German insurance company Allianz agreed this weekend to publish a list of the names of thousands of Jewish policyholders who died in the Holocaust. Allianz had refused to do this for months, but succumbed under threat of sanctions in the United States.
Allianz will forward to the "Yad Vashem" Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority a list of 150,000 policyholders with higher than average premiums. The published list will include the names of the Holocaust victims among the policy-holders, including 1,500 policies redeemed on order of the Nazis, benefits in respect of which were remitted to the German authorities.
World Jewish Congress director-general Ilan Steinberg told "Globes" that he estimated the proportion of Jewish insured in this group of policies to be at least 2 to 3 times the proportion of Jews in the general German population. On the eve of the Nazis' accession to power, the Jews constituted 1% of total German residents, and accordingly, there should be some 3,000-4,000 policies.
The Arthur Andersen accounting chain, hired by Allianz to make a random sampling of the company's archives, concluded that thousands of policies owned by Jews had not been paid, either to the owners or their heirs. Allianz will continue with sample checks of other parts of the archives, under supervision of an accounting firm, apparently Arthur Andersen.
At a weekend meeting of the Eagleburger committee in Washington, Allianz consented to the Jewish organizations' demand as presented to it two weeks ago by Bobby Brown, the Prime Minister's Advisor on Diaspora Affairs. Sources close to the negotiations assessed that the sole reason the company knuckled under was the express threat by the WJC to initiate measures against it on the part of the insurance supervision authorities in a number of US states. The matter is due to be discussed this week at a meeting of the Organization for the Restitution of Jewish Property.
Published by Israel's Business Arena October 24, 1999