The agreement was that Swiss banks would allocate 1.25 billion dollars for compensation to Holocaust victims and those who lost property in the Holocaust. It was decided that an American court would determine who was entitled to compensation and in what amount, and Jewish organizations would conduct a campaign to inform potential recipients and urge them to file their claims.
One of the American lawyers at the time explained to a correspondent of "Inostranets" that not only owners of Swiss bank accounts or their heirs were entitled to payments from the Swiss fund, but also those who lost their property when fleeing (or being evacuated) from the advancing Nazis. Asked how they could prove that the belongings they left behind were destroyed or stolen by the Nazis rather than by their immediate neighbors, the American attorney replied that no such proof would be required of anyone, and urged them to describe their losses in as much detail as possible in an application to the American court.
Such is the background. Today the next information campaign is underway – notification of the American court's decision.
One of the leaders of the Jewish community of Ukraine, Iosif ZISELS, comments on this decision.
– All recipients of the fund fall into four categories: heirs of Swiss bank depositors (in the 1930s-40s they placed money in Swiss accounts and later perished in the Holocaust); those who in the 1930s-40s tried to find refuge from Nazism in Switzerland but could not cross the Swiss border (this category also includes heirs of would-be refugees); prisoners of ghettos and concentration camps; refugees from occupied territories who, fleeing the advancing German armies, lost their property.
I want to focus on the fourth group, and in particular on those currently living in the territory of the former USSR. Unlike their compatriots with a similar fate, who went to the West and received compensation there for lost property from the German government in the amount of 5,000 marks, those who remained in the countries of the former USSR never received any compensation. The basis for this injustice was an act renouncing compensation signed by Stalin. Jewish organizations made many efforts to have this issue reconsidered and to pay compensation to 150,000 former refugees living in the CIS and Baltic countries, but to no avail. (In total, 500,000 similar applications were received from around the world.)
However, the announcement of the creation of a large Swiss fund gave justified hope to unfairly deprived people.
And after lengthy deliberations, the court finally made a decision. It was prepared by two judges of the highest qualification – Gribetz and Korman. For instance, Judge Gribetz serves on the commission that appoints members of the U.S. Supreme Court. It is very difficult to suspect these judges of bias. So here is the essence of the decision.
The main amount – 800 million dollars – is intended for heirs of Swiss bank accounts (dormant accounts). Those who unsuccessfully tried to find refuge in Switzerland, or their heirs, will receive 2,500 dollars each. Prisoners of ghettos and concentration camps – 1,000 dollars each. Refugees from occupied territories will not personally receive any financial compensation, but 67.5 million dollars will go through charitable funds (for example, "Hesed") to provide services to this group of the population.
What forces influenced this court decision? The most powerful of them were the Swiss banks themselves. They, against their will, agreed to create a fund, but they do not want to part with the money. They are, of course, obliged to fork out 1.25 billion dollars. Only this can be done in different ways. First, a substantial part of this money can be kept in their accounts, transferring the accounts themselves to the heirs. Second, due to the fact that payments for some categories, according to the court decision, must be made over 10 years, all these ten years the money will also work for the same banks.
800 million dollars have been left for the heirs of the accounts. But nobody knows how this amount was determined. After all, the names of their owners have not yet been made public.
The special Volcker commission managed to identify the surnames of the account holders. Moreover, when the agreement between the Jewish world and the Swiss banks was signed, 7,000 surnames were identified. And already after the signing of the agreement, about 53,000 more accounts were discovered that may be Holocaust accounts. It is clear to everyone that the amount that would be enough to pay for 7,000 accounts will not be enough for 53,000. Moreover, no one knows how much money is in these accounts. The Swiss banks agree to disclose the size of the accounts only to the heirs.
So what will happen to these 800 million dollars? They will remain in the Swiss banks while they leisurely examine the claims of the heirs. Which may or may not appear. Only a few thousand surnames have been published. The rest, of course, will also be made public over time. According to experts, the process of filing claims by living heirs could be completed within three years. And there will be very few of them. In any case, certainly fewer than the number of accounts.
Why do I say this with such confidence? We know that 6,000,000 Jews perished in the Holocaust. But despite many years of work by many scholars, only a million and a half names of the dead are known. Entire families were destroyed – from the elderly to newborns. And there is no one to report their names. Based on this, it can be assumed that no more than a third of the account heirs will come forward.
And the rest of the money? Unclaimed? What will happen to it? The Jewish world and Judge Gribetz (whom I met four times, trying to understand his logic) say this: in about three years we will return to this issue and think about what to do with the unclaimed money. This formulation of the question plays into the hands of the first interested group – the Swiss banks. Anyone with even a minimal understanding of the banking system perfectly understands that in three or four years the banks will recoup the losses they incurred from the agreement with the Jews.
The second group of interested parties is international Jewish organizations. Their position is not entirely clear. The World Jewish Congress, which broke through the staunch defense of Swiss banks and secured the signing of the agreement, has abstained from the distribution of the money. The unwillingness to get into details is a snobbish stance. After all, the essence lies precisely in the details. And the reluctance to examine them has already led to an incorrect assessment of the amount of claims.
Initially, it was assumed that the fund, among other things, would finance educational and research projects. Therefore, various Jewish organizations submitted their applications to the fund. They received nothing. However, they somewhat corrected this situation by transferring the compensation money to their own accounts, so as to later distribute it among persons falling under the categories specified by the American court. Thus, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany will pay money to those who did not find refuge in Switzerland, as well as to ghetto and concentration camp prisoners living in various countries of the world, excluding the CIS countries (in the CIS, payments will be made through the state Funds for Understanding and Reconciliation).
Another interested group that received nothing is the Jewish communities of European countries. They also filed claims with the fund: after all, not only individual citizens but also communities lost property. Unfortunately, they all acted independently. And the attempts of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine to coordinate the actions of European communities led to nothing.
And finally, those who hoped to receive individual compensation.
One does not need to be an expert to understand how different the abilities of the four named groups of recipients are in lobbying for their interests.
What can the Jewish communities of the CIS and refugees from the occupied territories do? They do not have the means to hire powerful law firms or to maintain close operational contact with those firms.
And therefore, this group is entitled to the smallest share – 67.5 million – that is, $300 per person. True, pensions in Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova are $10-15 per month, and in Russia they are not much higher. So for our pensioners, $300, though small, is a help. But the trouble is that the procedure for distributing this amount also runs counter to the interests of the recipients.
The decision of the New York court orders this payment to be distributed over 10 years – in the form of services through the charitable funds "Hesed". That is, under this scheme, each person will receive $30 per year. Who will feel that the Swiss banks have compensated the losses these people suffered during the war?
But even if so. These are elderly people, and few of them will live another ten years. At least this factor should be taken into account when paying the funds to the "Hesed" organizations. In the first year, pay the most, and in the following year pay 15-20 percent less (taking into account the mortality of recipients), and so on. But no, the entire amount is ordered to be distributed evenly. It turns out that those organizations that pass this money through themselves are solving the problems of their budget deficits – each year they will receive, taking into account interest growth, seven to seven and a half million dollars. In 7-8 years, the direct recipients of this money will no longer exist, and the organizations will continue to receive money. A simple question: in whose interests was this decision made?
Moreover: how to separate elderly people who suffered from the Holocaust from those who did not? After all, all elderly Jews receive the services of "Hesed" – there are only 100,000 of them in Ukraine. Of the Holocaust survivors, 60,000 are registered with "Hesed". What, will they be given an extra ration? No one will do that – everyone will divide equally. So the recipients will not even receive $30 per year. Their money will simply dissolve in the common pot.
According to the fund's charter, any person who filed a claim can go to court and state that the money intended for them is being spent on others. Someone from Florida is already trying to challenge the established mechanism for distributing the fund's funds. But 150,000 victims living in the countries of the former USSR cannot go to court themselves. They come to us – to local Jewish organizations. We cannot not only correct the situation, we cannot even explain to them the logic of the American court.
Four times I met with Judge Gribets and countless times with representatives of the World Jewish Congress and other leading international Jewish organizations. But I received no clear explanation. And therefore we have nothing to answer to those who have been shortchanged once again.