First Holocaust Payout Received

California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer on Thursday presented a Holocaust survivors foundation with a $4.2-million settlement check from three Dutch insurance companies, believed to be the first payout of its kind anywhere in the world.

“Today represents a significant milestone for California Holocaust survivors,” said Arthur Stern, chairman of the California Humanitarian Foundation for Holocaust Survivors, during a ceremony in Los Angeles.

The money, from Aegon USA, ING America Insurance Holdings and Fortis Inc., will be distributed to Holocaust survivors who now live in California and are financially needy, he said.

Thursday’s payment was part of a national and international effort to force insurance companies to pay claims on policies purchased in Europe before and during World War II by Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, political dissidents and others who were persecuted.

“We hope this will begin to expedite settlements all over the world,” Lockyer said.

The attorney general and other state officials became involved in Holocaust insurance claims because of legislation requiring insurers doing business in California to search their records and disclose information about policies from that era.

“There is still a great deal more that has to be done in providing Holocaust survivors with a measure of social justice,” said interim state Insurance Commissioner Harry Low, who helped negotiate Thursday’s payment.

Stern, a Holocaust survivor, said the three Dutch companies paid the $4.2 million voluntarily.

The money is a humanitarian payment to partly compensate for people who perished in the Holocaust and are no longer alive to pursue their insurance claims, Stern said.

He and others said they know of no similar payout made anywhere in the world by Holocaust-era insurers.

Insurance policies were commonly sold to working-class people in Europe in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. Many of them were life insurance or annuities for future financial security. Dowry and education policies also were common, and were cashed in when a daughter married or a son reached adulthood.

Purchasers paid premiums faithfully and had “no reason to suspect that claims against these policies would never be paid,” said Richard Mahan, executive director of the Holocaust survivors foundation.

Because World War II-era persecution extended to a variety of groups, distribution of the funds is not limited to people of Jewish heritage or to those who actually bought policies, Stern said. He estimated that 450 needy people in Los Angeles alone qualify to receive the funds. Throughout California, as many as 1,000 people might apply, he said.

About 22,000 Holocaust survivors live in California.

People seeking information about disbursement of funds can contact the foundation at (310) 821-5749.