U.S. Congress heightens role in Holocaust restitution issue

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (JTA) — As the search for assets of Holocaust victims broadens to include pillaged artworks and confiscated insurance policies, the U.S. Congress is exerting pressure for restitution. The two issues were the subject of a day-long congressional hearing last week at which 22 witnesses testified about the legal status of art objects seized by the Nazis and the way European insurance companies handled policies taken out by Holocaust victims. Taken together, the total value of those assets is likely to far exceed the value of the more publicized dormant Holocaust-era bank accounts and personal gold plundered by the Nazis, according to Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress. Testifying before the House Banking Committee, Holocaust survivors and lawmakers accused European insurance companies of profiting at the expense of Holocaust victims. The companies have been sued for billions of dollars by heirs of victims seeking to recover life insurance benefits seized by the Nazis. “It is clear that the European insurance companies undertook a deliberate effort to target European Jews for profit, before the Nazis targeted them for destruction,” Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) told the committee. “These companies sought and obtained premiums up front, with no expectation of paying the claims in the end.” D’Amato, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, proposed the creation of an independent commission, modeled after the Volcker Commission now investigating Swiss banks, to look into the insurance situation. Rep. James Leach (R-Iowa), chairman of the House Banking Committee, endorsed that idea, as did the WJC. D’Amato and the WJC also proposed that the insurers set up a humanitarian fund to benefit Holocaust survivors. One of the dominant underwriters of policies sold to Jews in Eastern Europe, the Italian firm Assicurazioni Generali, said it would cooperate with the proposed independent panel. The company’s lead counsel also noted in testimony before the committee that Generali created a $12 million humanitarian fund last year to assist needy Holocaust survivors. On the issue of looted art, the directors of some of America’s top art museums, responding to growing concerns that they may be displaying wartime plunder, pledged to fully research the ownership history of their holdings. To that end, a 13-member task force formed by the Association of Art Museum Directors, which includes the heads of the 170 largest art museums in North America, has begun exploring the establishment of a database to identify the rightful owners of plundered art and developing guidelines to resolve individual ownership claims. “We will not countenance the acquisition or display of stolen art, and we are committed to doing everything possible to ensure that our collections are untainted by the stigma of the Nazi past,” Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, told the committee. Ronald Lauder, chairman of the WJC’s Commission for Art Recovery, said he was satisfied with the action taken so far by the art community. Speaking before the committee, he stressed that the legal obstacles to returning the art should be minimized given that survivors “have already suffered decades of frustration and should not be asked to sustain the ordeal of lengthy and costly lawsuits.” The Clinton administration is in the process of developing a policy on stolen art and is planning to convene an international conference in Washington in June to focus on artworks, insurance policies, books and other property stolen from Holocaust victims. Several members of Congress, meanwhile, have either introduced or plan to offer new bills dealing with looted art and insurance claims. Among the legislative proposals: * Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) has introduced legislation that would prohibit European insurance companies and their American subsidiaries from conducting business in the United States unless they fully disclose how they handled Holocaust victims’ policies. The bill, known as the Comprehensive Holocaust Accountability in Insurance Measure, comes as California’s insurance commissioner has threatened to pull Generali’s license because the firm has not honored his requests to appear at several public hearings. * Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) has introduced legislation that would force insurance companies to honor policies sold to Holocaust victims between 1920 and 1945. The Holocaust Victims Insurance Act would require the companies to report how many policies were issued to victims of the Holocaust and direct them to pay victims or their descendants if they have not done so already. * Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) said they intend to introduce a resolution stating that NATO should not expand to include Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic unless those nations agree to provide an accounting of insurance policies taken out by Holocaust victims. The White House and some Jewish groups oppose the tactic, saying the two issues should not be linked. * Reps. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) plan to introduce a measure that would provide $15 million to help families find and recover their art. The bill would also direct the federal government to check its own collections to make sure all artwork it possesses has been rightfully purchased, while requiring buyers of artwork to conduct “background” checks to determine whether it was stolen. * D’Amato said he is drafting legislation that would set up a federal commission to examine how valuable assets, including insurance policies, artwork, rare books and coins, should be returned to Holocaust victims and their heirs. Both houses of Congress have already passed legislation authorizing the United States to contribute up to $25 million to a new international fund to benefit Holocaust survivors. The Holocaust Victims Redress Act, which was signed by President Clinton last Friday, also calls on all governments to take action to ensure that artworks confiscated by the Nazis — or by the Soviets in the aftermath of World War II — be returned to their rightful owners.