Finance Officials’ Help Sought on Holocaust Claims
The World Jewish Congress, seeking restitution for survivors of the Holocaust, asked a group of U.S. state and local finance officers Thursday for help in reaching settlements with Austrian and French banks.
The finance officers were meeting to review the progress of negotiations among Jewish groups, class-action lawyers, business associations and government leaders to settle the claims of survivors of the Holocaust or their heirs whose assets were seized by the Nazis before and during World War II and deposited in banks across Europe.
“We have met with representatives of Bank Austria . . . and, while we hope that an appropriate settlement might still come about, we cannot yet report this to the committee,” WJC Executive Director Elan Steinberg said.
Meanwhile, a Treasury official said that 19 more German firms have joined a group negotiating compensation for Nazi-era slave labor.
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