western, Central and Eastern European nations from which many of the those who suffered during the Nazi era and World War II come.