Reparation Overview

[additional-authors]

Michael Freeman

November 14, 2002

Open Claims

Hardship Fund: Established in 1980, provides a one-time
$2,500 payment to survivors who were previously unable to apply for compensation
under the West German Indemnification Act of 1952/BEG (typically because they
lived behind the Iron Curtain), suffered considerable damage to health, and
currently are in financial need. No proposed deadline.

Article 2: Intended for survivors who have received
minimal or no Holocaust compensation. Monthly pension of $250 paid in quarterly
installments. No proposed deadline. The German government has recently expanded
the eligibility criteria to include newly recognized camps, indexing of
payments, and double income limits.

The Blue Card: The only agency in the United States
that provides cash to Holocaust survivors in extreme financial need and, when
necessary, to their children for mental health needs.

International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance
Claims (ICHEIC): ICHEIC consists of representatives of U.S. insurance
regulators, five European insurance companies (Allianz, Generali, AXA,
Winterthur and Zurich), the State of Israel, worldwide Jewish and Holocaust
survivor organizations, and European regulators and observers. Holocaust victims
and their heirs can file claims for unpaid insurance policies (life, dowry and
education). Closes March 30, 2003.

Austrian Reconciliation Fund: Payments to former slave
and forced laborers under the National Socialism regime who performed labor in
the territory of present-day Austria. Closes Nov. 27, 2002.

Austrian Victims Assistance Act: Legislation recently
provided an increase in funds for monthly nursing care allowance.

Austrian Social Welfare Benefits: Under Austrian social
insurance law, victims of Nazi persecution can qualify for old age, disability
and survivor pensions, provided they pay retroactive contributions at a reduced
rate into the Austrian social insurance system. No filing deadline.

Austrian General Settlement Fund: On Jan. 31, 2001 the
Austrian government adopted a General Settlement Fund Law for the comprehensive
settlement of open questions of compensation and restitution for victims of
National Socialism. The Fund has an endowment of $210 million. The filing
deadline is May 27, 2003.

Croatia: Former Jewish citizens whose property was
confiscated under the wartime fascist and post-war Communist regimes are
eligible for compensation of up to $500,000. Claims may also be filed by their
children and grandchildren. Filing deadline is Jan. 5, 2003.

Slovakia: Under amended Holocaust-era compensation
laws, more people are now eligible to receive compensation for deportation to
Nazi concentration camps. In October 2002, Slovakia signed an agreement with the
Jewish community to establish a fund that will partially compensate Slovak Jews
who lost their property during the Nazi and Communist eras. No details on the
claims process have yet been announced.

German Social Security Pension: A change in legislation
expands German Social Security pensions to cover work performed in all ghettos
during Nazi occupation: if the ghetto was in an area occupied by, or
incorporated into, the Reich. Claim form is currently not available. However,
survivors are advised to immediately establish a filing date with the German
Social Security Offices by submitting a letter that requests the claim form. The
filing deadline is June 30, 2003.

Indemnification Commission for the Belgian Jewish
Community’s Assets: The Belgian banks signed an agreement to pay about $54
million in compensation for property lost during the Nazi occupation. The
standard form for new claims is available at www.premier.fgov.be under the link
“Jewish Community Indemnification Commission.” Claims already submitted to the
former Study Commission or the Federal Public Department Chancellery and General
Services are still valid and will not have to be re-submitted. The deadline is
March 19, 2003.

Czech Republic: Legislature has extended deadline to
2006 to file for return of Nazi-looted art work.

Fund for Victims of Medical Experiments and Other
Injuries: The Fund has received more than 5,000 claims. The German Foundation
has not yet announced when it will accept medical experiment claims for review
and payment.

Closed Claims

German Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and the
Future” (Program for Former Slave and Forced Laborers): Established in July
2000. Payments for Jewish slave and forced laborers and other victims of Nazi
persecution. As of May 2002, German Foundation has received a total of 253,546
claims and has approved 98,870 claims. Survivors submitting late claims must
include a letter explaining the hardship that resulted in the untimely claim.

Romania Property Restitution: Restitution of properties
that were confiscated by the Communist regime between 1945-1989. Closed Feb. 14,
2002.

Swiss Bank Settlement: In 1998, Switzerland’s two
largest commercial banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion for claims of survivors
whose families lost assets. Included in the settlement are claims for slave
labor performed for Swiss companies, companies that deposited assets in
Switzerland, survivors denied entry or expelled from Switzerland or mistreated
after entry to Switzerland.

BEG “Wiedergutmachung”: West German Federal
Indemnification Law enacted in 1952 to provide monthly pensions for survivors
and one-time payment for deprivation of liberty.

International Organization for Migration (IOM): IOM
handles property-loss claims from both Jewish and non-Jewish survivors. It also
processes slave and forced labor claims from non-Jewish victims living anywhere
in the world except for the Czech Republic, Poland and former Soviet republics.
IOM has humanitarian programs for Roma and Sinti. Closed Dec. 31, 2001.

The Swiss Fund for Needy Victims of the Holocaust:
Humanitarian gesture to aid needy Holocaust victims with a small one-time grant
of $502. Closed Nov. 30, 1998.

Austrian National Fund: More than 15,000 survivors
received approximately $7,000 each for loss of property and household contents.
Closed Feb. 23, 2002.

Other Compensation News

Waiver of Bank Wire Transfer Fees: Selected banks have
agreed to waive the electronic wire transfer fees on incoming compensation
payments to Holocaust survivors (Article 2 Fund, BEG and German Foundation slave
and forced labor payments).

National Foundation for the Study of Holocaust Assets
Act: Under a bill introduced by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Dist. 24), it is proposed
to create a public/private foundation to promote further research and education
in the area of Holocaust-era assets and restitution policy and to support
innovative solutions to contemporary restitution policy issues.

“Invisible Victims”: Disabled rights advocates in
California are filing for a portion of the restitution funds to underwrite
museum exhibits and a monument to the more than 300,000 disabled German citizens
who were slaughtered during the Holocaust, often with the help of their own
physicians. Since few disabled survivors remain to receive reparations, it has
been proposed that money also be used to fund disabled rights programs in
Europe.

Rhodes: Issue reparation and/or pension claims for
Italian citizens from Rhodes. The German Ministry of Finance (oversees
compensation programs and funding of the German Federal Government) agreed to
the creation of a working group on this issue.

Bergier Report: Final assessment of the conduct of the
Swiss government and industry during the war and afterwards. The scathing
indictment on the “egregious moral failures” of Swiss authorities and industry
concluded: 1. The refugee wartime policy that knowingly turned back thousands of
Jews to certain death, contributed to the most atrocious of Nazi objectives —
the Holocaust. 2. Swiss gold purchases from Nazi Germany continued even when it
became obvious that the gold was looted. 3. Excessive cooperation extended to
Nazi Germany — Swiss authorities requested as early as 1938 that passports from
German Jews be stamped in Germany with the letter “J.” 4. Eleven-thousand
laborers were forced to work in Swiss-owned factories in Germany. 5. Swiss
refusal to return deposited assets to owners or their heirs after the war. The
Swiss government noted that it apologized to the Jews in 1995.

Lithuania: The prime minister has established a
commission for the return of Jewish property. Approximately 95 percent of
Lithuania’s 220,000 pre-war Jewish community perished during the Holocaust.

Labor in Freiburg: One-time compensation payment to
former laborers forced to work for the city of Freiburg during Nazi rule.

Poland: Blasted on restitution July 17, 2002, U.S.
lawmakers stated that Poland has not done enough to return Jewish property
seized by the Nazis. At present, there are no legal provisions for submitting
property asset claims against Poland. It has been estimated that the financial
toll in Poland exceeds $10 billion.

France Holocaust-Era Assets: Names of Jewish
asset-holders in France will be submitted to Israel. Survivors will be able to
check whether they appear on the list of names in order to file a claim.
Previously, French privacy laws prohibited public publication of names.

Worst records in Europe on art/property restitution:
Poland, Romania and Czech Republic. Poland — not a single claimant has succeeded
in court. Romania — 188,000 claims unanswered. Czech Republic — when claims are
filed for the return of artwork, the government declares the artwork a national
treasure that cannot be removed from the country.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Upholds Holocaust Statute: The 9th
Circuit recently upheld California’s Holocaust Victim Insurance Relief Act
(HVIRA), which is designed to help Holocaust survivors and their families in
obtaining information from European insurance companies. The ruling marks the
first time a higher federal court has upheld such a state statute. The law
requires any insurer doing business in California to disclose information about
any policy sold in Europe between 1920 and 1945. The U.S. Justice Department
argued on behalf of insurers, fearing that state law would worsen U.S. relations
with other countries.

Tax Measures United States: Compensation payments to
Holocaust survivors will be excluded from inheritance tax.

Reparations-Related Links

Austrian General Settlement Fund: “>www.claimscon.org