Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation – USA

December 4, 2008

The Honorable Klaus Scharioth

Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany
4645 Reservoir Road N.W.
Washington, DC 20007

Facsimile No. 202-298-4270

Dear Ambassador Scharioth:

We are Holocaust survivors, and members of the executive committee of the Holocaust
Survivors Foundation USA, Inc. (HSF), which includes elected leaders of groups throughout the
U.S. representing thousands of survivors. We came together nearly a decade ago because we were
alarmed about the growing poverty and deprivation among our fellow survivors that was being
ignored by government and Jewish leaders, and about the failure of the “restitution” establishment
to deliver the oft-stated but not delivered “measure of justice.”

Our leaders have met with representatives of the Embassy on several occasions, in
Washington, Miami, Boca Raton, Boston, and elsewhere, to discuss these subjects.

As you are undoubtedly aware, HSF has been in the forefront of the effort to raise
awareness about the problem of survivor poverty and need among relevant policy makers, in our
government as well as yours. We are attaching the letter we wrote Chancellor Merkel on this
subject recently. Several of us have testified before committees of the U.S. Congress and State
legislatures as well. We were extremely disappointed with the response we received from the
Chancellor’s office, and we are including the original German language response and translation
we received as well. From the perspective of survivors and our families, the efforts that have been
made to address survivors’ needs in their older years are grossly inadequate to the human and moral
deficits that remain unaddressed.

We have also been leaders in the effort to have the U.S. Congress restore survivors’ and
heirs’ rights to recover unpaid insurance policies sold to our parents and grandparents before
WWII. We have read your letters to the Congressional leadership and realize the German
Government has a different opinion about legislation such as HR 1746 than we do. We
understand your argument, made in your letters to the late Tom Lantos, Chairman of the

PHO NE (305) 231-0221 EXT. # 243 4200 BISC AYN E BLV D M IAM I, FL. 33137-3279 FAX (305) 231-4242
EM AIL : contact@hsf-usa.org

“JUSTICE AND DIGNITY FOR SURVIVORS”

Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation – USA Page 2

Foreign Affairs Committee, and Barney Frank, Chairman of the Financial Services
Committee, to be that German industry believes it had resolved all “Holocaust era”
property claims, including insurance claims, in the German-U.S. Foundation Agreement,
and would regard being subject to further claims outside the ICHEIC framework to
undermine those agreements.

We disagree, because the President did not promise any companies immunity
from lawsuits in the United States. To us, the provisions of HR 1746 that passed the
House Foreign Affairs Committee would reinforce the principle that Holocaust survivors,
and legal heirs, own the rights to negotiate and make decisions over their own property
claims and their families’ legacies. These are rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution
and are a fundamental element of American justice. On this issue, members of Congress
can assess the record and make an informed judgment on the merits.

However, there is one issue that has emerged in the debate over HR 1746 about
which we are seeking clarification of the German government’s position. During the
debates over HR 1746, one argument has been advanced that federal legislation restoring
survivors’ right of access to the courts to pursue claims on pre-war insurance policies
would “jeopardize critical ongoing negotiations with Germany and other governments for
the continuation and expansion of hundreds of millions of dollars in crucial funding,
immediately required, for survivors in need in the United States and worldwide.”

We understand your government’s position, as stated in your letters to Chairmen

Lantos and Frank, that the “risks” posed by HR 1746 apply only to possible future
negotiations involving German private industry, not programs offered by the German
government. You wrote that HR 1746 would “jeopardize the possibility of compensating
large numbers of Holocaust survivors through voluntary contributions, for example, by
industry” and “would make it much harder to convince industry not only in Germany, but
anywhere in the world, to enter into agreements.”

We have seen no evidence that HR 1746 would jeopardize the ongoing

commitments of the German government to fund survivor welfare and assistance
programs, some of which date to the 1950s. To the contrary, your letters take pains to
reaffirm the German government's historic "responsibility for the Holocaust and
Holocaust survivors."

Further, Mr. Schwake of your office specifically informed some of the HSF
leaders, in person, that the German government would not reduce or limit benefits to
survivors even if HR 1746 became law. We understand others involved in the legislative
process received similar assurances. We are writing to have your government confirm
this understanding.

Some organizations have continued to make the representation that the German
government will retaliate by cutting benefits for poor survivors if HR 1746 or similar
legislation passes. This is a very serious threat because invariably members of Congress
believe survivors should have the same access to courts as any other citizens, but they
Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation – USA Page 3

also do not want to do anything they think will harm survivors who are in financial need.

The insurance issues should be addressed on their merits. The problems of

survivor poverty and dignity are separate (except that many survivors denied insurance
recoveries are undoubtedly among the poor) and deserve special, immediate attention in
their own right. But they are not otherwise related, logically or policy-wise, to the
insurance issue.

More importantly, though we have our differences with the German government
on several issues, we do not believe that in light of our histories, that the German nation
would allow the financial interests of one industry to tarnish the moral position it has
taken in relation to its acknowledgment of its obligation to Holocaust survivors. Please
respond to me via fax at the number printed below, so we can facilitate the clarification
of this very important matter.

Sincerely,

David Schaecter, President

Phone: 305.231.0221, Ext. 243
Fax: 305.231.4242

JOINED BY HSF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:

Israel Arbeiter, Boston
Nesse Godin, Washington DC
David Mermelstein, Miami
Alex Moskovic, Hobe Sound
Leo Recther, Queens
Jack Rubin, Boynton Beach
Henry Schuster, Las Vegas
Fred Taucher, Seattle
Esther Widman, Brooklyn
 HSF Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation – USA
USA
Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA Statement on Recent JFNA
Member Organizations Announcement Regarding U.S. Government Funding for Holocaust
(Partial List)
Survivors Social Services
Amer. Assn. of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors of Greater Boston
April 10, 2018
Assn. of Holocaust Survivors from
Former USSR, Los Angeles Contact: Louise Lawrence-Israels, HSF Executive Committee -- (301) 530-6888
Samuel J. Dubbin, HSF Counsel – (305) 815-8060
C.A.N.D.L.E.S., Terre Haute, IN

Child Survivors of Arizona
Child Survivors/Hidden Children of
the Holocaust
Coalition of Holocaust Survivor
Clubs in South Florida
Council of Nazi Holocaust Survivor
Organizations of So. California
Habonim Cultural Club, Miami
Holocaust Child Survivors &
Friends of Greater Hartford
Holocaust Survivors Club of
Boca Raton
Holocaust Survivors of
Greater Detroit
Holocaust Survivors of
Greater Pittsburgh
Holocaust Survivors of
South Florida
Holocaust Survivors Group of
Southern Nevada
As Holocaust survivors, and elected leaders of Holocaust survivor groups, we
were shocked to read William Daroff’s and JFNA’s recent statement describing an
increase in Federal government spending from $2.5 to $5 million for Holocaust
survivors’ needs as enabling the system “to ensure that Holocaust survivors are able
to live in dignity and comfort for the remainder of their lives.” We are supplying
these facts to make sure that Mr. Daroff, the JFNA leadership, and the entire Jewish
community truly understand the actual harsh realities that survivors in need are facing
each and every day.
Survivors have vastly greater medical, emergency, and long-term care needs
than others due to the torture, starvation, death marches, and other criminal actions of
the Germany Nazi regime. With home care alone costing at least $15 per hour in
medium sized cities, and the average survivor in his or her 80s and 90s needing a
minimum of 25 hours of home care per week, $2.5 million would provide only
enough home care for a total of 128 Holocaust survivors. Of course, many survivors
need significantly more home care hours every week -- many needing it 24/7. With
30,000 U.S. survivors living in poverty, as JFNA acknowledged, it is ludicrous for
Mr. Daroff or JFNA to make the statement they made. Shame on them.

Houston Council of
Jewish Holocaust Survivors
The Jewish Holocaust Survivors &
Friends of Greater Washington
Jewish Survivors of Latvia, Inc.
New York
National Assn. of Jewish Child
Holocaust Survivors, Inc.
New American Jewish Social Club,
Miami
New Cracow Friendship Society,
New York
Survivors of Atlantic City, NJ
Survivors of the Holocaust Asset
Recovery Project, Seattle
Survivors of the Holocaust of
New Mexico
Tikvah Acharay Hashoah,
San Francisco
We regret a release with such inaccurate information has been disseminated
and trust Mr. Daroff and JFNA will issue the correct information as rapidly as
possible! We survivors have been fighting to get the Jewish Community to
understand how much underinvestment continues when it comes to providing help for
the tens of thousands of survivors in need. We cannot understand the misinformation
and tone deafness about the actual plight among so many survivors who have suffered
for so long – during the Holocaust, and in the years since in grinding poverty and
without the financial means for basic health care and other essential needs.
We only pray fervently that the Claims Conference, as well, will negotiate
seriously in their long awaited annual meeting with German government officials,
because every year their results only reinforce the poverty and suffering among
survivors in need. The proof? After years negotiations, the current allocations from
Germany provide about one-third of the home care funding for survivors currently
being served. It is long-past time for those “in charge” to articulate the true suffering
that continues despite these negotiations each and every year!
“JUSTICE AND DIGNITY FOR SURVIVORS”

PHONE (305) 231-0221 Ext. 243 5979 N.W. 151 Street, Miami Lakes, FL 33014 FAX (305) 231-4242
 HSF Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation – USA
USA Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation USA
April 10, 2018
Member Organizations Page 2
(Partial List)

Amer. Assn. of Jewish Holocaust

Survivors of Greater Boston
This must stop soon, as it is one minute to midnight for survivors and they
Assn. of Holocaust Survivors from
Former USSR, Los Angeles
should see liberation from their suffering right away, before time has run out!

C.A.N.D.L.E.S., Terre Haute, IN
Child Survivors of Arizona
Child Survivors/Hidden Children of
the Holocaust
Coalition of Holocaust Survivor
Clubs in South Florida
Council of Nazi Holocaust Survivor
Organizations of So. California
In 2016, both Houses of the U.S. Congress unanimously passed resolutions
calling on the government of Germany to fully fund 100% of survivors’ needs
worldwide. They understood that current levels of funding from Germany, through
the Claims Conference and current system, are grossly inadequate and subject to
arbitrary limits. It is long overdue for the Jewish leadership to join with the survivors
and demand, from Germany, full funding so survivors will in truth be able to live their
lives in dignity.

Habonim Cultural Club, Miami

Holocaust Child Survivors &

Friends of Greater Hartford
Holocaust Survivors Club of
Boca Raton
Holocaust Survivors of
Greater Detroit
Holocaust Survivors of
Greater Pittsburgh
Holocaust Survivors of
South Florida
Holocaust Survivors Group of
Southern Nevada
Houston Council of
Jewish Holocaust Survivors
The Jewish Holocaust Survivors &
Friends of Greater Washington
Jewish Survivors of Latvia, Inc.
New York
National Assn. of Jewish Child
Holocaust Survivors, Inc.
New American Jewish Social Club,
Miami
New Cracow Friendship Society,
New York
The Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA Executive Committee:
Israel Arbeiter, Boston MA
Dena Axelrod, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Renee Firestone, Los Angeles, CA
Ella Frumkin, Los Angeles, CA
Nesse Godin, Washington D.C.
Jay Ipson, Richmond, VA
Louise Lawrence-Israels, Washington D.C.
Herbert Karliner, Miami Beach, FL
Annette Lantos, Washington, D.C.
David Mermelstein, Miami FL
Alex Moskovic, Harrisonburg, VA
Leo Rechter, Queens, NY
Shirley Rubin, Boynton Beach, FL
David Schaecter, Miami, FL
Anita Schuster, Las Vegas NV
Charles Srebnik, New York, NY
Agnes Vertes, Weston, CT
Esther Widman, Brooklyn NY

Survivors of Atlantic City, NJ

Survivors of the Holocaust Asset

Recovery Project, Seattle

Survivors of the Holocaust of

New Mexico

Tikvah Acharay Hashoah,

San Francisco “JUSTICE AND DIGNITY FOR SURVIVORS”

PHONE (305) 231-0221 Ext. 243 5979 N.W. 151 Street, Miami Lakes, FL 33014 FAX (305) 231-4242
 HSF Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation – USA
USA
Member Organizations
(Partial List)
Amer. Assn. of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors of Greater Boston
Assn. of Holocaust Survivors from
Former USSR, Los Angeles
C.A.N.D.L.E.S., Terre Haute, IN
Child Survivors of Arizona
Child Survivors/Hidden Children of
The Holocaust
Coalition of Holocaust Survivor
Clubs in South Florida
Council of Nazi Holocaust Survivor
Organizations of So. California
Habonim Cultural Club, Miami
Holocaust Child Survivors &
Friends of Greater Hartford
Holocaust Survivors Club of
Boca Raton
Holocaust Survivors of
Greater Detroit
Holocaust Survivors of
Greater Pittsburgh
Holocaust Survivors of
South Florida
Holocaust Survivors Group of
Southern Nevada
Houston Council of
Jewish Holocaust Survivors
The Jewish Holocaust Survivors &
Friends of Greater Washington
Jewish Survivors of Latvia, Inc.
New York
National Assn. of Jewish Child
Holocaust Survivors, Inc.
New American Jewish Social Club,
Miami
New Cracow Friendship Society,
New York
Survivors of Atlantic City, NJ
Survivors of the Holocaust Asset
Recovery Project, Seattle
Survivors of the Holocaust of
New Mexico
Tikvah Acharay Hashoah,
San Francisco
PHONE (305) 231-0221
Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA (HSF) Statement In Response to
Claims Conference-Germany Negotiations – July 13, 2017
Contact: David Schaecter, President (305) 742-8501
Once again, the Claims Conference announcement of their so-called negotiations
will mean little to thousands of survivors in dire need of serious health care, mental
health care and all the rest of the services they currently are deprived of for lack of
the resources Germany should have been provided to so many deserving of help. Even
a quick reading of the results of these so-called negotiations makes clear there was
no intention in helping all the survivors who continue to suffer year after year. How
can this be? The House and Senate unanimously passed resolutions voicing their strong
support of such assistance so urgently needed be provided and no effort was apparently
made art all in the few days they sat in what are termed negotiations showing how little
they care about survivors by the thousands remained mired in poverty and lack of
basic care medically mandated by professionals yet still not made available.
Shame on this group of people who say they are negotiating and come up this thee
pitiful results while these survivors apparently are expected somehow to survive with
no care for yet another year of suffering. Why is there no outcry by our
Jewish community as the Congress was quickly able to do so in their strong resolutions
last year? The arrogance of this group unwilling to provide the assistance so clearly
needed yet again, while declaring victory for small improvements, is wrong.
This ongoing tragedy of survivors in need is horrid and in the name of basic
decency must somehow be honestly addressed to alleviate the ongoing human tragedies
we face every day among our brothers and sisters in need.
Of course it is long overdue that the Iasi, Romania victims received compensation
for their suffering. It should not have taken so long, but it cannot be used to obscure
the broader failure of the negotiations – once again.
Survivors are appalled that, once again, the Claims Conference is not increasing
funds for emergency services -- medicines, certain medical procedures, life-critical and
expensive dental care, hearing aids, wheelchairs, transportation to the doctor, and other
services that survivors need for a decent quality of life. These are desperately and
widely needed by Holocaust survivors and obscenely underfunded.
Finally, the announced increase in home care funding, once again, conceals the
greater scandal of grossly insufficient funding for home care. $462 million seems like
a lot, but is tragically low when compared with survivors’ actual real-life needs, and
when spread across the 67,000 survivors worldwide the CC said it served last year.
It is time to end the piecemeal, secret negotiations that have failed to alleviate the
poverty and suffering of so many survivors. Survivors need and deserve a
comprehensive program of care fully funded by Germany for a new life worry free for
the last part of their lives, to be channeled to the survivors through the U.S.
government or directly to survivors. Given the failures of the current system, and
existing programs where Germany pays survivors directly, there is simply no need for
the Claims Conference as a broker or intermediary.
“JUSTICE AND DIGNITY FOR SURVIVORS”
es for5979
campNWand
151 St., Miami
ghetto Lakes, FL 33014
survivors, FAX (305)
when Germany has, supposedly, 231-4242
agreed to lift
caps for home care for camp and ghetto survivors.
 HSF Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation – USA
USA
Member Organizations SIGNED BY THE HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS FOUNDATION USA
(Partial List)
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Amer. Assn. of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors of Greater Boston
Israel Arbeiter, Boston MA
Assn. of Holocaust Survivors from Dena Axelrod, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Former USSR, Los Angeles
Renee Firestone, Los Angeles, CA
C.A.N.D.L.E.S., Terre Haute, IN Sello Fisch, Bronx NY
Child Survivors of Arizona
Ella Frumkin, Los Angeles, CA
Nesse Godin, Washington D.C.
Child Survivors/Hidden Children of
The Holocaust Jay Ipson, Richmond, VA
Coalition of Holocaust Survivor
Louise Lawrence-Israels, Washington D.C.
Clubs in South Florida Herbert Karliner, Miami Beach, FL
Council of Nazi Holocaust Survivor Annette Lantos, Washington, D.C.
Organizations of So. California David Mermelstein, Miami FL
Habonim Cultural Club, Miami Alex Moskovic, Hobe Sound, FL
Leo Rechter, Queens, NY
Holocaust Child Survivors & Shirley Rubin, Boynton Beach, FL
Friends of Greater Hartford
David Schaecter, Miami, FL
Holocaust Survivors Club of
Boca Raton
Anita Schuster, Las Vegas NV
Agnes Vertes, Weston, CT
Holocaust Survivors of
Greater Detroit Esther Widman, Brooklyn NY
Holocaust Survivors of
Greater Pittsburgh

Holocaust Survivors of
South Florida

Holocaust Survivors Group of

Southern Nevada

Houston Council of
Jewish Holocaust Survivors

The Jewish Holocaust Survivors &

Friends of Greater Washington

Jewish Survivors of Latvia, Inc.

New York

National Assn. of Jewish Child

Holocaust Survivors, Inc.

New American Jewish Social Club,

Miami

New Cracow Friendship Society,

New York

Survivors of Atlantic City, NJ

Survivors of the Holocaust Asset

Recovery Project, Seattle

Survivors of the Holocaust of

New Mexico

Tikvah Acharay Hashoah,

San Francisco “JUSTICE AND DIGNITY FOR SURVIVORS”

PHONE (305) 231-0221 Ext. 243 5979 N.W. 151 Street, Miami Lakes, FL 33014 FAX (305) 231-4242
114TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
S. CON. RES. 46

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas the annihilation of 6,000,000 Jews during the Holo-
caust and the murder of millions of others by the Nazi
German state constitutes one of the most tragic and hei-
nous crimes in human history;
Whereas hundreds of thousands of Jews survived persecution
by the Nazi regime despite being imprisoned, subjected to
slave labor, moved into ghettos, forced to live in hiding
or under false identity or curfew, or required to wear the
‘‘yellow star’’;
Whereas in fear of the oncoming Nazi Einsatzgruppen, or
‘‘Nazi Killing Squads’’, and the likelihood of extermi-
nation, hundreds of thousands of Jewish Nazi victims
fled for their lives;
Whereas whatever type of persecution suffered by Jews dur-
ing the Holocaust, the common thread that binds Holo-
caust victims is that they were targeted for extermination
and they lived with a constant fear for their lives and the
lives of their loved ones;
Whereas Holocaust victims immigrated to the United States
from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the
former Soviet Union between 1933 and the date of adop-
tion of this resolution;
 2
Whereas it is estimated that there are at least 100,000 Holo-
caust victims living in the United States and approxi-
mately 500,000 Holocaust victims living around the
world, including child survivors of the Holocaust;
Whereas tens of thousands of Holocaust victims are at least
80 years old, and the number of surviving Holocaust vic-
tims is diminishing;
Whereas at least 50 percent of Holocaust victims alive today
will pass away within the next decade, and those living
victims are becoming frailer and have increasing health
and welfare needs;
Whereas Holocaust victims throughout the world continue to
suffer from permanent physical and psychological injuries
and disabilities and live with the emotional scars of a sys-
tematic genocide against the Jewish people;
Whereas many of the emotional and psychological scars of
Holocaust victims are exacerbated in the old age of the
Holocaust victims;
Whereas the past haunts and overwhelms many aspects of
the lives of Holocaust victims when their health fails
them;
Whereas Holocaust victims suffer particular trauma when
their emotional and physical circumstances force them to
leave the security of their homes and enter institutional
or other group living residential facilities;
Whereas tens of thousands of Holocaust victims live in pov-
erty and cannot afford, and do not receive, sufficient
medical care, home care, mental health care, medicine,
food, transportation, and other vital life-sustaining serv-
ices that allow individuals to live their final years with
comfort and dignity;
† SCON 46 ES
 3
Whereas Holocaust victims often lack family support net-
works and require social worker-supported case manage-
ment in order to manage their daily lives and access gov-
ernment-funded services;
Whereas in response to a letter sent by Members of Congress
to the Minister of Finance of Germany in December
2015 relating to increased funding for Holocaust victims,
German officials acknowledged that ‘‘recent experience
has shown that the care financed by the German Govern-
ment to date is insufficient’’ and that ‘‘it is imperative
to expand these assistance measures quickly given the ad-
vanced age of many of the affected persons’’;
Whereas German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer acknowledged,
in 1951, the responsibility of Germany to provide moral
and financial compensation to Holocaust victims world-
wide;
Whereas every successive German Chancellor has reaffirmed
that acknowledgment, including Chancellor Angela
Merkel, who, in 2007, reaffirmed that ‘‘only by fully ac-
cepting its enduring responsibility for this most appalling
period and for the cruelest crimes in its history, can Ger-
many shape the future’’;
Whereas, in 2015, the spokesperson of Chancellor Angela
Merkel confirmed that ‘‘all Germans know the history of
the murderous race mania of the Nazis that led to the
break with civilization that was the Holocaust . . . we
know the responsibility for this crime against humanity
is German and very much our own’’; and
Whereas Congress believes it is the moral and historical re-
sponsibility of Germany to comprehensively, permanently,
and urgently provide resources for the medical, mental

† SCON 46 ES
 4
health, and long-term care needs of all Holocaust victims:
Now, therefore, be it
1 Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
2 concurring), That Congress—
3 (1) acknowledges the financial and moral com-
4 mitment of the Federal Republic of Germany over
5 the past seven decades to provide a measure of jus-
6 tice for Holocaust victims; and
7 (2) supports the goal of ensuring that all Holo-
8 caust victims in the United States and around the
9 world are able to live with dignity, comfort, and se-
10 curity in their remaining years.
Passed the Senate July 14, 2016.
Attest:

Secretary.

† SCON 46 ES
114TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION S. CON. RES. 46
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing support for the goal of ensuring that all
Holocaust victims live with dignity, comfort, and
security in their remaining years, and urging the
Federal Republic of Germany to continue to reaf-
firm its commitment to comprehensively address
the unique health and welfare needs of vulnerable
Holocaust victims, including home care and other
medically prescribed needs.
The Honorable Lindsey Graham

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee

United States Senate

Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Chairman Graham:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee for giving me the
opportunity to briefly tell my family’s story here today.

I am the son of Holocaust survivors. My mom and dad were teenage boyfriend
and girlfriend in Munich Germany in 1938. In November of that year, the Nazi
regime gave their official approval to begin sanctioned actions against Germany’s
Jews which resulted in Kristallnacht- the night of broken glass. That night, as
thousands of Nazi’s roamed the streets destroying Jewish stores and homes, my
father was taken to the Dachau concentration camp. There, his head was shaved,
his clothes and belongings were taken and he was placed in a barracks with 300
other frightened, bewildered citizens of Germany, who also happened to be
Jewish.

My mother, who’s family owned a clothing store, watched in horror as the display
windows were broken and the inventory looted. By the grace of God, my parents
were ultimately able to leave Germany together and by the grace of the United
States of America, they were able to immigrate here. My father’ mother and
uncle, who he was forced to leave behind, were not so graced and were
murdered by the Nazis.

My parents made a good life for themselves and for my brother and me in Miami.
Through the years they were very frank and open about their previous lives and
shared details with us and their grandchildren.

In their later years, I began doing research on their past lives and discovered in
the year 2011, among other things, that my mother’s parents had taken out an
insurance policy in the 1930’s. The source was a list published by Yad Vashem,
and was originally accumulated by the International Commission for Holocaust
Era Insurance Claims (“ICHEIC”). I found my grandfather’s name, Heinrich Seitz,
my grandmother’s name, Elfriede Seitz, and my mother’s name, Lilly Seitz, all
listed together. Needless to say, I was very happy and I immediately called my
then 92 year old mother and told her the news. My mom confirmed my findings
and was enthused when I explained that we would pursue it. To her, it would
have been an affirmation of her father’s foresight and thoughtfulness.

I learned that ICHEIC had ceased operations, but someone suggested that I
contact the New York Holocaust Claims Processing Office (NYHCPO), because it
was advertised to be willing and able to assist survivors and heirs collect policies
even though ICHEIC was closed. To say this experience was disappointing and
frustrating would be a dramatic understatement. Following a lengthy series
conversations with two employees of the Office, it became apparent to me that
their goal was to discourage participation and complicate the process – anything
except help me obtain payment on my mother’s and her parents’ policies

I have attached my correspondence with the NYHCPO, which documents the

tortured process it followed. I immediately filled out all the forms requested. A
month later I was told they would ask Germany to obtain my family’s restitution
files. Hearing nothing for nearly four months, I asked for a status report and was
told that my family’s German restitution files had no information about insurance.
Then they said they would submit my mother’s information to the German
Insurance Association who would then research German company records for a
match. I heard nothing again for another four months, when further emails from
me finally prompted them to give various excuses that made no sense.

First, the office told me that the list from ICHEIC “may or may not” be the names
of people who “may” have had insurance policies with unnamed German
insurance companies.

My question as to how these three people got on a list if they only “maybe” had a
policy was answered this way: “Your grandfather’s name was very common in
Germany."
“And besides,” she continued. “Your mother’s name is listed as Lilly, which is
obviously a nickname for Lillian. That would never appear on a policy.”

For the record: my mother’s given name, appearing on her birth certificate, is
Lilly.

In addition, my mother recalled that she and my father visited an office in Munich
in the 1970s (she could not remember the name of the company) to inquire about
the dowry policy she KNEW her family had. Her recollection was that the clerk
disappeared behind a door and re-emerged some time later and stated that
Heinrich Seitz had “cashed in this policy.” No dates, no documents, just a clerk’s
word. This certainly does not sound like the efficient German bureaucracy that
actually has records of where and how my father’s mother was machine gunned
on her way to a concentration camp!

In sum, it was painfully obvious that this process reflected the inherent
dishonesty of a system that’s been designed to protect the interests of the ICHEIC
defenders such as the Claims Conference and the State Department, and the
insurance companies. Still later, the NYHCPO sent another email to me with a
lengthy discourse on European economic history which, amazingly, looked like an
attempt to convince claimants that the insurance industry did not profit from the
Holocaust. This is what the New York Holocaust Claims Processing Office was
doing when Stuart Eizenstat and the State Department were touting it as a
resource for recovering survivors’ and heirs’ unpaid policies? It is a disgrace.

In a free and open society, that would leave a claimant with the option of seeking
relief in the judicial system, but that too has been thwarted in this instance.

My mother died three years ago never having had the opportunity to seek relief.
Yet the insurance companies in question continue to conduct business in this
country, very successfully I might add, without fear that they have to do what
their charters mandate: That they collect premiums and pay claims.
My parents taught me that the sins of the fathers not be visited on the children.
I’m sure we can all agree on that. But the inherent responsibilities of a company
that is in the business of trust should be challenged in this great American judicial
system if they breach that trust.

I ask that this committee begin the process to allow that to happen.

Thank you very much.

Harry Rose

Miami, Florida

September 15, 2019

Potential Holocaust Era Insurance Policyholders http://www1.yadvashem.org/pheip/ICHEC_Results.ASP

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About the Project Last Name First Name Last Known Residence Birth Year Where Policy was Issued Insurance Company
Bachseitz Ignaz Germany 1896 List A
Perseitz Veronika Germany List B
Proestler [Seitz] Frieda Germany 1910 List A
Seitz Agathe Germany List B
Seitz Alfons Germany List B
Seitz Anna Germany List B
Seitz Anny Germany List B
Seitz Anton Germany List B
Seitz August Germany List B
Seitz Auguste Germany List B
Seitz Bernhard Germany List B
Seitz Berta Germany List B
Seitz Betty Germany List B
Seitz Brigitte Germany List B
Seitz Eduard Germany List B
Seitz Elfriede Germany List B
Seitz Elisabeth Germany
Grandmother List B
Seitz Elise Germany List B
Seitz Elly Germany List B
Seitz Else Germany List B
Seitz Emma Germany List B
Seitz Erich Germany List B
Seitz Erna Germany List B
Seitz Ernst Germany List B
Seitz Erwin Germany List B
Seitz Erwin
Seitz Eugen Germany List B
Seitz Eva Germany List B
Seitz Ferdinand Germany List B
Seitz Franz Germany List B
Seitz Franziska Germany List B
Seitz Franziska Germany 1893 List A
Seitz Frida Germany List B
Seitz Friedrich Germany List B
Seitz Georg Germany List B
Seitz Georg Germany 1908 List A
Seitz Gertrud Germany List B
Seitz Hans Germany List B
Seitz Heinrich Germany List B
Seitz Heinz Germany
Grandfather List B
Seitz Hermann Germany List B
Seitz Hildegard Germany List B
Seitz Hugo Germany List B
Seitz Irmgard Germany List B
Seitz Jakob Germany List B
Seitz Johann Germany List B
Seitz Josef Germany List B
Seitz Josefa Germany List B
Seitz Josepha Germany List B
Seitz Karl Germany List B
Seitz Katharina Germany List B
Seitz Kuni Germany List B
Seitz Kuni Deutschland
Seitz Kurt Germany List B
Seitz Kurt Germany 1904 List A
Seitz Lilly Germany List B
Seitz Lore Germany Mother List B
Seitz Ludwig Germany List B
Seitz Luise Germany List B
Seitz Magdalena Germany List B
Seitz Margarete Germany List B
Seitz Maria Germany List B
Seitz Marianne Germany List B
Seitz Marie Germany List B
Seitz Martha Germany List B
Seitz Mathilde Germany List B
Seitz Max Germany List B
Seitz Michael Germany List B
Seitz Michel Germany List B
Seitz Otto Germany List B
Seitz Otto Germany 1902 List A

1 of 2 12/2/2011 5:04 PM
Ms. Anna Rubin 
New York State Banking Department 
The Holocaust Processing Office 
One State Street 
New York, NY 10004‐1511 
 
 
April 25, 2011 
 
 
Dear Ms. Rubin: 
 
I am writing on behalf of my mother, who at 90 is still capable, but prefers that I do the writing. In 
addition, I was encouraged to write to you by a prominent South Florida attorney who has taken up the 
cause of survivor insurance benefits and steered me (hopefully) in the right direction. 
 
My mother Lilly Rose, nee Seitz left her mother and father behind in Munich in 1938 after her then‐
boyfriend and eventual husband of  65 years (my dad), was released from Dachau and told to get out of 
The Reich. Her parents owned a successful clothing store and considered themselves good German 
citizens up until their store was taken. Her father died in 1943 and her mother went into hiding, 
emerging from a farmer’s barn in 1945. 
 
My mother and fathers journey took them to London, New York and eventually Miami, where they 
raised my brother and I in a solid middle class home. During those years I often heard the stories and we 
went back to Munich several times.  
 
As the years passed, and particularly since my father died 5 years ago, my mother has grown more and 
more wistful and resentful of what was taken from her as a girl. I have taken those emotions to heart 
and began a process to identify any thing that can be “returned” to her while she still understands and 
can benefit. That led me to the ICHEC and contact with the attorney. 
 
My grandfather Heinrich Seitz, my grandmother Elfriede  Seitz and my mother Lilly appear on the list. 
Conversations with my mother confirm at least some recollections of insurance, but no details. I have 
attached the forms from your website and request that the process begin for my family. I want to do 
WHATEVER it takes to move this process along while my mother is still here. I trust you will help me in 
this endeavor.  
 
Sincerely 
 
 
 
Harry Rose 
14535 SW 95 Ave 
Miami, FL 33176 
hrose@mindspring.com 
305‐803‐7014 

 
Harry Rose
From: Anna.Rubin@banking.state.ny.us
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 10:40 AM
To: hrose@mindspring.com
Subject: Insurance Claims

Dear Mr. Rose,

Thank you for your letter dated April 25, 2011 regarding possible insurance policies owned by your relatives, please
accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you. The Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO) would be very
happy to be of whatever assistance possible with respect to restitution/compensation claims.

The completed claim forms which you provided will serve as a basis for our investigation and submission of claims to
appropriate companies/organizations. We have already sent out inquiries to archives in Germany for documentation
concerning your family's prewar assets and the postwar disposition of their possessions. This part of the process can take
some time, though the German archives are quite responsive to us (having worked closely with us for over a decade) and
so it is my hope that we will have something from them shortly. Before we submit a claim to an insurance company we do
our utmost to obtain as much documentation as possible about an individuals lost assets, this way claims can be more
focused and processed more speedily.

As soon as we receive information/documentation from the archives I will be sure to share a copies with you. In the
meantime if you have any questions or concerns regarding the HCPO, our methodology, or your inquiry please do not
hesitate to contact us.

With kind regards,

Anna

---
Anna B. Rubin, Esq.
Director
Holocaust Claims Processing Office
State of New York Banking Department
1 State Street
New York, NY 10004
US Toll Free: 1-800-695-3318
International: 212-709-5583
Fax: 212-709-5592
Website: www.claims.state.ny.us

-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1375 / Virus Database: 1509/3659 - Release Date: 05/25/11

1
Harry Rose
From: Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 3:08 PM
To: hrose@mindspring.com
Subject: Re: Fw: Insurance Claims
Attachments: Post-war comp. docs.pdf

Dear Mr. Rose,

As Anna is out of the office, she asked me to respond to your email.

Please allow me to provide you with a brief update on your mother's claim. We received post-war compensation
documents from German with reference to Heinrich and Elfriede Seitz (see attached). Although the file does not provide
any information concerning insurance, I am confident the documents are invaluable with reference to your family history.

Had there been details concerning post-war compensation of a policy, it would not be necessary to submit a claim today.
In the alternative, had there been mention of an uncompensated insurance policy it would have possibly provided us with
information to guide us as to where to submit your mother’s claim.

Given that we have no specific information beyond the name matches for your family on the Potential Holocaust Era
Insurance Policyholders List, we will submit your mother's claim to the German Insurance Association. In turn, they will
circulate her claim to their member companies. This ensures that all companies that did business review their records to
determine if your family had an insurance policy. It is a very comprehensive search so this too will take some time,
therefore we ask for your continued patience.

Kind regards,
Connie Walsh

______________________
Connie Walsh, Esq.
Deputy Director
Holocaust Claims Processing Office
New York State Banking Department
One State Street
New York, New York 10004-1511

U.S.Toll Free: 1-800-695-3318

International: 212-709-5583
Fax: 212-709-5592
Website: www.banking.state.ny.us

Please note my e-mail address has changed to Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov

----- Original Message -----

From: "Harry Rose" [hrose@mindspring.com]
Sent: 08/16/2011 11:55 AM AST
To: <Anna.Rubin@banking.state.ny.us>
Subject: Insurance Claims

1
Ms Rubin:
Following up on your email from May 25, 2011 regarding our claims for unpaid
insurance, please provide me with an update concerning the German
government's "documentation concerning your family's prewar assets and the
postwar disposition of their possessions".

It has been about 4 months since our last correspondence and an update would
be greatly appreciated. I have included your initial email to me below as
reference.

Thank you

Harry Rose
HBRose Associates, LLC
305-476-6039
305-476-1519 (fax)

____________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________

Wed 5/25/2011 10:40 AM

Dear Mr. Rose,

Thank you for your letter dated April 25, 2011 regarding possible insurance
policies owned by your relatives, please accept my apologies for the delay
in responding to you. The Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO) would be
very happy to be of whatever assistance possible with respect to
restitution/compensation claims.

The completed claim forms which you provided will serve as a basis for our
investigation and submission of claims to appropriate
companies/organizations. We have already sent out inquiries to archives in
Germany for documentation concerning your family's prewar assets and the
postwar disposition of their possessions. This part of the process can take
some time, though the German archives are quite responsive to us (having
worked closely with us for over a decade) and so it is my hope that we will
have something from them shortly. Before we submit a claim to an insurance
company we do our utmost to obtain as much documentation as possible about
an individuals lost assets, this way claims can be more focused and
processed more speedily.

As soon as we receive information/documentation from the archives I will be

sure to share a copies with you. In the meantime if you have any questions
or concerns regarding the HCPO, our methodology, or your inquiry please do
not hesitate to contact us.

With kind regards,

Anna

- - -
Anna B. Rubin, Esq.
Director
Holocaust Claims Processing Office
State of New York Banking Department
1 State Street
New York, NY 10004
US Toll Free: 1-800-695-3318
2
International: 212-709-5583
Fax: 212-709-5592
Website: www.claims.state.ny.us

No virus found in this message.

Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1392 / Virus Database: 1520/3838 - Release Date: 08/16/11

3
Harry Rose
From: Harry Rose [hrose@mindspring.com]
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2011 5:33 PM
To: 'Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov'
Subject: RE: Fw: Insurance Claims

Ms Walsh: 
It has now been 31/2 months since our last correspondence regarding my mother’s claim.  
I would appreciate an update or any other news you might share with me. 
I am following the current activities in Washington with great interest and continue to remain in contact with the 
attorney here in Miami, who is following my mother’s case with great interest. 
Thank you. 
 
Harry Rose 
Marketing, Advertising,Communications 
HBRose Associates, LLC 
305‐476‐6039 
305‐476‐1519 (fax) 
 
From: Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov [mailto:Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 4:10 PM
To: Harry Rose
Subject: RE: Fw: Insurance Claims

Dear Mr. Rose,

We have everything we need. I have prepared the claim and will be submitting it tomorrow to the GDV (German
Insurance Association).

As soon as I hear anything, I will be sure to contact you.

All the best,

Connie

______________________
Connie Walsh, Esq.
Deputy Director
Holocaust Claims Processing Office
New York State Banking Department
One State Street
New York, New York 10004-1511

U.S.Toll Free: 1-800-695-3318

International: 212-709-5583
Fax: 212-709-5592
Website: www.banking.state.ny.us

Please note my e-mail address has changed to Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov

"Harry Rose" <hrose@mindspring.com> To <Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov>

cc
08/16/2011 03:50 PM Subject RE: Fw: Insurance Claims

1
Dear Ms. Walsh
Thank you for your timely reply. From what I can see from these documents, they seem to be focused on the property my 
grandparents owned in Munich, including the department store and the apartments.
Since there is no mention of insurance, I would agree that your office should now proceed with claims against the insurance 
companies.
I am again convinced that there is something to pursue since all three names (Grandfather, Grandmother and Mother) appear on 
this list.
As I had indicated in my initial contact with your office, a prominent attorney involved in Holocaust issues here in Miami urges me to 
continue on with this claim.
I trust you will contact me if you need anything else to continue, and that you will contact me as you get information.
Again, thank you for your efforts.
 
Harry Rose
HBRose Associates, LLC
305-476-6039
305-476-1519 (fax)
From: Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov [mailto:Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 3:08 PM
To: hrose@mindspring.com
Subject: Re: Fw: Insurance Claims

Dear Mr. Rose,

As Anna is out of the office, she asked me to respond to your email.

Please allow me to provide you with a brief update on your mother's claim. We received post-war compensation
documents from German with reference to Heinrich and Elfriede Seitz (see attached). Although the file does not provide
any information concerning insurance, I am confident the documents are invaluable with reference to your family history.

Had there been details concerning post-war compensation of a policy, it would not be necessary to submit a claim today.
In the alternative, had there been mention of an uncompensated insurance policy it would have possibly provided us with
information to guide us as to where to submit your mother’s claim.

Given that we have no specific information beyond the name matches for your family on the Potential Holocaust Era
Insurance Policyholders List, we will submit your mother's claim to the German Insurance Association. In turn, they will
circulate her claim to their member companies. This ensures that all companies that did business review their records to
determine if your family had an insurance policy. It is a very comprehensive search so this too will take some time,
therefore we ask for your continued patience.

Kind regards,
Connie Walsh

______________________
Connie Walsh, Esq.
Deputy Director
Holocaust Claims Processing Office
New York State Banking Department
One State Street
New York, New York 10004-1511

U.S.Toll Free: 1-800-695-3318

International: 212-709-5583
Fax: 212-709-5592

2
Website: www.banking.state.ny.us

Please note my e-mail address has changed to Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov

----- Original Message -----

From: "Harry Rose" [hrose@mindspring.com]
Sent: 08/16/2011 11:55 AM AST
To: <Anna.Rubin@banking.state.ny.us>
Subject: Insurance Claims

Ms Rubin:
Following up on your email from May 25, 2011 regarding our claims for unpaid
insurance, please provide me with an update concerning the German
government's "documentation concerning your family's prewar assets and the
postwar disposition of their possessions".

It has been about 4 months since our last correspondence and an update would
be greatly appreciated. I have included your initial email to me below as
reference.

Thank you

Harry Rose
HBRose Associates, LLC
305-476-6039
305-476-1519 (fax)

____________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________

Wed 5/25/2011 10:40 AM

Dear Mr. Rose,

Thank you for your letter dated April 25, 2011 regarding possible insurance
policies owned by your relatives, please accept my apologies for the delay
in responding to you. The Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO) would be
very happy to be of whatever assistance possible with respect to
restitution/compensation claims.

The completed claim forms which you provided will serve as a basis for our
investigation and submission of claims to appropriate
companies/organizations. We have already sent out inquiries to archives in
Germany for documentation concerning your family's prewar assets and the
postwar disposition of their possessions. This part of the process can take
some time, though the German archives are quite responsive to us (having
worked closely with us for over a decade) and so it is my hope that we will
have something from them shortly. Before we submit a claim to an insurance
company we do our utmost to obtain as much documentation as possible about
an individuals lost assets, this way claims can be more focused and
processed more speedily.

3
As soon as we receive information/documentation from the archives I will be
sure to share a copies with you. In the meantime if you have any questions
or concerns regarding the HCPO, our methodology, or your inquiry please do
not hesitate to contact us.

With kind regards,

Anna

- - -
Anna B. Rubin, Esq.
Director
Holocaust Claims Processing Office
State of New York Banking Department
1 State Street
New York, NY 10004
US Toll Free: 1-800-695-3318
International: 212-709-5583
Fax: 212-709-5592
Website: www.claims.state.ny.us

No virus found in this message.

Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1392 / Virus Database: 1520/3838 - Release Date: 08/16/11

No virus found in this message.

Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1392 / Virus Database: 1520/3838 - Release Date: 08/16/11

4
From: Harry Rose [mailto:hrose@mindspring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 3:07 PM
To: 'Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov'
Subject: RE: insurance claim- Seitz

Dear Ms Walsh

I have read and re-read your explanation, and the response from the GDV since receiving them last
week, and I must confess, I am confused and bewildered by the response.

The names of my relatives appear on this list WITHOUT any actions on my part or the part of my family.
They were added by some process which, if your explanation is to believed, was based on the religion of
the listees and then culled by date of birth. I guess that this would beg the question as to why no one
from my father’s side of the family appear on any list, since they were all Jewish and German. Add to
this the fact that my grandfather (Heinrich Seitz) was born a Catholic and married my grandmother, a
Jew, and the entire process seems to be based on a random set of criteria. In addition your explanation
that Lilly is (or could be) short for Elizabeth, reveals nothing. My mother’s name ON HER BIRTH
CERTIFICATE is Lilly. If this is a list prepared by and for the insurance companies, I find the odds that all
three of my relatives would appear on this list without a solid basis in fact to be overwhelmingly remote.

Another point. My mother and father visited an office in Munich in the 1970’s (she cannot remember
which office) to inquire about the dowry policy she KNOWS her family had. Her recollection was that the
clerk disappeared behind a door and re-emerged some time later and stated that Heinrich Seitz had
“cashed this policy in.” No dates, no documents, just a clerks word. This certainly does not sound like
the efficient German bureaucracy that actually has records of where and how my father’s mother was
machine gunned on her way to concentration camp!

When I began this process for my mother I was confident that this would result in a fair review. I
deliberately held back the information regarding the dowry policy to see if it would be revealed, but it
was not. Naturally this makes the entire process suspect and confirms the warnings given to me by local
activists that the ICHEIC process is, shall we say, suspect.

I have not had the courage to tell my mother the results of the GDV “decision”, but the GDV has just
created a new activist (me). I have already sent information to my Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
and pledged to support her initiative to allow policy holders to bring suit in U.S. state courts. I suppose
that Allianz, AXA and the other companies have done their cost benefit analysis and determined that
they can ride this issue out. Perhaps they will but they may be underestimating the power of public
opinion in a righteous cause.

Thank you for reading this and please let me know if there is an appeals process or other steps I may
take at this time.

Harry Rose
Marketing, Advertising, Communications
HBRose Associates, LLC
305-476-6039
305-476-1519 (fax)
From: Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov [mailto:Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2011 2:27 PM
To: Harry Rose
Subject: insurance claim

Dear Mr. Rose,

Thank you for your emails. While your congratulations are kind, you have our agency confused with the
Claims Conference. They are a separate agency and were responsible for the negotiations that you
noted. It is a common mistake so not to worry.

With regards to the insurance claim your mother submitted, please find attached a copy of GDV decision
our office received. Though I am sure this is not the answer you were hoping for, I would like to reiterate
that the companies have indeed done a thorough search but they were unable to find a match to your
family.

Permit me to provide some additional background information for you on the International Commission on
Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) policyholders' list. The names Heinrich Seitz, Elfriede Seitz
and Lilly Seitz do appear on the ICHEIC policyholders’ list, however as you may know “Seitz” is a very
common German name. In addition, these “name matches” have a “List B” notation which indicates it is
a low possibility that an insurance policy for this individual Jewish policyholder existed. This is due to how
the matching exercise was conducted during the ICHEIC process.

The matching process through ICHEIC was extensive and took approximately two years. In brief, there
were approximately 2 million potential "Jewish” resident names from Germany (the last 1933 census
however stated that only approximately 550,000 Germans of Jewish faith lived in Germany) that where
matched with more than 9 million policyholder names of whom nobody knew the religious faith. Two lists
were created: “List A” included individuals where the last name, first name and date of birth (with some
variations) matched and “List B” included individuals where only two criteria matched with a much wider
range of criteria variations.

For example, on List B if you had a “Jewish list last name entry” “Black” it would be matched with a
“policyholder list last name entry” “Schwarz” (German for Black) and it would be considered a “match”.
So, if in this case a second criteria (e.g. first name, year of birth, etc.) “matched” (even with variations in
the second match) the name would be included in “List B”.

List A included approximately 160,000 names and List B included approximately 200,000
names. Together these two lists comprised the “German contribution” of 360,000 names to ICHEIC’s
overall name list of 520,000 individuals.

Given that not only the last name “Seitz” is common, the first names “Heinrich”, “Elfriede” and “Lilly”
(“Elisabeth”) are also very common in Germany,
it is highly plausible that the first and last name are an identical match and thus there is a “2 criteria
match” for List B but when the companies did their research with the 3 criteria (last name, first name and
date of birth) they did not come up with a positive match for your family.

I trust the above information is helpful. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Sincerely,
Connie Walsh
______________________
Connie Walsh, Esq.
Deputy Director
Holocaust Claims Processing Office
New York State Department of Financial Services
One State Street
New York, New York 10004-1511

U.S.Toll Free: 1-800-695-3318

International: 212-709-5583
Fax: 212-709-5592
Website: www.dfs.ny.gov

"Harry Rose" <hrose@mindspring.com> To <Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov>

cc
12/06/2011 05:16 PM
Subject Congratulations

rsion: 2012.0.1873 / Virus Database: 2102/4665 - Release Date: 12/07/11

 Harry Rose
Marketing, Advertising,Communications
HBRose Associates, LLC
305-476-6039
305-476-1519 (fax)

From: Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov [mailto:Connie.Walsh@dfs.ny.gov]

Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2011 4:32 PM
To: Harry Rose
Subject: RE: insurance claim- Seitz

Dear Mr. Rose,

There is no appeals process, however if we were able to obtain new documentation concerning a policy
our office can submit this information to the insurance company for further review. With the additional
details you provided we will do our utmost to continue our research efforts.

Indeed the compensation and restitution of Holocaust-era insurance policies is confusing at best. Even
the most well-intentioned claims process can never fully compensate an individual for his/her loss. With
that said, I am sure that you can also appreciate the difficulty faced by those working to ensure resolution
of these claims.

Please permit me to provide you with some additional background on the period. The moderate
economic growth that bloomed in the wake of the First World War was quickly curtailed by the decline in
agricultural prices, which were disastrous for the predominantly agrarian central Europe, and the Great
Depression which followed the collapse of the New York stock market in 1929. As a result, in 1936, the
largest insurance company within Austria, Phoenix, went bankrupt. Its collapse caused major upheavals
in the insurance industry all across Europe.

In the first years of the Nazi regime, Aryanization of the private insurance industry proceeded for the most
part at the highest levels among the board members and top executives. After 1938, dismissal of Jewish
employees of insurance companies because pervasive. Deprived of their livelihoods, many policyholders
cashed in insurance policies to pay their bills or to pay off mandated taxes before they could emigrate.

th
The passage of the 11 Decree of the Reich Citizenship Law of November 1941 ultimately stripped all
Jewish “emigrants” of their assets and the seizure of Jewish insurance assets proceeded with greater
rapidity.

The situation in Poland and the Baltics was still more complex because Soviet occupation preceded Nazi
invasion and the Soviets carried out their own seizures and confiscations based on the principle of class
warfare. Therefore, many individuals had already lost many of their assets by the time the Germans
occupied these territories.

After World War II, all foreign and domestic insurance companies in Poland, Czechoslovakia and
Hungary were nationalized. Since there is no successor to a nationalized domestic company there is
nowhere to turn unless the claimant can establish the existence of the policy independently from the
company.
As you know gaps in post-war programs of restitution, prompted negotiations between the National
Association of Insurance Commissioners, European insurance regulars and insurance companies and
Jewish groups led to the creation of ICHEIC to investigate and resolve unpaid insurance claims of
Holocaust victims, survivors and their heirs. Although ICHEIC closed in 2007, every company that was a
member of commission as well as companies of the German Insurance Association, through its
partnership agreement reaffirmed their commitment to continue to review and process claims sent directly
to them.

I must reiterate that a name match from the ICHEIC policyholders' list does not necessarily
translate into an award. Because the account holder list published on the ICHEIC website was
pulled from multiple sources the same name may appear more than once on the list. In addition,
the fact that a name appeared on the list did not guarantee that the individual named or his or her
heirs or beneficiaries would have qualified for payment under ICHEIC guidelines. For example,
there may have been instances where there was a name match but it was not the same individual
that a particular claimant had filed for. Moreover, additional research may have also indicated that
the claim was previously settled or paid which then precluded it from further consideration under
ICHEIC.

Again, I know this is not the answer you had hoped for but I do trust the information is helpful. I will
forward your mother a copy of the GDV decision next week.

Sincerely,

Connie Walsh

______________________
Connie Walsh, Esq.
Deputy Director
Holocaust Claims Processing Office
New York State Department of Financial Services
One State Street
New York, New York 10004-1511

U.S.Toll Free: 1-800-695-3318

International: 212-709-5583
Fax: 212-709-5592
Website: www.dfs.ny.gov
Larry Levi, MA,
CA Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, LMFT #47251
1180 S. Beverly Drive, Suite 608
Los Angeles, CA 90035
310.492.5005

September 14, 2019

Honorable Lindsey Graham

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

First, I first want to thank you for holding a hearing on the issues facing
Holocaust survivors and their family members.

I would like to tell you the story of my great-grandmother, Rosetta Fubini,

who was a victim of the Holocaust. She was born in Torino in 1866, one of
thirteen children. She married Teodoro Sacerdote and they founded a haute
couture design and manufacturing plant in Torino named Atelier Sacerdote
which was very successful, and in 1909 their business employed around 100
employees.

They purchased a fashionable apartment building in Torino at Corso Fiume

17, with twelve full sized units, and lived in one of them on the third floor.
Members of my family have lived there continuously since that time. We
have a cousin who still lives there today. The Sacerdotes had four children,
including my grandmother Amalia. Circa 1932 they posed for a photo in my
grandparent’s garden with three of their children and four of their
grandchildren [photo attached]. Wishing to protect her family financially
Rosetta purchased a life insurance policy in 1937 from Generali.

When repressive anti-semitic laws under Mussolini were inacted my father

and his immediate family decided to leave Italy in 1939. Rosetta and
Teodoro, in their 70’s, remained in Italy and went into hiding in a convent in
Alassio, Italy. The whereabouts of my great-grandparents were betrayed and
both were arrested on April 17th, 1944. They were incarcerated first in
Genoa at the Marasi prison and the following month were transferred to the
detention camp in Fossili. Teodoro, already frail at the time of his arrest,
died within three weeks. Before he was buried in a common grave Rosetta
tied his jaw shut with a white scarf and placed a yellow veil over his face so
he could be identified later. We know this from six letters that she managed
to send to the family during her detention at that Italian internment camp.
She endured close to three months at Fossili before she was put onto Convoy
#13 along with 527 other prisoners (of whom only 35 survived the war). She
languished for four days traveling in a windowless cattle car to Auschwitz
where she was unceremoniously murdered on June 30th 1944, the day of her
arrival. These details of her fate were acquired from war documents
compiled by the SS and published in the book Il Libro della Memoria, The
Book of the Memory.

About ten years ago my family searched the International Commission on

Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, ICHEIC, web site but we found no
matching family name on the list. Our family names of Sacerdote, Fubini,
and Levi were all possibilities but none of those names appeared on the
ICHEIC list. Nonetheless, my brother, Steven, who is a professional
researcher, read some of the previous media about the Holocaust insurance
issues, and about the Italian company “Generali.” He persisted in seeking
information. Eventually, Generali acknowledged it did indeed have a record
of a policy in the name of our great grandmother, Rosetta Fubini
Sacerdote. Amazingly it took a professional historian, my brother, to track
down the policy.

Generali agreed to pay “ICHEIC value” for the policy. ICHEIC values were
a fraction of what an economist would have assigned; they were based on
politics, not economics. In this case, the family policy had a face value
of 32,400 Italian Lira in 1937, about $1700 in U.S. dollars at the
time. However, using the ICHEIC values, Generali offered the heirs (my
mother, Janice Houghton Levi, and my second-cousin Giulia Sorani of
Torino, Italy) a total of 5,460 Euro, or $6,880 USD in 2006. This amount is
woefully inadequate; according to Sid Zabludoff, the economist who
performed much of ICHEIC’s research, if the policy was brought to present
value using a conservative 30-year bond yield, the policy was worth
about $60,000 in the year 2000 and $90,519 in 2019. (According to
Zabludoff, the 30 year U.S. bond yield is the way other U.S. government
post-war programs update pre-war values.) It is known that Generali and
other insurers earned far higher rates of return on their diversified portfolios
than the 30-year bond yield. But ICHEIC accepted the ridiculously low
valuation that was given by Generali. Under the court cases we have
discussed, the family had no other recourse than to accept this inadequate
offer.

Here is one of the more troubling aspects of this case: Generali did nothing
after the war to locate Rosetta Sacerdote or her heirs. After the war, two of
Rosetta’s children lived in Torino, where Rosetta and Teodoro lived. Rosetta
and Teodoro’s son Rodolfo was a well-known lawyer who lived and
practiced in Torino, and Rosetta’s daughter Maria Levi lived in the same
apartment building in Torino where her parents had lived when Rosetta
purchased her life insurance policy. Generali could easily have found and
paid the heirs to settle this case; instead they did nothing. Yet on its website,
Generali reports that at its general meeting in the year 1946, it “reconciled
its accounts through 1944.” If my family could go to court along with the
many other families in the same situation, it would be very revealing to find
out how Generali accounted for their life insurance policy payouts to their
holocaust victims.

I end this short history of Rosetta and Teodoro with some of her words that
we are blessed to have from her letters sent from the Fossili internment
camp:

"My husband died June 11th of bronchial pneumonia. He died upon a bed
of straw. He had so much desire to live. He said often that he heard music;
he wanted very badly to see the end of the war but instead he died with my
immense sorrow. I feel alone abandoned at the mercy of events.

“On Monday we are leaving for a camp in Germany and I cannot express to
you my terrible grief because in my state of health, grief and bewilderment I
surely cannot survive the trip. I ask my children to move the body of my
husband to Torino to be next to his son as soon as possible. He's buried in
the temporary Jewish cemetery number six anyway. Before moving him,
open the coffin; he's dressed in his complete black suit with white stripes. A
yellow veil and white silk scarf on his face holds his jaw shut. If it's
possible, it would please me if you also transfer my body as well. I beg of
you, my children, to love each other. I would like to write at length but I
have no paper. I can find no paper.”
“I am desperate. They talk of going to Selisia and we will be with the SS.
I will never see my children again and I am terrorized by the long trip.”

“Grief and sorrow are our daily bread. I cry desolately, alone and helpless.”

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Larry Levi, MA, MFT

PHOTOS DESCRIBED BY LARRY LEVI

Below is a photo from 1932: Rosetta and Teodoro Sacerdote’s family.

Teodoro is in the middle of the bench and Rosetta is seated next to the young
boy. Mario, my father, is the man furthest to the left.
Rosetta’s original letters which my cousin keeps in Italy:
Rosetta and Teodoro Sacerdote, date unknown
 STATEMENT OF HERBERT KARLINER

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE

ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Righting the Enduring Wrongs of the Holocaust:

Insurance Accountability and Rail Justice

November 16, 2011

My name is Herbert Karliner. I was a child in 1939 when my family, and hundreds of other Jews
on the SS St. Louis trying to escape Hitler were turned away by this great country. When we returned to
Europe, my mother, my father, and my two sister and hundreds of others were killed. Needless to say,
this tragedy has affected my entire life.

Last month, I participated in a Georgetown University symposium held to honor the memory of
the St. Louis victims, and to examine in depth the perfidy of American officials who allowed hundreds of
Jews to be rejected by the greatest democracy in world history and sent back to Hitler’s maniacal Europe
as a symbol of the world’s indifference toward Jewish lives. During that seminar, I believed it was
imperative, as I do now on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, to speak about today’s terrible hypocrisy in
official Washington and in some Jewish organizational circles toward the rights and interests of Holocaust
survivors. Despite all of the talk about honoring the memory of the Holocaust, we survivors are second
class citizens under American law, and thousands of impoverished survivors here and the world over
have been allowed to suffer in pain and loneliness in the midst of such abundance, and within earshot of
speech after speech and ceremony after ceremony intoning “Never Again.”

During those tumultuous days, my father Joseph Karliner told my brother and me about an
Allianz life insurance policy that he bought to provide for us if something happened, and even gave us the
number. When we approached Allianz after the war, they said his policy had been paid out to an
“unknown person.”

When the International Commission for Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) was created in
1998, my brother and I applied. Like many survivors and family members, we wanted to believe the
process was worth trying. However, like most survivors and family members, we were bitterly
disappointed by a process that seemed rigged against us. Allianz admitted it sold insurance to my
father, but it refused to pay saying the funds had been “paid out to the policy holder.” We doubted this
was true, but neither Allianz nor ICHEIC provided us with any documents, so there was no way for us to
challenge this decision under ICHEIC rules.

I recently obtained papers from the German consulate showing that the “repurchase” document
was supposedly signed by my father on November 9, 1938 – Kristallnacht. If Allianz or ICHEIC gave me
this document at the time I applied, I would have pointed out that on that day, my father’s store was
burned down and he was taken from our home to Buchenwald. Though I was a small child, this is
something you never forget.
I seriously doubt that my father stopped by the Allianz office on his way to Buchenwald to cash in
his life insurance policy. But since I am not allowed to go to the American courts to recover my property,
Allianz will have “inherited” the proceeds of my father’s insurance policy – worth more than $180,000
today.

There was another ridiculous ICHEIC practice that caused great harm to claimants. The ICHEIC
web site posted the names of several men and women whom I knew to be my relatives, because I was
familiar with their names and their hometowns, and I inquired about their policies as well. Allianz
admitted that several of the named individuals had indeed purchased Allianz policies, but it refused to
give me any information unless I could provide their dates of birth. This was impossible, because I was a
9 years old when WWII began, and I had no conceivable way of knowing the birthdates of adult relatives

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who died in the Holocaust. But Allianz was fully within its rights under ICHEIC rules to simply deny us
this information about insured relatives for whom my brother and I were the likely heirs.

So, even when companies followed ICHEIC’s “rules,” the system was stacked against the
survivors, their family members, the legal heirs.

It is tragic that even in the year 2011, these deceptions have been accepted and perpetuated by
our very own government. Shockingly, the United States government has taken the position that we
survivors cannot go to court to sue Allianz and Generali and other insurance companies who cheated us
and our families. Yet in recent years our Government has fought against Holocaust survivors in the
name of foreign policy and executive power, even misrepresenting past agreements, and giving the
insurance companies like Allianz and Generali victories worth billions of dollars (over $20 billion in 2011
dollars).

After I survived the war in hiding in France, I moved to the United States in 1949. I served in the
U.S. Army in the Korean War. Although this great country turned me and my family away in 1939, and
caused incredible life-long grief, in 1951 Uncle Sam “wanted me” and I was honored to serve. However,
it is truly outrageous that today, because I am a Holocaust survivor, I am singled out among all American
citizens in that I cannot take Allianz to court to demand the truth about my family legacy, and I cannot
recover the value of my father’s policy.

It is equally appalling that non-survivor Jewish groups like the American Jewish Committee, the
Claims Conference, the Anti Defamation League, B’nai B’rith, and the World Jewish Congress are also
supporting the insurance companies against us. ADL and AJC have even taken their money too. We
are outraged by any Jewish groups arrogantly interfering with our rights, especially those who failed to
help us in our extreme time of need. By what tortured logic or moral principle do such organizations –
who are not authorized by survivors, do not represent survivors, have never even spoken with survivors,
and certainly are not accountable to survivors – presume to interfere with our individual constitutional
rights as American citizens? Their arrogance is criminal, and the results have been devastating.

As we commemorate the 73rd anniversary of Kristallnacht, the observance was again riddled with
tragic irony. Half of the survivors in this country live near or below the poverty level, and tens of
thousands died in misery, many before their time, without adequate health care, dental care, nutrition,
shelter, eyeglasses, medicines, and home care. As a volunteer for the Jewish Community Services in
Miami, I can certify that far too many survivors are not getting the help they need to live in dignity.
Meanwhile, these non-survivor groups and our own government have been protecting the global insurers
hoarding billions they owe survivors.

Our colleagues have suffered incalculable tragedies and unspeakable crimes, most losing all or
most of their loved ones. To have no understanding or willingness to help in regard to Nazi stolen assets
like paid up insurance contracts which are not given back is intolerable. Instead of holding Allianz and
other companies truly accountable, if you look down the street in this City, no one seems to care. To the
contrary, the companies are spending millions lobbying Congress to keep survivors from getting what is
owed to us.

Let me remind the Committee just who Allianz was, and what it is today. It has never denied its
intimate relationship to the Nazi regime. In 1933, Allianz chairman Kurt Schmitt, who was an early Nazi
party member, became Hitler’s Minister of Economics. Allianz provided the Reich with insurance
coverage for Auschwitz and other death camps. During this same period of time, Allianz and its affiliates
were selling policies to European Jews and handing over Jewish customers’ files to the Nazis. Allianz
escaped serious prosecution after the war, and its former employees who served in the SS or the Nazi
party went right back to their old jobs. Between the end of the war and today, according to economist
Sidney Zabludoff, Allianz failed to honor over $2 billion in policies it had sold to Jewish customers.

When Allianz tried to cynically sweep this past under the carpet and pay $300 million to name the
new pro football stadium in the Meadowlands in 2008, thanks to some outstanding reporting the public

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learned about Allianz and demanded the deal be scratched. Unfortunately, others have not been so
principled. Today, National Public Radio, CNBC, and American Public Media are taking Allianz’s money,
shamelessly using their respected positions to launder the company’s past.

You will also be shocked to learn that Garrison Keillor, and A Prairie Home Companion, are also
taking Allianz’s sponsorship money! And, they refuse to even respond to letters of inquiry from
Holocaust survivors and our supporters. When one listener inquired through the program web site, the
response was even more startling – with the official response insisting they are not responsible for such
program sponsorship and do not take any responsibilities for broadcasts sponsored by Allianz.

We pray that this hearing, convened by the Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a great champion of
Holocaust survivors’ rights, will bring change at long last. We pray that Congress will make a
commitment to ensuring that we survivors obtain the truth about our families' legacies, including a full
accounting from all corporate profiteers, passing HR 890 and its Senate counterpart S. 466. . And,
maybe at long last, all survivors will be afforded the dignity they deserve in their last years. This will
happen only if Congress acts now to restore our rights and insist that the Holocaust profiteers disgorge
everything they stole. This is what remembrance -- and justice -- demand.

I would like to add a word about the French Railroad bill. We support all survivors’ rights to full
compensation for Holocaust era wrongs, no matter how many years have passed, no matter how
powerful the culprit is today. This certainly includes the French Rail legislation. However, for the
record, I would like the committee to know that when the St. Louis was returned to Europe, we were taken
to France. My parents and sisters were deported by the French Railroad to their deaths in the camps.
Due to my young age, I managed to survive in hiding in France until the end of World War II. However, I
believe that I and others should be entitled to pursue justice against the French Railroad and others who
participated in similar atrocities, and all who profited from the Holocaust like the insurance companies.

Thank you and please allow me to include several exhibits into the record with my statement.

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DEAR CHAIRMAN SCHUMER AND MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE:

THANK YOU FOR INVITING ME TO PRESENT A VOICE IN SUPPORT

OF SENATE BILL 466. I COME BEFORE YOU AS AN INDIVIDUAL,

BUT I SPEAK ON BEHALF OF ALL SURVIVORS AND THE MILLIONS

WHOSE VOICES WILL NEVER BE HEARD.

MY NAME IS RENEE FIRESTONE. I AM AN AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR.

I WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS A SERIOUS SITUATION STILL

PLAGUING THE SURVIVORS.

FOR YEARS WE HAVE BEEN TRYING, IN VAIN, TO COLLECT ON

INSURANCE POLICIES ISSUED TO OUR FAMILIES PRIOR TO WORLD

WAR II, AND WHICH REMAIN, TO DATE, LARGELY UNPAID.

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WHEN WE TRIED TO MAKE OUR CLAIMS TO THE INSURANCE

COMPANIES, THEY HAD THE AUDACITY TO TELL US WE NEEDED

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTATION, OR WE WERE ASKED FOR DEATH

CERTIFICATES OF THE PEOPLE TO WHOM POLICIES WERE ISSUED.

WERE THEY INSANE?!! DID THESE INSURANCE COMPANIES

REALLY BELIEVE THAT AFTER THE NAZIS STRIPPED US OF OUR

FAMILIES, OUR RIGHTS, OUR POSSESSIONS, OUR DIGNITY . . . .

EVEN THE HAIR ON OUR HEADS, THAT THEY WERE STANDING AT

THE DOORS OF THE GAS CHAMBERS WHERE THEY MURDERED MY

BELOVED MOTHER, HANDING OUT DEATH CERTIFICATES PROVING

THEIR CRIMES?

THIS INSULT WOULD HAVE BEEN BAD ENOUGH. BUT WE

SURVIVORS . . . AMERICAN CITIZENS . . . MANY OF WHOM, AFTER

EMERGING FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL, CAME HERE AND SERVED

IN THE AMERICAN MILITARY . . . ARE BEING DEPRIVED BY OUR

OWN GOVERNMENT OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO SEEK

REDRESS FROM THE COURTS AND CLAIM WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY

OURS.

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YOU CAN NEVER KNOW, MR. CHAIRMAN, JUST HOW PAINFUL –

AND RETRAUMATIZING – THAT IS TO US SURVIVORS.

I HEAR WEEKLY FROM MANY OF MY FELLOW SURVIVORS HOW

HURT AND OUTRAGED THEY ARE THAT THIS IS HAPPENING TO

THEM. IN FACT, THEIR FRUSTRATION FINALLY REACHED A

BREAKING POINT AND OVER THE LAST TWO WEEKS HUNDREDS

OF SURVIVORS AND THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS

SIGNED PETITIONS, THE MAJORITY OF WHICH ARE FROM NEW

YORK AND CALIFORNIA. SIGNERS INCLUDE A NOBEL LAUREATE

AND HIS WIFE, A WELL-KNOWN MEDICAL RESEARCHER, AND THE

PETITIONS HAVE GONE TO OTHER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AS

WELL AS THE MEDIA. THEY WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW WHAT

INJUSTICE HAS BEEN HEAPED ON THEM.

IN SPITE OF WHAT WAS PROMISED BY ICHEIC, ALLIANZ,

GENERALI, AXA, AND OTHERS WHO ARE THE SOLE REPOSITORIES

OF THE PROOF OF THESE POLICIES, NEVER RELEASED THE FULL

LISTS OF THE INSURED.

3
IN MY CASE, I WAS TOLD THAT MY FATHER’S NAME WAS NOT

FOUND.

HOWEVER, MY FIRST COUSIN, FRED JACKSON, WAS THE FIRST

SURVIVOR WHO APPLIED TO ICHEIC AND COLLECTED FROM

GENERALI BECAUSE HE WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND SOME

PAPERS IN HIS HOUSE ON HIS RETURN HOME FROM THE DEATH

CAMP.

FRED’S MOTHER . . . WAS MY FATHER’S SISTER. WE LIVED IN THE

SAME TOWN WHERE MY FATHER BUILT OUR BEAUTIFUL VILLA

(WHICH IS STILL THERE), AND WHERE HE HAD A SUCCESSFUL

BUSINESS IN THE MAIN CENTER OF OUR TOWN.

MY FATHER WAS THE OLDEST SIBLING AND ADVISOR TO THE

WHOLE FAMILY. HE AND MY AUNT WERE VERY CLOSE. THERE IS

NO WAY THAT MY AUNT HAD INSURANCE AND MY FATHER DID

NOT. WHY WOULD HE ADVISE OTHERS TO GET INSURANCE AND

NOT GET IT FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FAMILY?

4
ALL WE ARE SKING FOR IS TO HAVE OUR RIGHTS RESTORED

THROUGH SENATE BILL 466 . . . AND TO BE ABLE TO SEEK THE AID

OF OUR COURT SYSTEM TO ENFORCE OUR CLAIMS UNDER THESE

INSURANCE POLICIES.

WE ARE NOT BEGGARS OR GREEDY, AS SOME CALL US. OUR

FAMILIES PAID FOR THESE POLICIES WITH THE SWEAT OF THEIR

BROWS, AND NOW WE ONLY WANT WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS.

SHAMEFULLY, MANY JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS STAND IN

OPPOSITION TO THE WILL OF THE SURVIVORS AND THE PASSAGE

OF SENATE BILL 466. HOW OBSCENE AND REPUGNANT THAT OUR

OWN PEOPLE WOULD DENY THE RIGHTS OF THE SURVIVORS!!

AND HOW PAINFUL.

WHERE WERE THESE SAME ORGANIZATIONS WHEN WE AND OUR

PARENTS, BROTHERS, SISTERS, AND FRIENDS WERE BEING

MURDERED?! DID THEY COME TO OUR AID? HOW DARE THEY

NOW OPPOSE US.

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I WISH THAT MY DEAR FRIEND CONGRESSMAN TOM LANTOS, THE

ORIGINAL CHAMPION OF THIS BILL, WOULD BE HERE WITH US

TODAY. I KNOW THAT HIS LOVELY WIFE, ANNETTE, IS HERE. I AM

GRATEFUL TO BOTH OF THEM.

AGAIN . . . I AM HERE TODAY TO ASK THIS HONORABLE

COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT SENATE BILL 466, AND ENSURE ITS

SWIFT IMPLEMENTATION WHILE SOME SURVIVORS ARE STILL

ALIVE. WE ARE IN OUR 80’s and 90’s. HALF OF ALL SURVIVORS IN

THIS COUNTRY ARE DESTITUTE. MR. CHAIRMAN, TIME IS OF THE

ESSENCE IN ORDER TO SERVE JUSTICE AND PRESERVE THE

DIGNITY OF THE REMAINING SURVIVORS IN OUR FINAL HOURS.

I THANK THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THIS HONORABLE

COMMITTEE FOR YOUR TIME AND FOR GIVING ME THE

OPPORTUNITY TO BE HEARD.

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