[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 63 (Wednesday, April 30, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E815-E816]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       COMMEMORATING YOM HASHOAH

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 29, 2003

  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Yom Hashoah, 
Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, which memorializes the 
six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War II.
  Each year this day is one of grief and hope.
  We mourn the innocent lives and vibrant communities destroyed while 
the world shamefully stood silent, and encourage the strides being 
taken to advance Holocaust education and the battle against resurgent 
anti-Semitism and intolerance around the world.
  We observe the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, when a 
brave cadre of fighters battled a Nazi siege to liquidate the 
community's last remaining Jews, and resolve ourselves to provide 
comfort and support for the aging community of Holocaust survivors who 
continue to battle the horrors of their past.
  This year, as we mark the 50th anniversary of the dedication of Yad 
Vashem in Israel and the 10th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. 
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, we have tremendous 
accomplishments to be proud of, but difficult challenges remain ahead.
  In European and Arab countries, where the dramatic rise of anti-
Semitic and Holocaust denial is fomenting attacks against Jews and 
exacerbating tensions in the Middle East, we must do more to counteract 
the steady stream of hatred.
  In the United States and around the world, where elderly holocaust 
survivors are struggling to find adequate health and home care to 
alleviate the traumatic scars of their experiences, communities must 
join together to find ways to meet these vital needs.
  And in the vast settlements negotiated by the United States with 
European governments and corporations to atone for the crimes of slave 
labor and theft of assets, companies responsible for Holocaust-era 
insurance policies must be held accountable for their denials, delays, 
and stonewalling tactics against survivors and families seeking 
restitution.
  The wrongful denial of claims in violation of the standards set by 
the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) 
must be reviewed and overturned. Companies routinely extending the 90-
day period allotted by ICHEIC to research the validity of claims into 
year-long sagas with no status updates to the claimant must be mandated 
to act more expeditiously. And most urgently, companies refusing to 
publish the basic policyholder information from their archives must be 
penalized for their inaction.
  Survivors who are still alive were only children when the Holocaust 
began. While many have vivid recollections about insurance agents 
visiting their home or policies their family spoke of, few have 
documents to identify the right company and cannot do so because the 
companies haven't provided comprehensive lists for them to search for 
the names of their parents and relatives. As a result, more than 80 
percent of the claims filed with ICHEIC are incomplete, and barely 2 
percent of the over 88,000 claims submitted to ICHEIC have received 
offers.
  Today I am encouraged that some progress is being made. This week, 
the German insurance industry agreed to publish the names on 363,232 
policies issued by German companies to people identified on a 
comprehensive list of Jews who lived in Germany before the war. This is 
a vast improvement over the meager 308 policyholder names previously 
made available from Germany's largest insurer, Allianz.
  More must be done, however, to get Generali, Axa, Winterthur, and 
Zurich to live up to their responsibilities as ICHEIC members. In 
November 2001, when I organized a hearing on the Government Reform 
Committee to shed light on these problems, Axa had provided 191 names 
to ICHEIC, Zurich had given 40 names and Winterthur just 31. Generali, 
a company that was the most popular pre-war insurer among Jews in 
Poland and Hungary, had released only 8,740 names out of the nearly 
90,000 policies in effect when the war began. It is unacceptable and 
reprehensible that these companies have still not taken any steps to 
provide more information.
  We must pressure these companies to do more. If they will not open 
their archives voluntarily, we must compel them to do so by

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supporting the implementation of state laws like California's Holocaust 
Victims Insurance Relief Act or the enactment of federal legislation 
like H.R. 1210, the Holocaust Victims Insurance Relief Act, which I 
introduced earlier this year.
  Justice delayed is justice denied. Today, on Yom Hashoah as we mourn 
the victims of the Holocaust we must renew our determination to help 
the remaining survivors attain justice in their lifetimes.

                          ____________________