Garamendi Stands with Holocaust Survivors Fighting for Access to Insurance Companies' Records

 

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA), California's Insurance Commissioner from 1991 to 1994 and again from 2002 to 2006, testified today before the Foreign Affairs Committee in support of H.R. 890, the Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act of 2011. H.R. 890 would allow individuals to bring a civil action in federal district court against the insurer, or a related company of the insurer, to recover proceeds due or enforce any rights under the policy. The bill would also allow states like California to require insurance companies to disclose information on policies that they sold during the same period. This information has the potential to pave the way for survivors and families impacted by the Holocaust to seek restitution.

 

As California's Insurance Commissioner Garamendi defended a state law opposed by insurance companies all the way to the Supreme Court. The Holocaust Victims Insurance Relief Act of 1999 (HVIRA) required insurance companies doing business in California to disclose a list of all policies issued by the companies themselves or any other "related" policy. Although the Supreme Court sided with insurance companies, Garamendi continues to fight for survivors in Congress working with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. A video of the Congressman's testimony is included above. His complete written testimony is provided below.

 

 

 

Chairman Ros-Lehtinen and Ranking Member Berman, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify before your committee on an issue of great importance – that of allowing states to enforce disclosure laws and access to courts for Holocaust-era insurance policy claims.

 

I come before this committee today in support of H.R. 890, the Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act of 2011, with the experience of having served as Insurance Commissioner for the State of California, where I spent much time working on this issue.

 

For decades Holocaust survivors and their heirs have sought to locate insurance policies their families may have purchased during the days preceding and during World War II from European insurance companies. H.R. 890 would allow individuals to bring a civil action in federal district court against the insurer, or a related company of the insurer, to recover proceeds due or enforce any rights under the policy. The bill would also allow states like California to require insurance companies to disclose information on policies that they sold during the same period. Once signed into law, this bill would rightfully give Holocaust victims and their heirs, now living in the U.S., the legal authority needed to fight this injustice, allowing them to go after the foreign insurance companies who have denied them the remuneration they are owed for more than half a century.

 

As this committee, those assembled in this chamber, and all those listening to these proceedings know, the Holocaust was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions, an act of pure evil, that marks one of the darkest periods in human history. Six million Jews were murdered as the Nazi war machine roared across Europe, decimating the Jewish people and their communities, forcing the survivors into concentration camps or forced immigration abroad.

 

It is a testament to the human spirit that some survived the Nazi's program of systematic genocide. Many emerged with just the clothes on their backs, as Nazi soldiers had been ordered to strip them of their material wealth, documents, and, in many cases, went so far as to rip gold fillings out of the mouths of the dead and dying. These men, women and children survived unspeakable atrocities, and were robbed of their physical security by Nazi soldiers whose cruelty has been so well documented by the survivors themselves, such as Eli Weasel in his book Night.

 

Before, in peaceful times, and even during the war, members of the Jewish community throughout Europe sought to protect their families by purchasing insurance policies to safeguard family assets, plan for retirement, provide for their children and save for their education.

 

In the aftermath of the war, as survivors sought to rebuild their lives, they were again victimized, not by hostile military forces, but by the very insurance companies they and their families relied upon for financial security. In the concentration camps they had lost their human right to physical security, and now insurance companies sought to rob them of the financial security needed to help them rebuild their lives after the ravages of war. In a cruel twist of fate, survivors of the Holocaust insurance claims were rejected because they lacked the necessary paperwork and as we all know, the Nazis did not issue death certificates. Documents that the insurance companies knew, or should have known, were either confiscated by the Nazis or lost in the ashes of a global war that decimated Europe.

 

The International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), established in 1998, decades after the end of WWII, tried to remedy some of the injustice perpetrated by the insurance companies by examining the claims of Holocaust survivors and their heirs. An important fact about the ICHEIC was that the U.S. government was not part of the organization, or the agreement that created it; rather it was between private individuals and private insurance companies outside the reach of American law. Some were helped by the ICHEIC but others were sadly denied the justice they sought for decades.

 

During and after the war, many Holocaust survivors immigrated to the United States, where some tried to put the horrors they experienced behind them, building a new life in a country founded on the promise of justice for all and religious tolerance. However, some never forgot the insurance companies that had denied them the financial security they so desperately needed and were owed to rebuild their lives after the war.

 

As Americans, we can all be proud that their cries for justice did not go unheard. In my home state of California, the state passed a law called the Holocaust Victims Insurance Relief Act of 1999 (HVIRA). HVIRA required insurance companies doing business in California to disclose a list of all policies issued by the companies themselves or any other "related" policy. This was an effort by the state to help its citizens; this law did not interfere with any existing agreements the U.S. had at the time with any foreign entities and/or nation states. Nor did it intrude into exclusive territory of the Executive Branch to make such agreements.

 

Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed with California's decision to empower its citizenry. In a 5-4 decision in American Insurance Association, et. al. v. John Garamendi, Insurance Commissioner, State of California, Justice Souter's majority opinion held that the state law was preempted by the Executive Branch's ability to negotiate with foreign powers. This ruling invalidated the state's law whose sole purpose was to help Holocaust survivors and their heirs claim insurance policies that were rightfully theirs.

 

The Court majority found that California's law was unconstitutional under the Preemption Doctrine. This doctrine derives from the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution dealing with the federal government's power in relation to the states. Under the Supremacy Clause when federal and state law conflict, federal law is superior and a federal court-in this case the Supreme Court- can prohibit a state’s behavior that conflicts with the federal government's authority. This was the basis for the Court’s erroneous decision.

 

The Court ignored the fact that California sought to make private entities disclose information to its citizens, which in no way interfered with the power of the Executive Branch to enter into agreements with foreign powers or any other diplomatic rights afforded it under the Constitution. Nevertheless, the Court found that "California seeks to use an iron fist where the President has consistently chosen kid gloves."

 

Thankfully, this Congress and this committee will now act to rectify the Supreme Court's decision. H.R. 890, offered by Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, would remedy the Supreme Court's decision. This bill recognizes that this matter is between private citizens in this country and foreign insurance companies, and allows Holocaust survivors and their descendants to finally receive a small measure of justice and the financial security denied them for too long. This bill is a fine example of American justice, seeking to right the wrongs of the past, providing a resolution to the survivors and families of one of humanity's darkest chapters.

 

Chairman Ros-Lehtinen and Ranking Member Berman, I thank you for allowing me to testify before this subcommittee and hope to serve as a resource as Congress works on this important matter.