The Central Jewish Board (CJO) and the Dutch Association of Insurers reached an agreement on the winding up of life insurance policies of Jews persecuted in the Second World War. The insurers are making 45 million guilders available for this agreement. 20 million guilders are intended for individual pay-outs to parties entitled to the policies and 25 million for causes determined by the Jewish community. In addition, the Association will finance the Monument of the Jewish Community project with a contribution of 5 million guilders. The agreement is a final settlement, whereby the parties intend to do justice to and provide clarity for the victims of the Holocaust and their descendants.
Since the spring of 1997, the CJO and the Association have been conducting intensive negotiations on the war insurance policies. This led to fair procedures for handling claims of Jewish victims and their heirs at an early stage of the negotiations. To date, 1,300 requests for information have been dealt with. Of these requests, 44 claims, amounting to some 750,000 guilders, were paid out. Furthermore, there was talk of a final settlement for policies for which no claim has yet been made and for which it is unlikely that any claim will be made because there are no entitled parties or the entitled parties cannot be found. On the basis of their own investigation and consultation of available archives, the parties have estimated the value of the war policies which have never been claimed.* The settlement is based on the amounts insured at the time, increased by an interest compensation factor for the interest lost since 1943. A coefficient of 22 was used as a guideline in this respect.
Stichting Individuele Verzekeringsaanspraken Sjoa
On the basis of the experience which has been gained over the past two years in handling claims, it is expected that only a small part of the insurance policies can be paid out to descendants of the Jews insured during the war. To this end, the Association and the CJO founded the independent Stichting Individuele Verzekeringsaanspraken Sjoa (Holocaust Foundation for Individual Insurance Claims). With 20 million guilders, the Foundation will have amply sufficient funds to handle individual claims. The Board of Directors of the foundation consists of three people; E.J. Numann, J. de Ruiter and M.R. Wijnholt.
People who believe they are entitled to a pay-out in relation to war insurance taken out before or during the war, have a period of ten years during which they can file a claim with the foundation. The foundation will provide information in the media regarding the options for filing claims. The foundation will take over claims which have not yet been wound up, which are in the hands of insurers or the Central Register for Jewish War Claims. Dutch Jews and their descendants, even if they are now living abroad, may file a claim for a pay-out. The claim should be accompanied by as much proof as possible. The foundation will compensate the interest in accordance with a model that has been developed by both organisations. For the period-1943 - 2000, this means a multiplication factor of 22. For claims which are filed and awarded later, the interest compensation will be adjusted. The foundation will also be flexible with regard to the burden of proof as has been the case by the individual insurers for the past two years. Claims which have been wound up since the spring of 1997 will not be considered again. The insurers will give the foundation the necessary data and will pay the operating expenses of the foundation. Two-thirds of any funds left in the foundation after ten years will be made available to the Jewish community.
Purpose of the Stichting Joodse Oorlogstegoeden funds
In view of the unprecedented nature of the Holocaust, both parties share the opinion that the Jewish community has a moral right to payments from life insurance policies that will no longer be subject to a claim. Therefore, the Association of Insurers has, on the behalf of the members concerned, decided to put 25 million guilders at the disposal of the Jewish community. The CJO set up the Stichting Joodse Oorlogstegoeden (Foundation for Jewish War-Related Payments) comprising representatives of both holocaust victim organisations and other organisations associated with the CJO. The foundation will organise a referendum of the Jewish war victims to decide the purpose of the funds. The money could go to individual war victims or to other Jewish causes, as selected in the referendum. That part of the surplus from the Stichting Individuele Verzekeringsaanspraken Sjoa (Holocaust Foundation for Individual Insurance Claims) that is to be transferred after ten years to the Stichting Joodse Oorlogstegoeden will be allocated similarly. The Association of Insurers will have no part in allocating the funds of the Stichting Joodse Oorlogsslachtoffers (Foundation for Jewish War victims) and supports the view that the Jewish community should accept this responsibility. In cases where insurers had transferred insurance policies to the government, the CJO intends to ask the government for the accumulated interest on the surrender values of those policies held by persecuted Jews. This amount and other future payments should all go to the foundation.
Monument of the Jewish Community
The Association of Insurers is making 5 million guilders available for the study project "Monument of the Jewish Community". The purpose of this educational project is to keep alive the memory of the Dutch Jewish community which experienced the Second World War. By making use of the many data from archives which were studied over the past few years the project will seek to provide a comprehensive picture of the Jewish community before and during the Second World War. With the help of the Internet, current generations can supplement data on family, friends and acquaintances with information that they still have. By this project, the Dutch insurers wish to pay their respects to all victims of the Holocaust.
* Note on unclaimed life insurance
In the post-war restoration of rights, the vast majority of the insurance policies which had been confiscated by the 'robbers bank' Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co were restored. In many cases, this meant that the insured amount was paid out to surviving relatives of the Jewish insured parties. However, some of the insurance policies could not be paid out as no entitled parties had filed a claim. Around 1955, the surrender values of these insurance policies were transferred to the State as 'bona vacantia'. Ultimately some 450,000 guilders remained with the State. It has been established that the insured value of these insurance policies is approximately four times the surrender value. The insurers are now paying out this insured value, minus the surrender value which still lies with the State. In addition, a small number of unclaimed insurance policies fell outside of the restoration process and were not involved in the surrender to the State. These insurance policies are also included in the agreement.
Due to the lack of policy archives, it was not possible to determine the unpaid amount by means of individual policies. Data on these war policies were usually destroyed after a legal archive period of ten years after the insurer performed its obligations. That is why a macro-level calculation of the insured value of the various categories of insurance has been opted for. The total figure reached by the parties amounted to 45 million guilders.
Press information
CJO:
R. Naftaniel
tel. 31 70 - 364 68 62
Dutch Association of Insurers
W. Terwisscha
tel. 31 70 - 333 86 75
This document is a special publication by the Centraal Joods Overleg CJO, the Central Jewish Board and the Dutch Association of Insurers, concerning the settlement of unclaimed insurance assets. The dossier describes the background of the agreement that the Association of Insurers and the CJO concluded in November 1999. In the centre of this publication you will also find a summary of the final report by the Supervisory committee for investigation into financial assets from WW II in the Netherlands (Scholten Committee).
Settlement of WW II insurance assets
Four of the five investigating committees appointed by the government to investigate the robbery and restoration of rights during and after the Second World War, have completed their work. The Scholten Committee (financial assets) presented its findings, including on insurance, in December 1999. In its final report, the Committee pleaded for the stock market, banks and insurance companies to make a 'gesture' to the Jewish community. The Dutch Association of Insurers had already concluded an agreement with CJO regarding the restitution of insurance assets a month previously. This dossier examines that agreement and the findings of the Scholten Committee.
The primary objective of the agreement that the CJO and the Association of Insurers signed in November 1999 is to clarify matters concerning unclaimed insurance monies for the victims of the persecution of the Jews and their surviving relatives. The agreement must be seen as a final settlement. Prof. Dr. E.J. Fischer, general manager of the Dutch Association of Insurers: "The insurance monies that were not paid out after the Second World War will now be transferred. These are the unclaimed assets that have been established by the Scholten Committee, the CJO and the Association of Insurers." In this framework, Fischer is talking of a 'finalising document' by means of which the CJO and the Association of Insurers do the victims of the Shoah justice'.
The insurance sector is making a total of fifty million guilders available: twenty million is intended for individual payments (see also the article on Stichting Individuele Verzekerings Aanspraken Sjoa), twenty-five million guilders for purposes to be determined by the Jewish community itself and five million guilders for the research and Internet project, Monument to the Jewish Community.
Monument to the Jewish Community
The research project 'Monument to the Jewish Community' will be set up as an educational project, with the objective of keeping alive the memory of the Dutch-Jewish community that experienced the Second World War. The aim is to paint as complete a picture as possible of the Jewish community before and during the Second World War, using the great amount of information from archives that have been investigated in recent years. Present generations can add to the information on family, friends and acquaintances via the Internet with the information they have themselves. Through this project, the insurance sector wishes to show its respect for all the victims of the persecution of the Jews.
Jewish War Assets Foundation
Both the Association of Insurers and the CJO feel 'that the Jewish community has the moral right to payment of life insurance from the Second World War for which no claimants have come forward'. CJO Board member Mr R.M. Naftaniel: "We have worked for more than two years in an extremely honest way, together with the Association of Insurers, towards a good settlement of the war policies. It was soon possible to start allowing claims, whereby insurance companies were extremely compliant. Due to the unprecedented character of the Jewish persecution, whereby entire families perished, it will not be possible to pay all monies to beneficiaries. We have therefore also agreed with the Association of Insurers that all unclaimed assets will be paid to the Jewish community."
Half of the total amount involved in the agreement (25 million guilders), will be paid to the Jewish War Assets Foundation. "How this money, and monies being made available by other parties to the Jewish community, will be spent will only be determined once the victims of the Shoah have been consulted", emphasised CJO chairman, Mr. E.J. Numann at the press conference where the agreement with the insurance sector was announced. Numann appeared satisfied: "It is an excellent agreement. Both parties have negotiated very realistically and, materially, we are therefore extremely satisfied. The psychological aspect is also most important for us. This agreement is the answer to decades of frustration regarding a matter that had not been settled properly. Of course a great deal had already been properly settled, but we can still now settle what was not handled properly at the time."
CJO spokesman Naftaniel also lays the emphasis on the 'restoration' of rights. Immediately after the presentation of the final report of the Scholten Committee, for example, he emphasised that the Jewish community 'is not begging for an apology'. "What war victims and their surviving relatives primarily want is redress."
Unclaimed life insurance
The vast majority of the insurance policies confiscated by the Liro bank (approximately ninety-eight percent) was reimbursed shortly after the war. In most cases, the insured amount was paid to the beneficiary or the surviving relatives. A small proportion of the insurance policies could not, however, be paid out because no beneficiaries had either claimed them or could be traced. Around 1955 - in accordance with the Dutch law of inheritance - the (then) surrender values of these policies were transferred to the state, as 'estates without known heirs'. Approximately NLG 430,000 of this estate ultimately remained in the possession of the state. It has been established that the insured value of these insurance policies is worth four times the surrender value. Pursuant to the agreement concluded by the Association of Insurers and the CJO in November 1999, insurance companies will be paying out this insured value, plus compensation for loss of interest (minus the surrender value that is still in the possession of the state). A number of unclaimed insurance policies (primarily the industrial insurance) that was not included at the time of the surrender to the state, is now included in the agreement.
Association director, Fischer, explained that it was no longer possible to reconstruct the unpaid assets by means of all the individual policies. One of the major reasons, he said, was that key policy archives were either entirely or partly missing. Fischer: "The information on these policies was destroyed, mostly after a legally required retention period of ten years after the insurance companies had fulfilled their obligations. Based on our own research and consultation of the remaining archives, together with the CJO we have been able to make a reasonably accurate estimation of the value of the unclaimed policies. Compensation for loss of interest since 1943 has been added to the amounts insured at that time. We finally arrived at a multiple of 22 (for the period 1942-1999) and that amounts to a total of 45 million guilders."
Independent Sjoa Foundation for individual insurance claims
Together with the CJO, on 9 November 1999, the Association of Insurers set up the Stichting Individuele Verzekeringsaanspraken Sjoa [Sjoa foundation for Individual Insurance Claims] in order to assess and honour requests for payment of Jewish war policies. The objective of this foundation, which will remain active for ten years, is to find out whether people are entitled to payment. Requests already sent to Dutch life insurance companies, the Dutch Association of Insurers or the Centre for reporting Jewish War Claims before 9 November 1999 need not be submitted anew.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of Stichting Sjoa consists of the following.
Mr. M.R. Wijnholt (chairman) - former president of the District Court of The Hague
Mr. E.J. Numann - member of the board of the CJO, judge with the district Court of The Hague
Mr. J. de Ruiter - Life Insurance Ombudsman, former minister of Justice and Defence
Based on the request by a victim of the Holocaust or a surviving relative, the foundation will carry out a thorough investigation in archives of insurance companies and other relevant Dutch archives, for example, in the remaining archives of the Council for Redress. The Board of Directors of Stichting Sjoa will then take a decision on the request based on the results of the investigation. The decision on a payment will be made based on reasonableness and fairness.
Duration of processing
The archive investigation has to be carried out to a great extent by hand. Furthermore, the archives that need to be consulted are distributed throughout the country at various companies and institutions. It can, therefore, take weeks (sometimes even months) before the board can answer a request. The foundation aims, in any case, to take a decision on a request within a maximum of six months. The regulations and the application form for investigation by the Foundation can be found, on the Internet at: www.stichting-sjoa.nl .The Sjoa Foundation for individual insurance claims is located at Bordewijklaan 4, P.O. Box 91475, 2509 EB The Hague and can be contacted by fax, on +31 (0) 70 333 8846, and via e-mail at: info@stichting-sjoa.nl.
The Scholten Committee's final report
The most important committee for the insurance sector, the supervisory committee's investigation into WWII financial assets in the Netherlands, or the Scholten Committee for short, presented its final report in mid-December, during a press conference in Nieuwspoort in The Hague. This final report, which includes, in addition to its findings, conclusions and policy recommendations, consists of scientific investigation into financial assets by financial institutions. Chairman of the committee, Mr. W. Scholten, referred interested journalists, for a 'general view of the restoration of rights', to the final report of the Van Kemenade Committee, which was published at the beginning of this year.
Investigation assignment
At the time of its instalment on 13 July 1997, the Scholten Committee was given the assignment of 'carrying out an investigation into the actual systematics regarding the restoration of rights in respect of the financial assets of war victims of the Second World War held at banks and insurance companies in the Netherlands. This can include the role of banks and insurance companies as well as, where relevant, the role of the government'. In doing so, the committee must refrain, in view of the assignment, from investigation aimed at specific individual cases.
During the more than two years of its investigation, the Committee therefore focused on the question of which assets, entitlements to insurance and other assets might still be wrongfully in the possession of banks, insurance companies and the state. The restitution was carried out to a major extent in the framework of the restoration of rights. "An extremely complex operation, which commands a great deal of respect, but whereby a number of side remarks should also be made", says Scholten. He was referring primarily to the length of time the restoration of rights has taken and the often bureaucratic method.
Insurance companies' restoration of rights
The Committee was unable to discover any serious flaws within the insurance sector: insurance policies were systematically restored after the war. Some gaps were detected on a small scale, primarily with regard to industrial insurance policies (chiefly small insurance policies). These gaps were included in the settlement between CJO and the Dutch insurers. The CJO and The Association of Insurers support the recommendations of the Committee and have promised to cooperate in an audit.
The summary of the Scholten Committee's partial report, 'Insurances', compiled by Dr. R. Grüter, investigator for the Supervisory committee for the investigation into financial assets from WW II in the Netherlands. In the investigation team, Grüter focused on the partial report, Life insurance, annuities, pensions and funeral insurance policies.
Robbery and restoration of rights to Jewish life insurance policies, annuities, pensions and funeral insurance policies in the Netherlands
Findings of the Supervisory committee for the investigation into financial assets from WW II in the Netherlands
In 1997, the Supervisory Committee for the investigation into financial assets from WW II in the Netherlands, or the Scholten Committee for short, was given the general assignment to 'carry out an investigation into the actual systematics concerning the restoration of rights with regard to the financial assets of war victims of the Second World War in the possession of banks and insurance companies in the Netherlands'. During the investigation, the Committee focused specifically on the question of which assets, rights to policies or other capital values of victims are currently being wrongfully held by banks, insurance companies or the state as a result of measures during the time of the occupation.
Methodological accountability
In order to (be able) to answer the central question of the report, the Scholten Committee investigated both the robbery of insurance policies during the German occupation and the post-war restoration of rights. For the insurance policies, archive investigation was carried out in four areas. Firstly at insurance companies and umbrella organisations in the insurance and pension sector and additionally in the archives of the occupying authorities, the Dutch government and Jewish organisations. Although many archive collections proved to have been destroyed in the meantime, based on those remaining documents, it was possible to make an accurate reconstruction of the systematics of the robbery and the restoration of rights to Jewish insurance policies. Two questions were central here. Which insurance policies had been stolen by the occupying power and how were they restored after liberation? The second question was whether loopholes in the robbery have led to policies and insured values remaining in the possession of insurance companies.
Conclusions...
The conclusions that the Scholten Committee has included in its final report regarding 'the restoration of rights in general' also largely apply to the insurance sector. In the opinion of the Committee, it has taken a long time for the restoration of rights to come about and there was also often little regard for the interests of the depossessed in the interpretation of the regulations.
With regard to the restoration of rights to insurance agreements, the Committee concludes 'that it actually took place systematically', with, incidentally, the side comment that 'a number of possible loopholes in the systematics' of the restoration of rights had been found. This concerned life insurance, in particular the industrial insurance policies, which may have been excluded from the Nazi-decrees and surrender during the time of occupation. The restoration of rights regarding funeral insurance policies may also have been incomplete.
Finally, Scholten ascertained that the surrender values of policies for which no beneficiaries had come forward, were paid out to the state between 1956 and1957. This was entirely in accordance with a regulation laid down in the Dutch Civil Code. According to the regulation, the state was the heir to estates without known heirs. Should claimants come forward after payment to the state, then the policies would still be paid out. The difference between the surrender value and the insured value of the uninherited policies remained in the possession of insurance companies.
... and recommendations
The recommendations with regard to the restoration of rights to insurance policies included in the Scholten Committee's final report are twofold. Both the insurance companies and the state were advised to make 'a financial gesture' and to that end to listen to the Jewish community who, socially, represent the depossessed. Additionally, to remove, as far as possible, any uncertainty regarding the restitution of individual policies, insurance companies should search their administration for policies that have never been paid out. A firm of accountants should not only audit this information, under supervision of the Insurance Supervisory Board, but also publish it.
The robbery of Jewish insured values via Liro
During the Second World War, the occupying power legally managed to get their hands of the insured values of Jewish policyholders by means of a series of decrees. With the 'First Liro Decree' 148/1941 of 8 August 1941, insurance policies remained untouched, as this decree was aimed mainly at bank assets, cash money and stocks and shares. The result of this decree was, however, that some Jews endeavoured to protect their capital in what were known as 'escape policies', by means of a single premium insurance policy.
The intention was actually to deposit the monies by means of these escape policies, so that, in better times, they could be returned after deduction of costs. Policies were also sometimes split into contracts that were not individually surrenderable. The decree also offered the opportunity to take out annuity policies financed by operating capital. This would provide Jewish workers with a disguised redundancy payment in the event of forced dismissal.
Documentation found shows that insurance companies collaborated in these practices, although the official attitude of the Bedrijfsgroep Levensverzekering [Industrial Confederation of Life Insurance Companies] and the companies themselves to such activities was reserved.
Surrender of policies
When, on 21 May 1942, the Second Liro Decree (VO 58/1942) came into force, Jews had to register their life insurance policies, annuities, pensions and property insurance policies to the robbery bank, Lippmann Rosenthal & Co Sarphatistraat (Liro). They also had to surrender their policies. The insurance companies were obliged to register the insurance policies of Jewish clients and pay out expired policies and current annuities to Liro instead of to the insured parties themselves. Additionally, no legal transactions (for instance surrender, lending on security, change of beneficiary) were permitted to be carried out with regard to any Jewish insurance policy without permission from Liro. Insurance companies were also obliged to present their policyholders with a form on which they had to state whether they were Jewish or not, according to the definition of the occupying power (clause 4 of Decree 189/1940).
A great many Jewish policyholders registered their policies and, based on this information, in October 1942, the robbery bank Liro estimated the expected surrender value of the Jewish policies at approximately NLG 25 million (including annuities).
At the time of the implementation of Decree 54/1943 of 11 June 1943, this proved to have been a realistic estimation. According to the new decree, the life insurance policies that had to be registered in accordance with the Second Liro Decree, had to be terminated as of 30 June 1943. If the policy conditions of the insurance provided for surrender, then the insurance company had to pay the surrender value, as of 30 June 1943, to Liro. If the insurance agreement did not provide for surrender, (as in the case of annuities and pensions), then the insurance company had to pay three-quarters of the mathematically calculated premium reserve to Liro.
Insurance companies under pressure
Documents show that the occupying powers were most dissatisfied with the execution of the questionnaire by insurance companies into the Jewish identity of their clients. Insurance companies also implemented the decrees rather slowly, by handling the agreements in question individually and implementing the decrees, as far as possible, according to the letter of the policy conditions.
When, in early 1944, the desired surrender proved not to be progressing rapidly enough, the insurance companies were put under pressure. Liro threatened to appoint 'Verwalters' (managers appointed by the occupying power) at the companies, with audits of the administration and to report to the Rijkskommissariaat [National Commissioner's Office] any companies still in default. Generalkommissar Fischböck also blackmailed insurance companies with the threat of withdrawing the previously granted exemption of industrial insurance policies (life insurance with a low insured value of up to NLG 500) from surrender if the surrender of the other insurance policies was not satisfactorily - for the occupying power - carried out. As a result of this pressure, Liro received many more millions in surrender values during the final months of the surrender operation (March to July 1944). The exemption from surrender of the industrial insurance policies was made permanent in September 1944. It appears that Liro had by then already stolen 26 million guilders in Jewish insurance monies. Approximately 23.5 million of that was from forced surrender, while 2.5 million consisted of payments due by insurance companies to Jewish insured parties during the period between the disclosure decree (58/1942) and the surrender decree (54/1943).
Surrender operation
During the surrender operation three categories of policies were not surrendered:
a) Those categories defined as exempt by the occupying power, such as insurance policies taken out by mixed married couples whose children were not considered to be Jewish; insurance policies for which the beneficiaries were non-Jewish; insurance policies of deregistered Jews; insurance policies that had not yet built up any value.
b) Industrial insurance policies were first temporarily and then, from September 1944, permanently exempt from surrender. According to documentation found in insurance archives they often were surrendered, as the obligation for Jewish policyholders to disclose national insurance policies was not cancelled.
c) Insurances that were not disclosed to Liro by either the policyholder or the insurance company.
The restoration of rights
Even during the occupation, the Dutch government in London was preparing the principles of the post-war restoration of rights. The Occupation Regulations Order (E 93) of 17 September 1944, for example, entails the anti-Jewish occupation decrees being considered never to have had the force of law. The Order for the Restoration of Rights (E 100) of the same date formed the further foundation for the restoration of rights, whereby the independent Council for Redress was granted the authority to declare legal relationships that had been formed or amended during the occupation, entirely or partially null and void or set them down in an amended form. The Council could also reinstate legal relationships that had been entirely or partially nullified during the time of occupation (such as the surrender of life insurance policies), in either their original or an amended form. No separate regulation was made, however, for the restitution of policies, so that the question of how the restoration of policies was actually to be organised was only finally answered by rulings in lawsuits brought by the depossessed against insurance companies at the Judiciary Department of the Council for Redress.
When, after liberation, stock was taken of these affairs, most Jewish policyholders were no longer alive. That meant that their policies had to be paid out, but the insurance companies had been forced to pay out the surrender value of those insurance policies based on the German decrees. They assumed during the war that they had paid out 'satisfactorily' and therefore no longer had any obligations. After liberation, the insurance companies still had to pay out for insurance agreements for which the surrender values had already been paid out to Liro, based on E 93. Insurance companies were therefore, in other words, forced to partly pay out twice for the same policy: first during the occupation to Liro and after liberation to claimants. A complicating factor here is that Liro's estate, including the monies paid by insurance companies amounting to NLG 26 million, were treated as more or less lost in the first few years after liberation.
No government support
The insurance companies did not think that they could absorb this loss without support from the government. In the opinion of the sector, the loss was part of the total financial consequences of the occupation for insurance companies (there were also war risk damages, 'Indonesian damages' and loss through the lowering of the interest rate). Insurance companies therefore endeavoured to instigate a specific statutory regulation for the restitution of the policies, which would ensure that the losses were not carried solely by the insurance companies. Negotiations with the Ministry of Finance went on until 1948, but the government refused, right from the start, to give a guarantee for the amount that the insurance companies could claim back from Liro. The negotiations failed and the insurance sector and the Ministry of Finance consequently considered reducing the volume of payments in the framework of policy restoration by limiting the right of inheritance for the Jewish deceased to immediate family members (parents, children, brothers and sisters). The Minister of Finance supported such a regulation, but his colleague Minister of Justice considered it a violation of the constitution and this proposal, too, foundered. Furthermore, the Ministry of Justice also objected to a draft regulation, whereby individual companies who would experience difficulties due to large restoration sums, would get financial support after all. A statutory regulation never came about.
Jurisprudence
In the meantime, the insurance companies adapted a reticent attitude towards complete restitution of policies. They attempted to defend themselves as far as possible from the lawsuits that had been started since the beginning of 1946 at the judiciary department of the Council for the Redress. However, they finally had to reconcile themselves to the law of precedent, which was favourable to policyholders.
The most important pronouncements of the council were given in the period between 1946 and 1949. From 1946 onwards, a legal precedent was set and the majority of the pronouncements were in favour of the Jewish claimants. The verdict of the lawsuits was in general to the effect that 'on the condition of payment of overdue premiums plus interest, the insurance agreements are to be restituted, unless the insurance company can demonstrate that restoration is unreasonable'. That meant that a life insurance was restituted if the policyholder was still alive. Where it concerned an annuity and the annuity holder was still alive, the annuity was to be paid out again. Where it concerned a life insurance and the policyholder was deceased, then the insurance was paid to the beneficiary or the heirs. Annuities were no longer to be paid out after death, entirely in accordance with the insurance conditions. The claimant had a claim on the estate of Liro, which, incidentally had been renamed LVVS - Liquidatie van Verwaltung Sarphatistraat [Liquidation of the Property Administration on the Sarphatistraat] after liberation, in the case of due payments that had been paid to Liro in the period between the declaration decree of May 1942 and the surrender decree of June 1943. Overdue annuity payments that should have been paid out after the surrender date would still be paid by the insurance companies.
Council for Redress
The Council for Redress further ruled that insurance companies had to pay interest on the payments when they were found to be in default and that was only the case from the moment that the documents required for the payment were produced. In the event of restitution of policies that had been cancelled due to cessation of payment of premiums during the occupation, the Council for Redress made a distinction between economic incapacity and actual force majeure. Where actual force majeure was established, for example in the case of deportation and going into hiding, then the policy was to be restituted.
The Council for Redress granted insurance companies the right to a claim against LVVS to the amount of the surrender value held at Liro, but only by 1948-1950 it became apparent that a claim against LVVS would be partially paid out between 1948 and 1950. The insurance companies finally only received ninety percent of their approved claims from LVVS.
The consequent jurisprudence that thus developed formed the basis of the amicable policy restitution that the insurance companies agreed - out of court - with individual claimants. Furthermore, in 1948 and 1954 two agreements concerning unclaimed insurance policies were concluded between insurance companies and administrators and/or the government, which were based on the principles of the precedent set by the Council for Redress.
BAON Foundation
The policies of the claimants who were still alive and who came forward were restituted in this manner. In order to reinstate the policies for which no policyholder, beneficiary or heir came forward, at the end of 1947 the Dutch Administration Institute (NBI) appointed the Stichting Bewindvoering Afwezigen en Onbeheerde Nalatenschappen (BAON) [Foundation for the Administration of Absentee Property and Estates without known Heirs] as administrator for all absentee policyholders whose names appeared in the administration of LVVS. On 10 June 1948, an 'Agreement' was concluded between the BAON and the insurance companies. This 'agreement' concerning the 'provisional restoration of rights' entails the companies cooperating in the conditional restitution of unclaimed policies according to the principles of the precedents set in the meantime. Deeds of those policies were drawn up and, if anyone could come forward and identify themselves as a claimant of the insured payment, the provisional restitution would be made permanent. The insurance company then paid out to BAON, who took care of payment to the claimant. The company was then indemnified by BAON against claims by other persons who might later claim the payment as rightful claimant.
Veegens agreement
In the years following the Agreement (1948 to 1954) no claimants proved to have come forward for some of the unmanaged policies. According to the Dutch Civil Code, goods which nobody claims (an estate without known heirs) come to the state. The state is therefore, in other words, the heir to this estate and in September 1954, the life insurance companies therefore concluded the Overeenkomst tot Minnelijk Rechtsherstel [Amicable Redress Agreement] (the 'Veegens agreement'; named after the government attorney of the same name). The state relinquished its rights to collect the insured sums to which they actually had the right and contented itself with the surrender values of these unmanaged policies. The difference between the insured value and surrender value was granted to the insurance companies, so that they still received some sort of compensation for the great losses they suffered as a result of the war. The insurance companies transferred the surrender values of unclaimed policies (in other words the provisionally restored policies that could not permanently be restored as there were no longer any claimants) to the state, where they ended up at the Dienst Domeinen [State Property Administration Office]. A clause was included in the agreement stating that the state would transfer the surrender value to the insurance company in question after production of a declaration of right to inheritance and a death certificate should any claimants still come forward. The insurance company would then take care of payment to the claimant.
Between 1956 and1957, the state collected NLG 697,155.07 in the framework of the Veegens regulation. After restitution of surrender values to insurance companies - in connection with restitution that would still be carried out - the final amount of surrender values of unclaimed insurance policies came to NLG 429,907.96. This entire process was settled by the policy restitution department of the NBI in cooperation with Veegens.
Role of accountants
Both the activities of BAON with regard to the interim restoration of rights and the payment of the surrender values to the state were audited by the firm of accountants, Nieuwenhuis & Bos, at the request of the Central Accounting Service of the Ministry of Finance. The auditors' reports showed that all policies shown in the administration of LVVS were under supervision from the moment that the state became an interested party. The insurance companies would have to account for the policies not yet restituted.
In the audits it was furthermore ascertained that interested parties were on occasion not informed of the restitution of their policies. Neither was authority signed by the heirs always requested by notaries. After final restitution a payment was also occasionally made to intermediaries (guardians, estate notaries, curators) instead of to claimants.
According to the accountants' final conclusion, the policy restitution fulfilled reasonable demands. The documentation found at various insurance companies in the framework of the Scholten Committee, not only confirms this conclusion, but even reinforces it.
Insurance values that were stolen via other routes
Funeral insurance policies covered by funeral societies did not fall under the declaration and surrender obligation of the Liro Decrees. Such agreements were, after all, often based on membership of an entirely or partly idealistic, cultural or religious association or society.
As far as the investigation of the Scholten Committee was able to establish, with one exception, in the case of such institutions robbery only occurred in the case of Jewish associations or societies. These were liquidated and all their property seized by the occupying power - in these cases the Commissioner's Office for Non-Commercial Associations and Foundations (CNCV) . Various situations were possible with non-Jewish associations or societies, depending on the decrees that were deemed by the occupying power to apply to the specific association. It boiled down to Jewish members being barred from the associations, whereby the funeral scheme related to their membership was cancelled or their schemes and/or insurance policies were cancelled because their membership or premiums were no longer paid after they went into hiding or were deported.
The restoration of rights to such agreements was not subjected to systematics, nor to any specific guidelines. It was largely up to the association or society how they dealt with the restitution of such membership of deceased and compensation for non-delivered funeral services. This chiefly applies to non-monetary funeral societies who had not delivered any services as it had not been possible for the society to arrange the funeral of the deceased in question. The case-studies showed that solutions were sought for, although the societies were often bound by the regulations of the sector. It is likely that restoration and/or compensation was not carried out equally satisfactorily in every case.
The Scholten Committee was not able to investigate properly the restitution of rights of Jewish funeral societies due to lack of relevant archive material. It is clear, however, that 71 percent of the estate of the CNCV was made available after the war restitution. How individual restitution was carried out cannot be established. There should have been some 'restitution in restitution': in other words, after the restitution of the society, including the restitution of part of the stolen property, the individual member or their beneficiaries should have received restitution and/or compensation of their rights.
Conclusions concerning policy restitution
The Jewish policies that were stolen by Liro via the anti-Jewish occupation decrees and were therefore included in the post-war administration of LVVS were, in general, restituted by means of an accurate but complicated system. The insurance companies initially barely cooperated in full policy restitution, due to concerns over the financial losses as a result of the circumstances of the occupation. The government did nothing to support the insurance sector financially or to come up with a special statutory regulation for policy restitution. The fact that policy restitution was finally accurately carried out is due to two factors. Firstly the pronouncements of the judicial department of the Council for Redress, which defended the interests of the Jewish interested parties, and secondly the formulation and implementation of the two agreements regarding the restitution of policies with no known heirs under the auspices of the NBI by the BAON, LVVS and insurance companies, who ensured bureaucratic administrative settlement of the policy restoration. The interests of the state as heir were built into the systematics of the restoration of rights and were a major motivation for the supervision of the policy restitution by the insurance companies.
Loopholes
The investigation into the systematics of robbery and restoration of rights showed that loopholes may exist for a number of categories in the restoration of rights to Jewish policies:
1) Insurances that were not registered at Liro (and therefore not surrendered), but were terminated by cancellation due to the circumstances in which the Jews found themselves. The value of these policies may have remained at the insurance companies after the war, if they were not claimed, which also applies to premium-free policies. The exemption of the industrial insurance policies (which mostly ended up in Liro's administration, however, because they had to be registered by the Jewish policyholders) means that there is a good chance that there is a loophole in this category. Several hundred of these policies were indeed found.
2) Individual policies that have occasionally slipped through the net due to the complicated situation of the Jewish insured parties, the laborious verification regarding establishment of death or the complicated systematics of the restoration of rights.
3) Funeral insurance policies that were taken out with funeral societies and not stolen by Liro, but were terminated in other ways during the occupation and have not been satisfactorily restituted or compensated.
An important (final) conclusion in the investigation is no money values of Jewish policies have remained systematically in the possession of insurance companies. The insurance companies were permitted by the state to retain part of the insured values of uninherited policies (NLG 1.3 million). On the other hand, insurance companies only received ninety percent (almost NLG 19 million) of the admitted claim against LVVS, while a surrender sum of NLG 23.5 million was paid out.
Here, incidentally, both the released reserves of the annuities and the payment of insured amounts that insurance companies made against life insurance policies, have not been taken into account.
The information from this joint dossier is included in the News databank on the Internet sites of The Association of Insurers (www.insurers.nl) and the CIDI (www.cidi.nl).
Further information on the settlement of insurance assets in and after WW II:
Esther Koedam (CJO), E-mail: cjo@cjo.nl or
Willem Terwisscha van Scheltinga (Dutch Association of Insurers),
E-mail: wterw@verzekeraars.nl
The Hague, February 2000
© Central Jewish Board/Dutch Association of Insurers
Stichting Sjoa [Holocaust Foundation] informs the Eagleburger Commission on the settlement of individual insurance claims of war victims in the Netherlands
Last week in Washington, the 'Stichting Individuele Verzekeringsaanspraken Sjoa' [Holocaust Foundation for Individual Insurance Claims], which is responsible for processing the life insurance claims of Dutch war victims, organised a presentation on its activities during the first two years of its existence. For this purpose, two board members of the Holocaust Foundation, M.R. Wijnholt (chairman) and E.J. Numann attended a meeting of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), chaired by Lawrence S. Eagleburger.
The Holocaust Foundation has in the meantime settled 2200 claims, as a result of which a total of EUR 385,000 has been paid out to 193 beneficiaries under 89 insurance policies. Approximately 4000 claims or requests for information are still being processed. These facts are presented in the Report of Activities 2000-2001 that the Foundation will shortly send to all of the more than 1600 persons who have submitted one or more claims or requests for information. Including the disbursements made by insurers before the Holocaust Foundation was set up, a total of EUR 840,000 has now been paid out to beneficiaries under 133 insurance policies.
During the meeting of the ICHEIC in Washington, Chairman Eagleburger expressed his appreciation for the constructive and rapid manner in which the Centraal Joods Overleg [Dutch Central Jewish Consultation Body] and the Verbond van Verzekeraars [Association of Insurers] arrived at an understanding more than two years ago and for the efforts that are being made to pay out the non-distributed assets to the victims and their descendants.
In November 1999, the Dutch Central Jewish Consultation Body and the Association of Insurers reached agreement on a definitive settlement for the non-distributed insurance benefits. Part of this settlement was the establishment of the Holocaust Foundation for Individual Insurance Claims, which would investigate and process individual claims. In May 2000, on the basis of this Dutch agreement, the Association of Insurers joined the Eagleburger Commission, the goal of which is to solve the problem of the unpaid insurance claims of Jewish victims of the Second World War on a worldwide scale. In July 2001 the Dutch settlement was formally approved within the Eagleburger Commission in the form of an agreement of collaboration between the Commission and the Foundation. This means, for example, that the claims received by the Eagleburger Commission will be turned over to the Foundation for processing. An appeals committee has also been set up for claimants who do not agree with the decisions of the Foundation.
The Hague, 29 January 2002
Activity Report 2000-2001
Sjoa foundation (Holocaust Foundation for Individual Insurance Claims)
Board of Directors Meetings
During the first board meeting held on 31 January 2000 decisions were made as to the housing and organisation of the secretariat, staffing, asset management, a publicity campaign and setting up an Internet site.
During the second meeting held on 23 February 2000 it was decided to publish a list of 750 names of unpaid policies on the Internet site. Approval first had to be obtained from the Registration Office. These names were placed on the Internet site in early April. For publicity support, the Foundation published a press release and board member Numann was interviewed on the radio. Publication of the list attracted considerable attention in various media.
The Board meets approximately once every month. The greater part of these meetings is taken up by decisions on payments. Other subjects are the Foundation’s organisation and activities, the progress of applications, publicity, external contacts and asset management.
Various specialists in the employ of insurance companies were invited to attend the last meeting held in the year 2000 in order to take part in a discussion on war policy payments based on some practical examples. The main conclusions of this meeting were:
- Incomplete archives make it difficult and time-consuming to discover whether insurance has or has not been paid out.
- If payment is to take place it must be carefully sorted out who the entitled party or parties is/are, preferably by means of a certificate of inheritance.
- All entitled parties are entitled to their share; if the entitled parties have not yet been identified, their share is reserved.
- The Foundation will take on a former civil-law notary as adviser.
Secretariat
It was decided to house the Foundation’s secretariat in the building belonging to the Verbond van Verzekeraars [Dutch Association of Insurers], so that it can dispose of the necessary support and facilities there. Obviously, it will have its own address, post office box, telephone number, Internet site and e-mail address. It was decided to staff the secretariat with a secretary for one to two days a week and administrative support for 2.5 days. Mrs. P.J. van Oosterhout, who had already helped settle war claims on behalf of the Association, was appointed Secretary.
During the first few months brochures and forms were drawn up in Dutch and English, a registration system was acquired, an Internet site was set up and an office was furnished. In February 2000 a publicity campaign was held with advertisements in Dutch, Israeli and American newspapers. A telephone line was opened which affected parties can use to register on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Thousands of brochures were distributed in the course of the following months.
The first forms started arriving through the post, by fax and e-mail at the end of February 2000. A list of unpaid policies was published on the Internet and resulted in many applications in early April.
At the beginning of May, the Foundation had received almost 3500 applications of which 1200 were received directly by the Foundation, 900 were taken over from the Association and the insurance companies, 1000 were received via the Centraal Meldpunt Joodse Oorlogsclaims [Central Registration Desk for Jewish War Claims] and 400 came in via the Centraal Meldpunt Israël [Central Registration Desk for Israel].
The number of applications was significantly higher than had been taken into account when the secretariat was set up. The staff at that time could not handle the volume. The secretariat had to be restructured and expanded in order to process the applications properly. Clear procedures were also required.
These issues were sufficient cause for Mrs. Van Oosterhout to resign as Secretary as they could not be combined with her work at the Association. As from 1 July 2000, Mr. H.T.C.J. van der Well was appointed as new full-time Secretary. Mr. Van der Well was the coordinator at the Centraal Meldpunt Joodse Oorlogsclaims where he had gained experience in insurance claims. The secretariat has now been restructured and new procedures have since been established but initially there was a high turnover rate and much absenteeism among the personnel, some of whom were temporary employees.
After the volume of work in progress and completion times was surveyed in the spring of 2001, it was decided to expand the research capacity. Staffing has increased from 0.8 FTE to 4.7 FTE and will continue to increase in the coming months to 5 FTE. A total of 8 people now work at the Foundation.
Application
The applications can be divided into three categories:
- Applications with no information on an insurance company (87%).
- Applications that list one or more insurance companies (8%).
- Applications relating to a name on the list of unpaid policies posted on the Internet (5%).
The applications are processed in a registration system. This system records the data of the applicants, relations, war victims, insurances, status of the applications and the correspondence. The manner in which data was recorded in the system during the first few months of the Foundation’s existence was inadequate for dealing with the applications effectively. Nor was data entered consistently due to the high turnover of temporary employees. This required the necessary attention, besides which the entry backlog had to be made up.
The following is an overview of the cumulative number of applicants, applications and their status (rounded off to the nearest 50)
| |
End of 2000 |
November 2001 |
| Number of applicants |
1200 |
1500 |
| Number of applications |
5000 |
6300 |
| Of which: |
| - finalised applications |
1000 |
2200 |
| - under investigation by insurance company |
2000 |
2300 |
| - under investigation by Foundation |
250 |
550 |
| - to be processed |
1750 |
1250 |
Payments
As stated previously, the Board has determined that it must be sorted out who the entitled party or parties is/are for each payment. Practice proves this to be very labour-intensive and time-consuming. In many cases applicants have a certificate of inheritance, usually dated in the 1960s. However they must be ‘translated’ to today. To do so requires that a great amount of information be requested from municipalities.
With regard to the list of unpaid policies as published on the Internet, it was established upon investigation that some policies had indeed been paid out in the past. These names were provided by the insurance companies, proving that the archives are incomplete and showing how complex these matters can be.
Before paying out a policy, the amount of the payment must be determined. Occasionally there is so little information that the policy must be reconstructed. In some instances, the advice of an actuary, civil-law notary or another expert must be obtained.
In order to make payment, the Foundation requires a copy of an identity document, the address, and the bank or giro account details of each entitled party.
Due to these labour-intensive activities, it took some time for the Foundation to start making payments.
In 2000, eight policies totalling € 51,958.28 (NLG 114,501.00) were paid out to sixteen entitled parties. The number of payments increased significantly in 2001. As per the end of November, 89 policies in the total amount of € 385,625.05 (NLG 849,805.80) were paid out to 193 entitled parties.
The payments are tax-exempt in the Netherlands and no income tax is due on the amount.
External contacts
The International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), also referred to as the Eagleburger Committee after its chairman, was established in 1998. This Commission is made up of insurance regulators from the United States, representatives of Israeli and Jewish organisations and insurance companies.
ICHEIC was most interested in the situation in the Netherlands. Not only was the Netherlands the first country in the world where the insurance companies and the Jewish community came to an agreement, but some of these Dutch insurance companies also had interests in the U.S.A. The Association became a member of the ICHEIC in May 2000.
In the year 2000, regulators from California, Washington and New York visited the Foundation and spoke with the Board. They were impressed with what had been achieved in the Netherlands.
ICHEIC has also started handling claims. They have received several hundreds of claims relating to the Netherlands. ICHEIC contacted the Foundation to make an agreement enabling these claims to be handled via the Foundation. To this end, the deputy chairman of ICHEIC, G. Fitchew, visited the Board of the Foundation in October 2000. The Board declared itself in favour of collaborating with ICHEIC and promised to consider the possibility of a complaints committee.
At the end of August 2001 the final agreement was signed and the Foundation will now also handle the claims received by ICHEIC. It was also decided to implement a complaints committee.
The Foundation is in close contact with the Association and the insurance companies. As it is housed within the Association’s building, the Foundation can make use of all available facilities there. Regular meetings on the course of events are held with the insurance companies. The possibility of making their archives more accessible is also being discussed with the insurance companies. This would make it easier for them to carry out better investigations.
Close contact is also maintained with other institutes, namely:
- Public Records Office (archives of the Dutch Administration Institute and Missing Persons).
- Netherlands Institute of War Documentation (NIOD).
- Joods Maatschappelijk Werk [Jewish Social Work] (JOKOS archives).
- Amsterdam Municipal Records Office.
- Municipal registers.
- Ministry of Finance (archives of LVVS [Liquidation of the Property Administration on the Sarphatistraat] and succession).
- Ministry of Justice (Central Register of Wills).
- Centraal Joods Overleg [Central Jewish Board] (CJO).
- Centraal Meldpunt Joodse Oorlogsclaims [Central Registration Desk for Jewish War Claims].
- Centraal Meldpunt Israël [Central Registration Desk for Israel].
The NIOD has important archives containing a great deal of information on Jewish families and inheritance aspects. The Board has decided to have this archive copied onto CD-ROM so that the Foundation can carry out its investigations in-house and in order to reduce the necessity for requesting additional information from applicants. This project will be completed by the end of 2001.
Prospects
The Board has expressed its concern about the fact that the Foundation was unable to achieve its aim to make a decision on an application within six months. The following factors played a role here:
- The unforeseen large numbers of applications.
- Staffing issues.
- The response time of the insurance companies.
- Labour-intensive and time-consuming investigations.
- The dependence on third parties.
Steps have been taken to improve the situation. These steps are intended to ensure that the organisation will expand further and become more professional, and that completion times, now longer than one year, are reduced so that the target period of six months for taking a decision on an application will be realised.
The main actions are related to:
- Expanding the investigation capacity.
- Urging companies to speed up their investigations.
- Improving the efficiency of the Foundation’s own investigations.
- Improving progress control.
- Cleaning up the registration system.
The fact that the number of applications has dropped significantly in 2001 will contribute to reducing the completion time. However, the agreement with ICHEIC will result in more work.
If possible and based on insurance company statements, the Foundation will continue to supplement the list on the Internet with new information on unpaid policies.
The implementation of the complaints committee is approaching completion. The Board has changed the regulations for this and the committee was inaugurated at the end of 2001.
Sjoa Foundation for individual insurance claims
P.o. Box 91475, 2509 EB The Hague - The Netherlands
Telephone (09.00 - 12.00 h.) 00.31.70.3338546, fax 00.31.70.3338846
The Hague, January 2002
Reproduction of the articles in whole or in part is only permitted under the strict condition that the source is quoted.