Press Releases 2003

Deadline Nears for Holocaust Heirs to File Insurance Claims

16 July 2003

Washington, DC - As part of an ongoing international outreach effort, the Chairman of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) and former Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger is calling upon media outlets and relevant organizations throughout the world to publicize the historic Holocaust survivor insurance claims process, to inform potential beneficiaries about the existence and availability of recently-expanded policyholder lists. "It is imperative that we reach out to all possible claimants worldwide to make them aware of the policyholder lists that are published on the ICHEIC website, www.icheic.org, so that all of those who have a right to receive the proceeds of an unpaid insurance policy have an opportunity to file a claim before September 30, 2003."

ICHEIC is reaching out to media outlets in countries where there are likely to be policyholders and/or their heirs. These countries include: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United States. The claims resolution process provides individuals with a central source for information on, investigation into, and payment of potential outstanding policies, without any charge to the claimants. Individuals seeking more information on the claims process should call 1.800.957.3203 or visit www.icheic.org.

Since its inception in 1998 ICHEIC has managed a historic research effort to identify Holocaust victims and/or their heirs who may have unpaid life, education and dowry policies. ICHEIC also continually reviews inquiries of possible policy holders who have filed claims on their own initiative.

In April 2000 ICHEIC first published names of policyholders and has updated it several times since. In total, nearly 450,000 names have now been published representing more than 500,000 insurance policies. ICHEIC member companies will contribute over 12,000 new names of policyholders over the next 1 to 2 months. The majority of these names will be provided from portfolios covering Eastern Europe, Italy and Switzerland.

These lists result from extensive archival and other work. With respect to potential German Jewish policyholder names, for example, the German insurance industry compiled electronic data on German policyholders, collecting more than 8 million names. A group of archivists and historians then collectively researched records in Germany, Israel, the United States and other locations to gather all available data to create a list of the pre-war German Jewish population. The data included names extracted from a national census of 1939 as well as names from Memorial books, emigration and deportation lists and other registers of German Holocaust victims. Over 2.5 million data entries were collected in an attempt to reconstruct information that had been unavailable for decades. The list of 2.5 million entries is being processed and edited over the coming months to create the most complete list of German Jews ever assembled.

The two lists (the approximately 8 million names of policyholders in Germany and the list of 2.5 million data entries of Jewish residents of Germany) were matched to determine who among the Jewish community might have had an insurance policy. The fact that a name appears on the published list is not a guarantee that the individual named or his or her heirs or beneficiaries are entitled to payment. Rather, these lists serve as a reference tool for the public to facilitate the claims process.

The German Federation Archives, along with numerous other individuals, played a key role in bringing this project to fruition. Once completed, the list of Jewish residents of Germany will be available to organizations in the United States, Germany and Israel and will stand as a lasting memorial to the victims of the Nazi oppression.

The International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) was established in October of 1998 by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), in conjunction with several European insurance companies, European regulators, representatives of several Jewish organizations, and the State of Israel. The Commission is charged with establishing a just process that will expeditiously address the issue of unpaid insurance policies issued to victims of the Holocaust.