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New York To Open
Claims Processing Office
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11/7
1997
66
Fun, Affordable & Exciting!
News
A
s efforts were pressed in fed-
eral court in New York to
compel European insurance
companies to honor previ-
ously denied claims of Holocaust vic-
tims, New York State prepared to
open a Holocaust Claims Processing
Office in Lower Manhattan.
The office, which will handle insur-
ance and banking claims stemming
from the Holocaust, is expected to
open at 2 Rector St. It is designed to
help those who did not see the names
of relatives on the list of 1,800 names
released last month by Swiss Bankers
Association.
"We're going to provide assistance
to people who believe they have a
legitimate claim of assets held in a
[Swiss bank] account during World
War II," said state Banking
Commissioner Elizabeth McCaul.
"We are also working on a plan to
take in insurance claims."
She said the office's eight-member
staff would help claimants fill out
forms and aid in making their search
for supporting material more success-
ful.
"They should come and bring
whatever information they have
[about the accounts], including copies
of any letters they have received or
anything that was told to them," said
McCaul.
In particular, she said the state
wants to help those who paid the
Swiss banks to search for a relative's
account and received a letter saying
the search failed to locate an account.
"The governor has stepped forward
and said it is a travesty that people
sent money to an ombudsman to do a
search and then got back nothing,"
said McCaul. "There will IDe no charge
for any of the help we provide."
She said Gov. George Pataki made
available $550,000 to establish the
office for one year. It will be handicap
accessible and the investigative team
staffing the office will have computer
skills, a knowledge of European histo-
ry and speak a variety of languages,
including Yiddish, Polish, Russian,
Hebrew and Spanish.
"I expect to have a very talented
group that will bring a lot of expertise
to this effort," said McCaul.
She said claimants are invited to
either walk in or to make an appoint-
ment once the office opens by calling
(800) 695-3318. The office will be ,
open daily from 8:45 a.m. to 5:15
p.m.
Once a claim is filed, McCaul said
her staff would follow through by
talking with representatives of the
Volcker Commission, an independent
group now auditing the books of
Swiss banks.
"We are also doing searches of our
own with the banks," she said, refer-
ring to the work of her department
with the Swiss banks based in New
York during the war and at least five
domestic banks in New York that
acted as liaison for Swiss banks with-
out offices in the state.
"The search is like putting a plug in
a socket," said McCaul. "An impor-
tant part of the trail [of the accounts]
is here in New York. We follow the
path the money took when it was
transferred to New York and we
intend to follow it back to
Switzerland. We have to take that
information and plug it into the data
that was gathered by the Volcker
Commission."
Meanwhile, a Manhattan federal
court this week held a hearing on a
class-action suit filed by Holocaust
survivors against 16 European insur-
ance companies that they claim cheat-
ed them of billions of dollars.
Two survivors, Margaret Zentner
and Marta Cornell, went with their
lawyer, Edward Fagan of New York, to
the corporate headquarters of the
German insurance group Allianz on
Monday to press them to pay their
World War II claims.
Fagan said the families of both
women had bought insurance policies
from Allianz or its subsidiaries before
the war. Zentner's policy was supposed
to be paid when she turned 21 or
married. It was paid to the Nazis
instead in 1942, he said, in compli-
ance with German law regarding all
Jewish life insurance policies.
The executive director of the World'
Jewish Congress, Elan Steinberg,
applauded city comptroller Alan
Hevesi for "defending the financial
interests of New York as well as the
victims of history's greatest tragedy." ❑
— New York Jewish Week