December 2009 - The Stichting Individuele Verzekeringsaanspraken Sjoa (Holocaust Foundation for Individual Insurance Claims) will remain open for five years to handle applications regarding ‘robbed’ life insurances.

Our Foundation was established in November 1999 as a result of the agreement concluded between the Dutch Central Jewish Board and the Dutch Association of Insures. The Sjoa Foundation was set up in order to assess and honor applications for payment of Jewish life insurance policies that had not been paid out after the war.

Now, ten years later, the conclusion is that the Foundation has fulfilled a great need. A total of more than 17,000 applications have been received and 1,264 policies were paid out to nearly 8,000 individuals for an amount of € 6 million. More than 90% of the applications are concluded.

In 1999 it was agreed that our Foundation would accept applications until January 1, 2010, but recently the Central Jewish Board and the Association of Insurers have decided to continue the processing of applications for the next five years. There are two main reasons for this. First the international opinion that the treatment of Jewish war claims should go on. During the Holocaust Conference last June in Prague insurers worldwide were called upon to continue accepting individual claims. Secondly because evidently there still is a need to answer questions concerning Jewish policies from World War II.

Despite the fact that our Foundation will continue for another five years, it is desirable not to wait unnecessarily long to submit an application. At present, the Foundation has enough capacity to deal with the applications within reasonable time.