AJC Official Testifies on Holocaust-era Compensation

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 10 February 2000

Delays in distributing compensation payments "have increased frustrations" among Holocaust survivors, an American Jewish Committee official told a Congressional Committee yesterday.

From the Swiss bank settlement to the recent agreement on German compensation for slave and forced laborers, "the efforts in these past few years to identify and recover Holocaust-era assets have been quite remarkable," said Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC's Director of European Affairs, testifying before the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services.

"But the news of these various agreements has often been trumpeted long before claimants or survivors are able to see any tangible result," said Rabbi Baker, adding that the inability of negotiating parties to agree on matters related to the distribution of funds has created barriers to the implementation of certain settlements.

"Naturally it has produced frustration and increased suspicion on their part," he said.

Rabbi Baker expressed concern that the issues that comprise the unfinished business of the Holocaust are not seen as interconnected.

"I fear that when we look at the still-tangled, unfinished business of the Holocaust, we address each important issue in isolation from the next," he said.

"It is as though the recovery of stolen assets, the pursuit of Nazi war criminals, the advancement of Holocaust education and research, the revival of Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe, and the dynamics of the current bilateral relations with the countries affected are all separate," said Rabbi Baker.

"In fact, the truth is quite the opposite, and we need to find ways to see that they are connected and able to reinforce each other in positive ways."

Rabbi Baker noted that the American Jewish Committee's curriculum review project, conducted thus far in seven Central and Eastern European countries, has not focused exclusively on the Holocaust era, but has also examined the treatment of Jewish themes in general in secondary school textbooks.

"All too often the centuries-long history of Jewish life in these countries is virtually absent," he said. "It is as though Jews appear on the landscape only to be deported and exterminated by the Nazis."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org