Lawrence Eagleburger dies at 80

06 June 2011

Former US Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, who also served as chairman of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), has died aged 80. “I have done my damnedest for the Jewish people because I so deeply believe the United States was guilty of not doing much during the Holocaust,” Eagleburger told the Jewish weekly ‘Forward’ in 2001, after being accused during a congressional hearing of being too slow about distributing reparations. “Any hint of anti-Semitism in this world is an outrage of many proportions.”

Eagleburger served as the number two State Department official under Secretary James Baker during the presidency of George Bush Sr. When Baker resigned to run the president’s re-election campaign Eagleburger became secretary of state for the last five months of Bush’s term. During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Eagleburger traveled to Israel as Scud missiles fired from Iraq were landing in the country.  “We sent Larry to Israel to preserve our coalition,” Bush said Saturday in a statement. “It was an inordinately complex and sensitive task, and his performance was nothing short of heroic.”

ICHEIC, which was set up in 1998 to enable the payment of individual Holocaust-era insurance policies to Shoah victims or their heirs, resolved more than 90,000 claims. Through the commission's work, a total of US$ 306 million was awarded to more than 48,000 Holocaust survivors, their heirs, and the families of those who did not survive. ICHEIC's work ended in 2007.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Eagleburger as "a strong voice and stalwart champion for America's values. His passing is America's loss. Even in retirement, Larry remained a staunch advocate for the causes he believed in. He never stopped caring, contributing and speaking out," she said.