Sen. Graham todays hearing is going to be holocaust era insurance claims, what to do about it. It is a difficult topic in many ways, but i am glad we are having the hearing. Senator feinstein, i will not have an opening statement. I defer to you. Sen. Feinstein get settled here. First of all, thank you, mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. Today, we are discussing holocaust era insurance claims. Before anding during the second world war, many europeans purchased insurance policies to protect their assets and loved ones, while many of these individuals perished as victims of the holocaust. Those who survived and the heirs of those that did not have since attempted to collect the proceeds from those policies. Haveer, beneficiaries found it difficult to collect on these policies because paperwork had often been left behind or destroyed during the genocide. To remedy this injustice, american insurance regulators, european Insurance Companies, the state of israel, and jewish and survivor organizations in 1998 established icheic. That is the International Commission on holocaust era insurance claims. Was twofold. First, icheic would identify Holocaust Victims that purchase insurance policies. Second, icheic would administer the repayment of those policies using relaxed standards of proof so that claimants who lack documentation or faced other barriers to repayment could sue still receive some measure of justice. Facilitated the payment of over 300 million to almost 48,000 Holocaust Survivors, their heirs, and the families of Holocaust Victims. Icheic paid an additional 100 69 Million Dollars toward you mandatory in holocaustenefiting survivors. All of this was done at no cost to the claimant, to maximize the amount of compensation that went to survivors and heirs of the victims. In icheic process ended 2007. Since then, some european insurers have continued to pay claims voluntarily. The new York State Insurance Department has helped process the claims of individuals who missed icheic deadline. The state department, under , bush, andlinton obama, argued in court that the exclusive process for resolving holocaust era insurance claims. Several jewish and survivor groups, including the Antidefamation League, the american gathering of jewish alsoaust survivors, supported icheic and the ongoing new york state process as the best way to resolve those claims. Is question before us today whether the icheic process and the ability to submit newly discovered claims to the new York State Department of Financial Services works. Some of the witnesses on our panel argue that new legislation is necessary. I very much thank you for calling this hearing. I think it is an interesting issue and it will be interesting to see what happens. Thank you. Sen. Graham i am glad i deferred to you. Perfect sense. Senator scott, we look forward to hearing from you. Scott thank you for holding this important hearing today. I would like to welcome David Mermelstein. Czechoslovakiain and was sent to auschwitz until the American Liberation of the camp. David, i am grateful you could join us to testify on this important topic so we can make sure our Holocaust Survivors, like yourself, deceive the help you need and deserve. Thank you also to the entire panel of witnesses who will appear today and for all those who are working to make sure we honor the memory of the millions of Holocaust Victims and that we do everything in our power to support the survivors and their families. The holocaust is more than a history lesson. It is a stark reminder that people and hate exist in this world. Took arnor of florida, i stand against discrimination and prohibited state agencies and local governments from contracting with Companies Boycotting israel because supporting israel should never be a partisan issue. Our memory of all of those who have suffered must never weaken. Every generation must heed the call to action in the face of evil. This is the enduring lesson to mankind. Sen. Graham thank you, senator scott. You have come to be several times about the importance of the hearing. I appreciate your compassion. Come forward, please. Sure. Whatever works for you all. Great. Thank you all for coming. Mr. Ave on our panel today bard level, Congressional Research. Webel, mr. David how do you say your last name . , president ofn the Holocaust Survivors of miamidade county, florida. Beennna rubin, mr. Sam dew mr. Stuartin, and , former u. S. Special basinger at the state Department Special ambassador at the state department. We will start mr. Weibel. Webel. Mr. Webel i am a specialist in financial at the Congressional Research service. Just for memos of the audience who might not be familiar with crs, we are a division of the library of congress. Our role is to provide objective, nonpartisan research and analysis to congress. Position on the desirability of any specific policy nor advocates for a policy outcome. I have provided written testimony with increased detail about the issues we are talking about today. I would also like to recognize whooauthor at crs contributed to that testimony. I am going to Start Talking about the preworld war ii Insurance Markets and get into the efforts to provide compensation after the fact and finish in talking about pauls evaluations that are at significant policy evaluations that are issued today. Preworld war ii, insurance was not only designed to compensate in the event of a death of a loved one but had significant Asset Allocation accumulation. Policies typically ran for 20 years. At the end of the policy, if the person was still alive, they would receive the value at that time. They could have a surrender value beforehand. These were significant assets for the Jewish Population and other populations of the area. By the nazipolicy government to attempt to x appropriate these and other assets. There werewar ii, efforts, particularly in west germany at the time, provide compensation, restitution to people who had suffered and for people who had had these assets taken from them. People,forts, for many fell short of what was expected. This is especially the case in the eastern part of europe, under soviet domination, where companies had nationalized did not existrs following the communist takeover. For that part of europe, there was little to no compensation. In the 1990s, these issues came to the fore again in insurance and areas like slave labor, swiss bank accounts. There are a variety of International Efforts to address this, with icheic being the mode chosen in the insurance realm. Was an individualized claim driven process. They attended to identify potential claimants, to seek out claims, to adjudicate the claims with the reduced standard and to get resources to pay off those claims provided primarily from european Insurance Companies. A contrasting approach, which has been a significant source of the criticism that has come of icheic, could be seen as a macro, topdown approach to consider how much insurance and insurance assets might have been outstanding in Central Eastern europe at the time and to judge whether or not the icheic process has done a good job in paying off some value. ,s senator feinstein mentioned about 300 million was paid in another 169heic, Million Dollars in other compensation. These are values from the early part of the 2000s. If you adjust that to the present day, you get up a little bit higher depending on what rates you use. Estimates for the present value of unpaid holocaust era insurance claims range from to 25mately 2 billion billion in current values. As an economist, i would say there are a variety of economic tools you can use to parse these numbers. Significantly, as you drill down to how the numbers are developed, you very quickly come to normative judgments about what the proper indices to use, what counts as paid or unpaid claims, and the like. I can go into greater detail in terms of how some of these numbers developed if members of the committee are interested. What i would probably leave on is simply that there is significant judgment, significant normative judgment and how you do this that the economic tools really only get you folks so far in determining what the right answer is. Look forwardwill to any questions you might have. Sen. Graham mr. Mermelstein. My name istein David Mermelstein. Talkingrn in chuck was czechoslovakia in 1928. ,y father was selfemployed selling beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes. The business was part of our house. Deported towere all a ghetto and then to shreds , crammed into cars with no windows. They put in two buckets, one for a bathroom and one for drinking. My parents, my poor brothers, my sister, grandfather were all murdered in auschwitz. I am the only member of my family to survive because my time is limited here, i give you my deposition about the hungarian goat train to tell you how i survived. Lucky. Me, i was now, lets talk about the insurance. I remembered there was a flag on our house that said it was insured by generali. , forve no documents obvious reasons. When we came home, there was nothing left in the house. For a state law to make companies publish all the names and allow survivors to go to court if they will not settle. That is when companies came up with the idea of icheic commission because pressure. Everyone told us icheic was not binding unless you agreed to a settlement, so with all those promises, they say they could find my fathers name. 1000end me a check for as humanitarian payment. Survivors resented the idea of humanitarian payments instead of the actual fund we know our parents set aside in case of trouble. Are also in shock that the u. S. Government took away our right to go to an American Court. Remember, those are contracts, not charities. How would those judges feel if they were to lose everything and then their own government said they could not even go to an American Court . Then their own government said they could even go to court. Like every other american citizen, they would not stand for it and we will not either. Im here to ask you to change that. Sadly, you might hear from some jewish groups that are against Congress Passing the law, but repeat, they i are not holocaust survivor groups and do not represent survivors in any way. I have more bad news. Half of Holocaust Survivors live in poverty and cannot afford basic necessities of life. Even though germany gives more money every year, it is still not nearly enough. It does not matter that our insurance right was taken away. Most survivors are poor and suffering anyway. We have in writing from the german ambassador that they would never threaten to withhold funds from survivors. Thousands of survivors suffered and died in misery over these past 50 years and it was so unnecessary. 25 billion is what the company so. E believe companies owe we believe all policies should be honored in full value and the rest should be used to help survivors in need. Congress, the by Insurance Companies will beat the heads of the victims of the holocaust. This on acceptable this is unacceptable. I am 90 years old, about to turn 91. I have visited hundreds of ,lassrooms, not only in florida speaking to students and adults about my experience. I enjoys not because telling the stories. They are mostly very sad. Thatthis because i believe all people have an obligation to become educated about the and tost, to remember it make a personal commitment that they will do everything they can to never let such atrocities happened again, not to the jewish people and not to anyone else. With i will be more than willing to stay after this anybody thatalk to would like to ask or talk about all the stories that i told you. Thank you very much. Sen. Graham thank you, sir. Mr. Dubbin. My name is sam dubbin, council of the Holocaust Survivors foundation, usa. On behalf of the survivor community, we thank you for holding the hearing and members for coming here. I am saddened to report that one of the groups founding members passed away over the weekend. Was a remarkable man, a survivor who rebuilt his life to ofn 10 emmys as a producer the abc wide world of sports and hours educating schoolchildren and advocating for Holocaust Survivors. Legislation is necessary to totore survivors rights pursue claims against global insurers who failed to honor policies they sold Holocaust Victims. Held thate court survivors rights were preempted based upon an executive Branch Policy that Holocaust Survivors come alone among all americans, should be limited in their ability to recover insurance policies, limited to the icheic commission. The basis of the policy was state Department Press releases and congressional testimony. No treaty, no act of congress, andct of Congress Exec of order has any preemptive effect. Executive order has any preemptive effect. Only congress can now correct a major historic injustice. The opponents make three arguments first, peace. They say the insurers were promised legal peace if they participated in icheic. This is not true. Icheic itself was always understood to be voluntary unless a claimant accepted an offer of payment. Government the u. S. Never promised Insurance Companies immunity from litigation. The executive agreement from germany negates that argument. It states the United States does not suggest that its policy interest concerning the foundation in themselves provided independent basis for dismissal of claims. Number three, the clinton senatorion feinstein, i would like to make sure you hear what i am going to say the Clinton Administration negotiated that. They said expressly the agreement does not preclude individuals from filing suit on their insurance policies in court, does not mandate individual policyholders or beneficiaries bring their claim to icheic. The Clinton Administration said the United States has not undertaken the duty to achieve legal fees for german Insurance Companies against state litigation and regulations. The second major argument the opponents make is that legislation would undermine negotiations with germany and others for assistance to survivors. Whyne has ever explained generali and others should be able to retain billions of dollars they owe to jewish customers from contracts to induce germany to provide assistance to Holocaust Survivors. The logic and morality germanys ambassador rejected any such linkage in a letter he sent in 2008. He wrote, well we continue to oppose a 1746 and similar bills, germany has never threatened to respond by cutting benefits to survivors and we have no intention to do so in the future. Whatever benefits opponents claim to have created by destroying Survivors Insurance big picture is awful. Half of all survivors live in poverty and have never received anywhere close to the care they need for peace and doing take in their final year dignity and their final years. Members of the Senate Select committee on aging made a statement that evidence before them proved that levels of homecare funding by the claims conference would meet only 25 of the current needs of impoverished survivors. After a decade4, of doubling from germany all the time. Emergency Care Services has not funding for that has not increased. One of the exhibits we gave you, and the package i sent, is a chart that measures what would be the need for an average atvivor of 20 hours a week 15. Of red represents the amount on provided care for destitute survivors. It is in the billions every year. The regime of giving the Insurance Companies immunity to supposedly provide these benefits has resulted in tens of thousands of survivors suffering and dying without the care they need. Theme say that, as far as new york claims Processing Office is concerned, this is the same office made an argrr matt mead in 2008 made in 2008. In the four years after that, the new york claims office settled six claims for 70,000. They have never published any other information. The problem is that icheic itself was not an appropriate mechanism because it was flawed in many ways. I hope you ask questions about that because i see my time is running out. There is a lot you need to understand. In addition, i would submit that the we provided a letter from harry rose, a child of two german survivors who found the names on the icheic list of German Companies, went to the holocaust Processing Office in new york. The results are something you need to see. The bottom line is holocaust protectedshould be under u. S. Law. Companies should not be immune from having to pay money they owe. Whether it is to be in dollars or 25 bill