A Tale of Two Cities: Administering the Holocaust Settlements in Brooklyn and Berlin
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Description
Holocaust-era litigation in American courts against Swiss banks and German industry has played a major role in assembling approximately $6.5 billion for distribution to hundreds of thousands of Holocaust victims who fell between the cracks of prior reparations programs. The Swiss bank cases were settled for $1.25 billion on January 26, 1999. The German industry cases were settled on July 17, 2000, through the creation of a DM 10 billion ($5.25 billion) German Foundation, “Remembrance, Responsibility, and the Future,” which acts as a conduit for payment to designated categories of Holocaust victims. In addition, slightly more than $1 billion has been assembled in connection with settlements involving Austrian and French Holocaust-era claims. An additional $500 million has been assembled to pay Holocaust-era insurance claims through the efforts of the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), a collaboration between the European insurance industry and state insurance regulators. ICHEIC was established without the participation of lawyers or courts. All told, approximately $8 billion has been assembled for payment to Holocaust victims or their heirs. And if litigation in connection with recovery of looted art is included, at least another $1 billion must be added to the total. I serve as court designated lead settlement counsel in the Swiss bank settlement, which is being administered in Brooklyn federal court as a classic Rule Twenty-Three class action, and as one of two U.S. appointees to the 27-person Board of Trustees of the German Foundation, which is being administered in Berlin under the supervision of the trustees and the German Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the commentary on this remarkable spate of litigation has focused on the merits of the claims, the personalities of the lawyers, and the tactics of the diplomats, Jewish community leaders, and litigators who made the Holocaust-era settlements possible. Little attention has been paid to the postsettlement activities of the two funds in distributing settlement monies to actual victims. This essay serves as an interim report as of January 1, 2005, on the progress of both funds. While I draw on the official data released by both funds, the assessment is, of course, a personal one.
Source Publication
Holocaust Restitution: Perspectives on the Litigation and Its Legacy
Source Editors/Authors
Michael J. Bazyler; Roger P. Alford
Publication Date
2006
Recommended Citation
Neuborne, Burt, "A Tale of Two Cities: Administering the Holocaust Settlements in Brooklyn and Berlin" (2006). Faculty Chapters. 1338.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1338
