Holocaust bill would aid those lacking paperwork

Survivor Arthur Stern says Gov. Gray Davis has an opportunity to show his "true colors" and help resolve outstanding Holocaust-era insurance claims.

Assembly Bill 600, sitting on Davis' desk at press time, would aid the resolution of claims by survivors and heirs whose policies were lost or destroyed during the war. Supporters include the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.

The Alliance of American Insurers disagrees. The group says existing law already takes care of the survivors holding those policies or their descendants. If Davis signs AB 600 into law, it will place an undue burden on insurance companies doing business in California, the group contends in arguments submitted to the state legislature.

Last year, then-Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a similar measure after he signed another authorizing the California Department of Insurance to investigate and recover unpaid Holocaust claims.

Stern, who also heads the Los Angeles Federation committee overseeing Holocaust-era insurance claims, says the current law doesn't go far enough. While it allows Californians to file claims against insurance companies such as Italy's Assicurazioni Generali, it still requires them to prove their claims or submit death certificates.

The problem is only 3 to 5 percent of those entitled to money have policies or the appropriate paperwork, says Stern. Most policy-holders either lost their papers or had them destroyed when they were rounded up by the Nazis. In addition, many of the descendants of Holocaust victims lack death certificates. They were not issued in many death camps.

"The interests of the vast majority of the survivors and heirs are to have the names and addresses of the bearers published," Stern said during a phone interview from Los Angeles. "You can see from the insurance companies that this is the last thing they want to do. Why? Because it would reveal their fundamental dishonesty that they've sustained for 50 years."

Stern himself has a case pending over a Holocaust-era insurance policy, but says if he recovers money, he will donate it to charity. For him, the issue is not money but justice.

"I feel that the behavior of the insurance companies are within the norms of our civilization simply incredible," he said. "Most of us abide by the rule that you don't steal, at least not publicly, but the insurance companies have stolen publicly."

Generali had brokered a deal in September 1998 to settle the claims of policy-holders now covered under existing law, but the company backed out when negotiators refused to have policy-holders relinquish any future claims.

To Stern, that deal won't help the majority of the survivors or their descendants.

"The insurance companies would like to make a global settlement," he said. "The settlement would be several million dollars, but who would get the money? Those people who have the policies and sponsoring organizations."

According to Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-L.A.), author of AB 600, the bill would "force insurance companies to disclose policy holders from the Holocaust era," enabling those survivors who have a claim but no paperwork to start collecting against the old policies.

Once the bill is signed into law, insurance companies would be required within six months to disclose information to the California Department of Insurance. If they fail to do so, "then the state department of insurance would take away their authority to operate in the state," Knox said.

In an interview at press time, Terri Smooke, Davis' representative to the Jewish community, had received no word on whether the governor will sign the bill.

Davis has until midnight Sunday to sign the bill or veto it.