Senator presents bill which would allow Holocaust survivors to sue insurance firms

03 March 2011

A bill that would give Holocaust survivors the right to sue European companies for unpaid life insurance claims has been introduced in the US Senate by a senator from Florida. Bill Nelson – a Democrat – offered the bill on the floor of the Senate, two days before a planned protest by Holocaust survivors at a Nelson fundraising event in Miami Beach with President Obama, the ‘Miami Herald’ reported. Nelson has reportedly  been working on the legislation at the request of the Miami-based Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation-USA, which had announced the demonstration.

Last month, the survivors’ group held a protest at a golf tournament in Boca Raton, Florida, which was sponsored by the German insurance company Allianz, which the campaigners accuse of still owning an estimated US$ 2 billion in unpaid claims to Holocaust survivors. “It is now our expectation to work with Congress and the White House to restore our rights and address the survivors’ desperate needs that have been ignored for so long,” read a statement by the survivors' group. Shoah survivors from Florida told the ‘Miami Herald’ that Nelson had promised them three years ago that he would file legislation to allow them to sue European companies that sold life insurance policies to their families before World War II.