Alex Constantine - February 16, 2014
"... Allianz had paid at most three percent of what it owes on Jewish Holocaust-related claims. ..."
Boca Raton, FL – Allianz, a German insurance company – who’s currently holding their annual Golf tournemant in Boca Raton – owes billions of dollars in world war 2 era claims to Holocaust survivors. Allianz does not deny it owes insurance claims to Jewish Holocaust survivors and descendants of Jews who were killed in the Holocaust for insurance policies purchased by European Jews during World War II. The only question is: Has the company paid its fair share of what it owes?
Holocaust survivor Jack Rubin is still waiting for Allianz to make a fair deal, the Florida Jewish Journal reports.
Rubin, 85, of Boynton Beach, is an executive board member of the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA, which has organized a protest of the Allianz Golf Tournament in Boca Raton every year for the past four years. The protest is to convince Allianz to pay back all of the proceeds of unpaid Holocaust-era insurance claims to Jewish Holocaust survivors and descendants of Jewish Holocaust victims.
Rubin led about a dozen protesters outside the Broken Sound Golf Course on Monday, Feb. 3, on the first day of the tournament, an official PGA Champions (50 and older) Golf Tour event held every year at Broken Sound. On Sunday, Feb. 9, on the event’s final day, there were close to 40 protesters.
Rubin said: “We Holocaust survivors are getting old. We’re tired of coming out here every year. We want Allianz to sit down with us and finally make us a fair deal for what we are owed.”
Holocaust survivor Moric Jusovic, 85, of Delray Beach added “A lot of the survivors are dying off or getting too weak to come out. It seems like it is Allianz’s goal to just wait until we die off. What they are doing is so unfair. They say they are paying all legitimate claims, but they have the audacity to ask for documents which are impossible to produce.”
As part of a statement released by Allianz spokeswoman Sabia Schwarzer, she said: “Allianz’s history and involvement in Nazi Germany has, with the company’s full support, been very well documented, particularly in Gerald D. Feldman’s groundbreaking book, ‘Allianz and the German Insurance Business 1933-1945.’ This book, published back in 2001, also details the work of the company in settling claims in the post-war period. While we cannot undo any aspect of our company’s history, we can learn from it and work to make sure the horrors of the Holocaust are never again repeated.”
Schwarzer also said that Allianz continues to pay its fair share of what it owes. However, the protesters all disagreed, and an independent source said that Allianz had paid at most three percent of what it owes on Jewish Holocaust-related claims.
Sidney Zabludoff, an economist who worked for the White House, CIA and Treasury Department for more than thirty years, said by phone: “Upon retirement in 1995, I was part of the International Commission on Holocaust-era Insurance Claims, which focused on issues related to the restitution of Jewish assets stolen during the Holocaust era. I was the principal analyst for the Jewish claims. I figured out the worth of all the portfolios held by the European insurance companies. In today’s value, Allianz’s share of the Jewish claims would be about $2.5 billion, yet they’ve paid out only about $50 million.”
Source: Florida Jewish Journal
http://jpupdates.com/2014/02/11/insurance-co-past-nazi-ties-still-owes-holocaust-survivors-billions-wwii-era-claims/
