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RIGHTING THE ENDURING WRONGS OF THE

HOLOCAUST: INSURANCE ACCOUNTABILITY

AND RAIL JUSTICE

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

NOVEMBER 16, 2011

Serial No. 112–86

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

DAN BURTON, Indiana 

ELTON GALLEGLY, California 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

RON PAUL, Texas 

MIKE PENCE, Indiana 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

CONNIE MACK, Florida 

JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida 

JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio 

BILL JOHNSON, Ohio 

DAVID RIVERA, Florida 

MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania 

TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York 

RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina 

ROBERT TURNER, New York 

HOWARD L. BERMAN, California 

GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

DENNIS CARDOZA, California 

BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania 

CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut 

FREDERICA WILSON, Florida 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

YLEEM D.S. POBLETE, Staff Director 

RICHARD J. KESSLER, Democratic Staff Director 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

The Honorable John Garamendi, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of California .......................................................................................................... 6

The Honorable Carolyn Maloney, a Representative in Congress from the 

State of New York ................................................................................................ 12

Mr. Leo Bretholz, Holocaust Survivor, Author, ‘‘Leap into Darkness’’ ............... 21

Ms. Renee Firestone, Holocaust Survivor .............................................................. 30

Mr. David Schaecter, Holocaust Survivor, President, Holocaust Survivors 

Foundation ............................................................................................................ 41

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

The Honorable John Garamendi: Prepared statement ......................................... 8

The Honorable Carolyn Maloney: Prepared statement ........................................ 14

Mr. Leo Bretholz: Prepared statement .................................................................. 24

Ms. Renee Firestone: Prepared statement ............................................................. 32

Mr. David Schaecter: Prepared statement ............................................................ 43

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 64

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 65

Material submitted for the record by: 

The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress from 

the State of Florida, and chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs ............. 67

The Honorable Howard L. Berman, a Representative in Congress from 

the State of California ...................................................................................... 70

The Honorable Ann Marie Buerkle, a Representative in Congress from 

the State of New York ...................................................................................... 81

The Honorable Carolyn Maloney ........................................................................ 90

Mr. Leo Bretholz .................................................................................................. 96

Ms. Renee Firestone and Mr. David Schaecter ................................................. 102

Ms. Renee Firestone ............................................................................................ 111

(1)

RIGHTING THE ENDURING WRONGS OF THE 

HOLOCAUST: INSURANCE ACCOUNTABILITY 

AND RAIL JUSTICE 

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2011

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 

Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m., in room 

2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen 

(chairman of the committee) presiding. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. The committee will come to order. I 

will recognize myself, and the ranking member, my good friend, 

Mr. Berman, for 7 minutes each for our opening statements. We 

will then hear from our members for 1-minute opening statements. 

Following opening statements, we will hear from our distinguished 

witnesses and I would ask that you summarize your prepared 

statements to 5 minutes each before we move to the question and 

answers with members under the 5-minute rule. Without objection, 

the witnesses’ prepared statements will be made a part of the 

record. And members may have 5 days to insert statements and 

questions for the record subject to length limitation in the rules. 

The Chair now recognizes herself for 7 minutes. Good morning 

and thank you for joining us for this morning’s hearing: ‘‘Righting 

the Enduring Wrongs of the Holocaust: Insurance Accountability 

and Rail Justice.’’ I want to recognize Mr. Herbert Karliner who 

was scheduled to testify at our hearing this morning but he was 

injured while attending last week’s Kristallnacht ceremony. Mr. 

Karliner’s testimony will be submitted for the record without objection and we wish him a speedy recovery. 

It pains me to say that survivors of one of the greatest atrocities 

of the 20th century continue to feel the pain of the Nazis’ brutality 

and oppression. These lingering injustices stem from those who 

sought to profit from the abuse of innocent victims and took advantage of circumstances to enrich themselves while others suffered. 

This morning, we will be discussing two situations linked by a 

common theme, the rights of Holocaust survivors as American citizens to bring legal action in Federal court. The first is the issue 

of unpaid Holocaust-era insurance policies. In pre-war Europe hundreds of thousands of individuals who would eventually be victims 

of Nazis’ crimes sought to protect their families’ futures by purchasing insurance policies. However, when the Nazis raided their 

homes and deported them to ghettos and concentration camps, documentation of their insurance policies was lost. Those who survived 

2

the war approached the insurance companies expecting the companies’ records to validate their claims and allow them access to the 

funds they were owed. Instead, they were turned away for lacking 

proper documentation and barred from accessing the companies’ 

records. The insurance companies refused to honor policies without 

documentation that they alone possessed and refused to disclose to 

claimants. 

In other cases, survivors made claims on insurance policies belonging to relatives murdered by the Nazis, only to be told that 

their claim could not be honored without a death certificate. Can 

you imagine anything more outrageous than asking for a death certificate for someone murdered in Auschwitz? In 1998, the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) 

was established to resolve these issues. However, ICHEIC suffered 

numerous flaws, including problems with accountability and oversight, stemming from the fact that the process was greatly controlled by the insurance companies. Eighty-four percent, 70,000 of 

the 90,000 claims made, were rejected. Eighty-four percent, 70,000 

of the 90,000 claims made, were rejected. Thirty-four thousand 

were offered a token humanitarian award, cold comfort in the face 

of a broader dismissal by ICHEIC. 

Worst of all, survivors were told this was the only forum in 

which they could make claims. So ICHEIC sought to limit the 

rights and access of Holocaust victims even though several States 

had passed laws enabling survivors to pursue legal action against 

these insurance companies since they had been summarily dismissed by ICHEIC. These survivors deserve the opportunity to 

have their day in court and present evidence against these companies who have failed to honor their business obligations. 

Holocaust survivors came here looking for the freedom, tolerance, 

and opportunity that they were denied in their homelands. We cannot deny these individuals the justice they more than deserve after 

they have suffered through so much and waited for so long. We 

cannot allow these companies to continue to profit from the horrors 

of the Holocaust. 

The other issue we will be addressing this morning is justice for 

those who were transported to concentration camps by the French 

rail company, SNCF. SNCF operated trains for profit that transported over 75,000 victims, primarily Jews, but also American 

POWs, to Nazi concentration camps. These trains were run as commercial transactions. SNCF was paid per passenger, per kilometer 

by the Nazis to move them to their deaths. 

The conditions in the trains were horrible, passengers were 

forced to stand with virtually no food or water or sanitary facilities. 

And SNCF knew exactly how bad these conditions were because 

their employees cleaned the cars after they reached their destinations removing the corpses of innocent victims who died during the 

journey. SNCF has not denied its wartime activities, its officials 

claimed that they were forced to do the things they did. That 

sounds familiar. And yet SNCF has not contributed to post-war 

reparations to victims of the brutality of the Nazis. 

And when Holocaust survivors in the United States brought a 

class action suit against this company, SNCF, the rail company, 

hid again. This time behind the Foreign Sovereign Immunity 

3

Clause claiming that SNCF is an instrument of the French Government and should not be held liable. Notably, SNCF has used the 

opposite defense in French court, claiming to be performing private 

functions rather than government work. They can’t have it both 

ways. 

I now turn to the ranking member, my good friend, Mr. Berman, 

for his opening statement. 

Mr. BERMAN. Well, thank you very much, Madam Chairman. My 

dear friend, Si Frumkin, the late Si Frumkin, an Auschwitz survivor and one of the most prominent national leaders in the Soviet 

Jewry movement once said that when it comes to the needs of survivors, those in power should do everything they can to assist. In 

spirit of Si’s words, I believe these bills have merit as a means to 

draw strong attention to the plight of survivors. Time is of the essence for these Holocaust victims. 

For that reason, last year I worked hard to negotiate an assistance fund for the neediest of survivors, including meeting directly 

with the head of the German Insurance Association. I did this 

based on my view that home care assistance to survivors is paramount among all other issues raised at Prague, a view that I know 

is shared by Ambassador Eizenstat and the others involved in this 

issue. 

I work to get these companies to contribute voluntarily, but I was 

told that the insurance companies would not participate unless 

other German industries joined the effort and that other German 

companies view this as a problem for the insurance industry and 

not for them. Those efforts have not borne fruit, and as such, leave 

us with fewer options to address a dire situation. 

I thus welcome any means to secure more money for the neediest 

members of this community. Madam Chair, both the proponents of 

this bill and the organizations opposed have one interest at heart, 

assistance for desperate and needy survivors. For too long, elderly 

survivors have been denied their basic needs and the problem is 

getting worse. A 2003 report by the United Jewish Communities 

indicated up to one-fourth of survivors live below the poverty line. 

That number recently climbed to as high as to 50 percent in the 

Los Angeles County according to the L.A. Federation. Seventy-five 

percent of survivors are female and most live alone. I am aware of 

the story of individuals like Bernhard Eckert, an 85-year-old survivor who was below the poverty line until through the good work 

of Bet Tzedek Legal Services last year, he has secured a pension 

and reparations from Germany. Survivors like Mr. Eckert should 

not fear where their next meal is coming from. 

The proponents of the insurance bill believe that allowing policy 

claimants to sue insurance companies who ultimately secure additional assistance, not just for the claimants, but for the survivors 

generally. The detractors have made clear their concerns that the 

bill could harm future assistance from Germany, append legal 

agreements with European allies and give false hope to plaintiffs. 

Again notwithstanding these concerns for me, my friend Si’s views 

went out, do what we can for survivors. 

I also think H.R. 890 highlights fundamental separation of power 

issues. The Supreme Court decision giving rise to this legislation, 

colloquially known as Garamendi, stems from the strong efforts of 

4

our esteemed witness and colleague Mr. Garamendi to advance this 

clause. That decision reflects a traditional trend with which I take 

issue. That in the absence of an affirmative congressional action, 

courts today have given excessively broad deference to the President’s claim settlement authority. 

As a member of this body for nearly 30 years, who has fought 

for Congress’ prerogative on issues ranging from war powers to imposition of sanctions on Iran, I am acutely sensitive to the weight 

given to courts by executive agreements which are no treaties and 

should not be viewed at such. At a very minimum, courts should 

be required to balance all the relevant equities, including the needs 

of survivors, the interest of the executive, and the feasibility of alternative claims for it, not simply back away and the assertion by 

the executive branch of its interest. 

I am well aware of the challenges to this bill including opposition 

from some mainstream Jewish groups, and our European partners. 

But unless provided evidence this bill would hurt more than help, 

these legitimate concerns are outweighed by the very real and immediate need to help survivors. It is precisely because of the issues 

that the Garamendi case raises that it would be helpful had there 

been a third panel for this hearing, one in which the lawyers for 

the plaintiffs and groups opposed to this legislation, along with the 

administration, could have aired their views. 

These are not simple issues, especially given the two bills under 

consideration are quite different and a full airing of the perspectives in this legislation would be helpful. I also regret that I will 

need to leave shortly for a hearing in Judiciary. While I will try 

to return, I may miss Leo Bretholz’s testimony. 

Mr. Bretholz, I received your gripping book on jumping from a 

deportation train and view you along with the other survivors here 

as a profile in courage. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Berman, for that 

opening statement. I am pleased to yield time for an opening statement to Mr. Deutch, my colleague from Florida, 

Mr. DEUTCH. Madam Chairman, first let me extend my deepest 

thanks to you for holding today’s hearing. For the Holocaust survivors in south Florida and throughout this country, time is of the 

essence. The survivor community one of the most vulnerable and 

the needs of survivor are one of our most vulnerable and the needs 

of survivors are unique. A study by United Jewish Communities 

found that a quarter of survivors were living below the poverty 

level. Frankly, it is unconscionable that so many survivors are 

being denied the opportunity to live out their lives with the dignity 

they deserve. 

Every spring I attend Yom HaShoah Remembrances across south 

Florida. Six years ago when I was first elected, the synagogues 

were filled with survivors, not an empty seat. But every year since 

I have watched as the crowd has gotten smaller and smaller. These 

bills are not about protecting foreign governments or giving peace 

to insurers. They are about fulfilling our promise to survivors by 

providing even a modicum of security and peace so they may live 

out their lives in dignity. This is not a choice between going to 

court or pursuing opportunities for future reparations. Opportunities which had they been in place today would be providing needed 

5

care for the 75 percent of survivors who are in their 80s and 90s. 

These bills are about justice and giving survivors the opportunity 

to pursue it. 

Madam Chair, I would like to recognize the survivors who are 

sharing their stories today. I would like to recognize Donald Shearer who, as a U.S. pilot, was shot down over France, held as a POW 

and subsequently transported on a SNCF train to Buchenwald, ultimately survived the death march. 

Finally, I would like to recognize the tireless work of the survivors in south Florida, like Jack Rubin and Alex Moscovic, both 

of whom testified before this body. I admire their courage, and I 

stand with them and I stand with the entire survivor community 

in your continued quest for peace, for security, and for justice. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Deutch for 

that opening statement. If the Chair will recognize herself I have 

been asked by the State Department and interested groups to submit their views on the bill into the record, and I ask unanimous 

consent to do so. Thank you, without objection. 

Ms. Wilson of Florida. 

Ms. WILSON OF FLORIDA. Thank you, Madam Chair. I came to attend this hearing this morning, first of all, because Carolyn 

Maloney is my housemate and I wanted to hear her testimony. And 

I represent Miami Dade county Florida, a lot of Holocaust survivors and a lot of Jewish constituents. So I am very interested to 

find out what the pressing needs are in terms of survivor care 

today, what are we doing, and how are they managing to claim 

their policies? And what are we doing to make good on the promises and the justice for these survivors. So thank you, Madam 

Chair, for holding this hearing. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Ms. Wilson. Mr. 

Cicilline who got a great award last night from the Close Up Foundation. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank you 

first for convening this hearing and thank Ranking Member Berman as well. It is a real honor to be in the presence of such courageous, extraordinary people, and I look forward to the testimony, 

and particularly Holocaust survivors, and Mr. Garamendi and Ms. 

Maloney. And look forward to working very hard on this committee 

and in this Congress to right the terrible injustices that continue 

to be visited upon survivors of this hideous period in our history, 

thank you. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Cicilline. Mr. 

Sires is recognized. 

Mr. SIRES. Thank you, Madam Chair for holding this meeting. 

Obviously I am not Mr. Berman, he had to step away, but I am 

a proud cosponsor and I am here to listen and to work with you. 

It is amazing to me that all this time that has transpired and no 

resolution has come to this issue. I have been married to my wife, 

Adrienne Sires, for 25 years. I know the issue well, and I look forward to the people’s comments on this issue. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Sires. And 

now the Chair is pleased to welcome our two distinguished panelists. I am pleased to introduce Congressman John Garamendi of 

California. He has been a member of the U.S. House of RepresentaVerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:36 Jan 24, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\FULL\111611\71263 HFA PsN: SHIRL
6

tives since 2009 and brings nearly 4 decades of public service to the 

House Armed Services and Natural Resources Committees. He previously served 2 terms as California’s State Insurance Commissioner so he knows a lot about this issue. 

And next the committee would like to welcome Ms. Wilson’s 

housemate, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York, who 

has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 

1992. She is a senior member of the both the House Financial Services Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform 

Committee. Welcome to you both, thank you. We will begin with 

Mr. Garamendi. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOHN GARAMENDI, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Chair and members, thank you very 

much for the opportunity to be here. I will submit written testimony and summarize that testimony. 

I come before this committee today in support of H.R. 890, the 

Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act of 2011 with a long experience of having served as an insurance commissioner and dealing 

with 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 will allow those individuals to bring civil action in Federal district court against the insurer or related companies of the 

insurers to recover proceeds or enforce any rights under those policies. This bill would also allow States like California to require insurance companies to disclose information on policies that they sold 

during that period of time. 

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 that they and their families relied 

upon for financial security. In the concentration camps they lost 

their human right to physical security and now insurance companies continue to rob them of their financial security needed to help 

them rebuild their lives and to continue in a good state of health. 

In a cruel twist of fate, survivors of the Holocaust, their insurance claims are rejected because they lacked the necessary paperwork. As we all know, the Nazis did not issue death certificates. 

Documents that insurance companies knew or should have known 

were either confiscated by the Nazis, lost or hidden in some file 

somewhere in Europe. 

The International Commission on Holocaust and Era Insurance 

Claims, ICHEIC established in 1998, decades after the end of 

World War II, tried to remedy some of the injustice perpetrated by 

the insurance companies by examining claims put forward by the 

survivors. Unfortunately, ICHEIC did not require the insurance industry in Europe to divulge their records so that survivors and 

their families could go through those records to determine if there 

was a policy. Keep in mind that the records were lost, or in many 

cases, not known by the survivors. That was a major flaw. 

7

To remedy that flaw, California passed legislation to require insurance companies doing business in California to submit all the 

records so that individuals, families and survivors could go through 

those records to determine if there may be a policy that existed. 

Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed with the California law, and in a 5–4 decision, the American Insurance Association, et al., versus John Garamendi, insurance commissioner, State 

of California required in that decision that the California law was 

unconstitutional, and that it interfered with the executive branch 

to conduct foreign policy. 

There is strong exception to that by me and by many others that 

the court erred. The legislation put forth by the chairwoman would 

right that wrong, and allow the State of California to proceed to 

require insurance companies doing business in California to disclose all their records so that survivors and their families and heirs 

could go through those records to determine if there was a policy. 

In addition, H.R. 890 allows civil action so that individuals could 

bring suit. All of these are extraordinarily important remedies for 

a horrible misjustice that was carried out during the Holocaust. It 

is time for the European insurance companies to step up, to honor 

their claims. They have held that money for decades. That money 

may very well not belong to them, it may belong to survivors and 

children and relatives of the survivors. 

I really want to thank the chairwoman for bringing this bill back 

for a second, maybe even a third time and never give up, never 

give up. This is an issue of simple justice, and it is also an issue 

of contract. The insurance companies entered into a contract. They 

must honor that contract by divulging information, and I would 

hope this bill becomes law. Thank you for the opportunity to appear and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much Mr. Garamendi, 

we appreciate your opening statement. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Garamendi follows:]

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Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. And Ms. Maloney is now recognized 

for her statement. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE CAROLYN MALONEY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW 

YORK 

Mrs. MALONEY. Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman, and 

Ranking Member Berman, and members of the committee, including my housemate and good friend. It is an honor for me to be here 

today to discuss H.R. 1193 and the Holocaust Rail Justice Act. 

We have worked tirelessly for SNCF victims to move this legislation forward. I am pleased to report that we now have broad bipartisan support with over 40 cosponsors. And with today’s important 

hearing as the first step, I am optimistic that this legislation will 

continue to move through the House, and that Congress will provide victims with their long awaited and much-deserved day in 

court. 

I first introduced this legislation in 2003 after meeting with survivors, including one who is with us today, Leo Bretholz. Their stories were haunting. I could not ignore the injustice they have endured in an effort to educate and pay tribute to never forgot. 

I have also introduced legislation, H.R. 1753, the Simon 

Wiesenthal Education Assistance Act, which provides grants to organizations to teach about the horrors of the Holocaust so that they 

are never repeated. 

During World War II, more than 76,000 Jews and other 

undesirables were transported from France to Nazi death camps 

aboard trains operated by the SNCF. Among those transported to 

death camps on these trains were American airmen, one of whom 

is with us today, shot down over France. SNCF operated the trains 

as a commercial venture and were paid per head to deliver thousands to their death. 

In the 66 years since the end of World War II, SNCF has never 

made restitution or reparations to any of the victims. Hundreds of 

known survivors and family members of those who have perished 

live in the United States today, although the number is dwindling. 

Yet SNCF has never been accountable for its actions during World 

War II. And this court action has been in place over 10 years. 

SNCF has unfortunately succeeded in cloaking itself in the veil 

of so-called foreign sovereign immunity and thus evading jurisdiction in the United States courts. SNCF has avoided all accountability, and now the Holocaust Rail Justice Act is the only remaining opportunity for the survivors to pursue justice. This legislation 

would simply permit private individuals to have their day finally 

in U.S. court against a company ranked number 209 on this year’s 

Fortune 500 list. 

This bill would preclude in this one limited instance the defense 

of foreign sovereign immunity from being raised. As the facts make 

clear, this is not the type of situation foreign sovereign immunity 

was ever intended to cover. 

I would like to recognize two of the survivors who we are honored to have with us today and ask them to stand. 

Leo Bretholz, whose chilling testimony we will hear shortly, leapt 

from one of the trains bound for Auschwitz when he was only 21 

13

years old, managed by the grace of God to survive. Thank you, Leo, 

for your courage and pursuing with this legislation. We look forward to your story. 

I would like also to recognize another SNCF victim sitting behind 

me, Donald Shearer, and ask him and Leo to stand. And he is a 

former technical sergeant in the U.S. Air Force was shot down over 

France on July 5th, 1944 after being turned over to the Gestapo. 

He and 167 other allied airmen were transported not to a POW 

camp, but to Buchenwald on SNCF trains. 

Mr. Shearer, especially we sit here and honor you because of Veteran’s Day and we want to thank you for your service to our country and your continued heroism, both during World War II and 

today. I would ask that the committee enter into the record Mr. 

Shearer’s oral history interview provided to the U.S. Air Force on 

June 29th. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Without objection, subject to limitations in the rules. 

Mrs. MALONEY. SNCF claims that it was wholly coerced into participating in the Holocaust, and that it should not bear the responsibility for deporting tens of thousands of innocents, including over 

11,000 children toward their deaths. But these are negated by historical facts. As we all know, and as SNCF should know, the ‘‘following orders’’ defense was dispensed with at Nuremberg. Independent studies and tribunals have determined that SNCF actively 

collaborated with the Nazis. 

A report commissioned by SNCF itself found that in its first 

meeting with the Nazis, it was agreed SNCF would retain control 

and responsibility for the trains, including the technical conditions 

of the deportations. SNCF alone decided to utilize——

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Ms. Maloney, if you could wrap up 

your statement. I am sorry. 

Mrs. MALONEY. It is a brutal statement of how they transported 

thousands, would not even let the Red Cross help with water and 

any type of help. And this is really their last chance. SNCF has 

never paid a cent to any of the victims and this legislation is necessary because there is absolutely no other recourse for these survivors and no other way for them to pursue justice. These survivors 

have simply fallen through the cracks, this is their last hope. 

Madam Chair, ranking members, all members of the committee, 

we thank you for this hearing. We thank you for your support and 

we hope that you will be part of the team moving this through the 

Congress of the United States so that these victims can finally 

have their day in court. I thank you, I submit my——

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Without objection. Thank you so much, 

Congresswoman Maloney. Thank you very much Representative 

Garamendi for a powerful statement that will be made a part of 

the record and we thank you for being here with us. 

[The prepared statement of Mrs. Maloney follows:]

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Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. And now it’s a true honor to present 

our second panel. Some of them had been discussed in previous 

statements in their opening remarks. We have Leo Bretholz, who 

was raised in Vienna, Austria where he lived until the Germans 

annexed Austria in 1938. He then fled to Luxembourg, and spent 

the next 7 years running from the Nazis. Mr. Bretholz escaped 

from the Nazis and Nazi sympathizers seven times. In 1947, Mr. 

Bretholz arrived in the United States and settled in Baltimore, 

where he married and raised a family. Mr. Bretholz has worked as 

a salesman for a textile firm and has opened a number of bookstores. He frequently gives lectures about the Holocaust and has 

written a book chronicling his experiences. We welcome you here 

to our committee. Thank you, Leo. 

Our next witness will be Renee Firestone, she was born in 

Czechoslovakia and spent 13 months in prison in Auschwitz 

Birkenau. Following liberation in 1945, she completed her education in the arts an immigrated to Los Angeles with her husband 

and infant daughter where she made a career as a designer. 

Ms. Firestone is the founding lecturer for the Simon Wiesenthal 

Center’s educational outreach program, and has conducted workshops for the United States military and NASA, as well California 

teachers and law enforcement. She has been the subject of numerous documentaries, including The Last Days, which received the 

1994 Academy Award for best feature length documentary. 

Our last witness is my dear friend, David Schaecter, who was 

born in Slovakia and was the only member of his family to survive 

the Holocaust. He arrived in the United States in 1950, and has 

lived in south Florida since 1956. Mr. Schaecter is one of the founders of the Holocaust Memorial in Miami. He is a docent at the Memorial and frequently speaks to grade school, high school and University students in that capacity. He is president of the Holocaust 

Survivors Foundation, USA. I cannot tell you how honored we are 

to have all three of you making your presentations today. Without 

objection, your statements will be made part of the record, the full 

statements, and I kindly ask that you summarize your remarks to 

5 minutes, and without objection, the witnesses’ written statements 

will be inserted into the record. 

Mr. Bretholz, we will begin with you, sir. 

STATEMENT OF MR. LEO BRETHOLZ, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, 

AUTHOR, ‘‘LEAP INTO DARKNESS’’

Mr. BRETHOLZ. Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Member 

Berman, and members of the committee, my name is Leo Bretholz 

and I am a Holocaust survivor. After World War II, I immigrated 

to the United States and settled in Baltimore. I am 90 years of age 

and speak regularly about my experiences during the Holocaust. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify about the atrocities that 

I experienced at the hands of the French rail company, SNCF. I 

would also like to thank Congresswoman Maloney, Senator Schumer, the congressional delegation from my home State of Maryland, and many legislators who have made certain that SNCF’s victims are not forgotten. 

I am also deeply honored to be here with Donald Shearer. Mr. 

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22

wald. He experienced the same horrors I did and more. Because of 

his courage and that of his fellow service members, many of whom 

did not return, I am here today. 

November 6th marked the 69th anniversary of the night I 

jumped from an SNCF train bound for Auschwitz carrying 1,000 

innocent victims, yet I still remember that haunting night as if it 

were yesterday. In October 1942, at the age of 21, I ended up near 

Paris in the internment camp of Drancy, the antechamber of 

Auschwitz. The train to Auschwitz was owned and operated by 

SNCF. They were paid by the Nazis per head and per kilometer to 

transport innocent victims across France and ultimately to the 

death camps. They collaborated willingly with the Nazis. Here I 

have a copy of an invoice which I would like to submit for the 

record. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Without objection, we will do our best 

to try to submit it for the record subject to the length limitation 

in the rules. 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. This is the copy. I would like to submit it now, 

sent by SNCF seeking to be paid for the services they provided. 

SNCF pursued payment on this bill after the liberation of Paris, 

after the Nazis were gone. This was not coercion, this was business. SNCF deported 76,000 Jews on those trains, including over 

11,000 children. They would count us off, 50 into each cattle car. 

In the car in front of me, a family was counted off and the 51st 

person was a young son. The boy began to scream and the father 

pleaded to allow them to stay together, but with cold precision, the 

boy was shoved into one car, his family into another. I believe that 

was the last time they saw each other. 

For the entire journey, SNCF provided what was one piece of triangle cheese, one stale piece of bread and water. There was hardly 

room to stand or sit or squat in the cattle car. There was one bucket for us to relieve ourselves. Within that cattle car, people were 

sitting, and standing, and praying, and weeping, fighting, the 

whole gamut of human emotions. 

My friend Manfred and I began to try to escape. Many in the cattle car, fearing the guards would punish everyone if we were found 

out, urged us not to even try. I also was beginning to doubt our 

plan when an elderly woman on crutches spoke out. She wielded 

that crutch like a weapon, pointed it at me and said, you must do 

it. If you get out, she said, maybe you can tell the story. Who else 

will tell the story? I can still see her face and hear her voice today. 

Manfred and I set out to pry apart of the bars on the windows. 

First we tried belts, they slipped off. Then someone suggested we 

dip our sweaters into the human waste on the bottom of the car. 

We keep twisting the wet sweaters tighter and tighter like a tourniquet. The human waste dripped down our arms. We kept going 

for hours until finally there was just enough room for us to squeeze 

through. 

It was night. I went first, and Manfred helped me climb out a 

tiny window and stand on the small ledge on the outside of the car, 

he followed me and we held on tight so as not to slip and fall beneath the train and waited for it to take a curve and slow down. 

Then we jumped to our freedom. Of the 1,000 people with me on 

the SNCF convoy number 42, only five survived the war. 

23

If I had not jumped from that train, I wouldn’t be here today. It 

is my duty to speak for those who did not survive, such as the old 

woman who emboldened us to escape, and for my family that did 

not survive. SNCF willingly collaborated with the Nazis, had the 

company resisted even to a small degree, or had they not imposed 

those horrific conditions, many lives would have been saved. 

And in the almost 70 years since the end of the war, SNCF has 

paid no reparations nor been held accountable. The company didn’t 

even apologize until last year when it was criticized for pursuing 

high speed rail in the United States without fully accounting for 

its role in the Holocaust. As it was during the Holocaust for SNCF, 

so it is now, it is all about money. The Holocaust Rail Justice Act 

is the last opportunity we will have to seek justice within our lifetimes. The survivors seek to have only our day in court for the first 

time. Seventy years is far too long to wait for a company to accept 

responsibility for the death and suffering it caused. I urge you, 

please, pass the Holocaust Rail Justice Act this Congress before it 

is too late. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Bretholz, 

thank you for that powerful testimony. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bretholz follows:]

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Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Mrs. Firestone is now recognized for 5 

minutes. 

STATEMENT OF MS. RENEE FIRESTONE, HOLOCAUST 

SURVIVOR 

Ms. FIRESTONE. Dear Madam Chairwoman and members of the 

committee, thank you for inviting me to present an additional voice 

in support of H.R. 890. I came before you as an individual, but I 

speak for all survivors whose voice will never be heard. 

My name is Renee Firestone, I am a Holocaust survivor and a 

member of the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA. I would like 

to bring to the attention of the committee a serious issue still 

plaguing the survivors. For years, we have been trying in vain to 

collect on insurance policies written to our families prior to World 

War II, which remain to date largely unpaid. When we tried to 

make our claims to the insurance companies they had the audacity 

to tell us we need birth information or they would ask for death 

certificates of the people to whom the policies were issued. Were 

they really insane? 

It was bad enough that the Nazis stripped us of our families, of 

our rights, of our possessions, our dignity, down to the last hair on 

our heads. There was no one in the gas chambers where they murdered my mother, or at the mass graves handing out death certificates proving their crimes. 

If this was not bad enough, we survivors, now American citizens, 

are being deprived by our own Government of our constitutional 

right to seek redress from court and claim what is rightfully ours. 

You can never know, Madam Chairman, just how painful and retraumatized that is to the survivors. Although ordered to do so by 

the court, insurance companies, such as Allianz SE and 

Assicurazioni Generali who are the sole depositories of the proof of 

these policies, never released the full list of the insured. 

In my case, I was told that my father’s name was not found. 

However, my first cousin, Fred Jackson Jakobovitz, was the first 

survivor who sued and collected from Generali, because he was 

lucky enough to find some papers in his house on his return from 

the death camp. 

Fred’s mother was my aunt, my father’s sister. We lived in the 

same town as them, where my father built our beautiful villa, 

which is still there, and had a textile and tailoring business in a 

very fashionable facade in the main center of our town. My father 

had a very close relationship with his sister. There is no way that 

my aunt has insurance and my father did not. My father was the 

advisor to the whole family. Why would he advise others to get the 

insurance and not get the same for himself and for his family? 

All we are asking for is to have our rights restored through H.R. 

890, to seek aid of our court system, to enforce our claims under 

these insurance policies. We are not beggars. Our families paid for 

these policies with the sweat of their brows, and now we only want 

what is rightfully ours. 

The second shameful, embarrassing and painful issue is that of 

the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany Incorporated, better known as the Claims Conference, which is comprised of 23 Jewish institutions, only two of which are Holocaust 

31

survivor-related. The Claims Conference stands in firm opposition 

to the will of the survivors and the passage of H.R. 890. 

How obscene and repugnant that our own people would deny the 

right of the survivors. Where were these same organizations and 

individuals when our parents, our brothers, sisters and friends 

were being murdered? Did they come to our rescue? And who gave 

them the right in the first place to negotiate with Germany in our 

behalf? Did anybody ask permission, or even ask if we want to let 

them do this? 

Germany give them billions and they give us a pittance, by holding the rest for supposed future claims, while really they are waiting for us to die so that they can distribute the remainder of funds 

among themselves, who no one will be left to account to. 

The truth is that when the last survivor is gone and money is 

remaining, it belongs to our children. It is their heritage. Again, I 

am here today to ask this honorable committee to support House 

Resolution 890 and ensure its swift implementation while the survivors are still alive. Madam Chairwoman, time is of the essence. 

I order to serve justice and to preserve with dignity of the remaining survivors in their final hours. I thank you again for allowing 

me to speak. 

I would just like to make another remark. I see that Mr. Berman 

is not here anymore, but he has been trying—we have been trying 

to get him to tell us his position on this bill. From his remarks 

today, it sounds like he supports H.R. 890, which I guess he 

changed his mind because I recently asked him in a letter, which 

he never acknowledged or replied. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much for your testimony, Ms. Firestone. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Firestone follows:]

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Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Schaecter is recognized at this 

time for 5 minutes. 

STATEMENT OF MR. DAVID SCHAECTER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, PRESIDENT, HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS FOUNDATION 

Mr. SCHAECTER. Thank you, thank you, Madam Chairman. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Put the microphone a little bit closer 

to you. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. I also would like to thank the committee, the 

members of the committee. My name is David Schaecter, and I am 

the President of the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA. It is a 

national coalition of survivor leaders and survivor groups. Thank 

you for providing Holocaust survivors the opportunity to address 

this Congress. It is an unbelievably great, great honor, Madam 

Chair. 

Today I am addressing you not only on behalf of the Foundation, 

but for Herbert Karliner, my dear friend and fellow survivor who 

was scheduled to testify here before you, he had a harsh fall and 

suffered several injuries a few days ago. We believe he will be 

okay, but at the age of 85, he would not take any chances to undergo the travel and pressure of speaking before the Congress. So it 

falls on me, his close friend and as president of the Foundation to 

read to you his spoken testimony to this committee. I will conclude 

with a couple of personal remarks. 

This is Herbert Karliner’s story. Herbert Karliner now lives in 

Miami Beach, Florida, but he remembers Kristallnacht as if it were 

yesterday. He was a small child at the time, when he woke up in 

the morning to the news that his father’s and other Jewish-owned 

businesses were burned to the ground. Within hours, the Gestapo 

arrived at his house and took his father, Joseph Karliner to Buchenwald. Though his father returned, his family was fated to sail 

on the SS St. Louis that was turned away from the shores of 

Miami Beach in 1939. 

After the St. Louis returned to Europe, Herbie’s father, mother, 

and two sisters were doomed to death at the hands of the Nazis. 

Only Herbert and his brother Walter survived. 

Before Joseph Karliner died, he had told his sons about the life 

insurance policy. He bought those policies from Allianz. In case 

something happened you need to know. When Herbert and Walter 

approached Allianz after World War II, the company said his policies had been paid out to an unknown person. When Herb Karliner 

applied to ICHEIC in 2000, Allianz said the policy had been paid 

to the beneficiary, meaning Herbert’s father. This closed the case 

under the ICHEIC rules. 

Years later, Mr. Karliner managed to obtain the very ‘‘repurchase’’ document. The date on that document was November 9, 

1938, Kristallnacht. If either Allianz or ICHEIC had given him the 

document as they were required to do under the ICHEIC rules, 

Herb would have informed them that his father surely did not stop 

at the Allianz office on his way to Buchenwald to cash in his insurance policies that day. 

Herbert moved to the United States in 1949. He served in the 

United States Army in Korea. How ironic, the country that rejected 

his whole family in 1939 at such a great cost asked him to serve 

42

in 1951, and he was honored to do so. Yet as his statement for the 

record makes clear, we cannot comprehend how the American 

courts and the President, Congress have decided that Herb 

Karliner and all of us survivors, unlike all other Americans, cannot 

sue Allianz in court to recover what we—what they owe for his father’s policy. We are second-class citizens under the American legal 

system. How can you, Members of Congress, stand by and accept 

this historical and moral injustice? 

Madam Chair, the next couple of comments are mine. I would 

like to add a few words of my own to Herbert’s powerful story. For 

over 45 years I have been active in the Jewish community from the 

federations to AIPAC, to other groups you can imagine. I have lead 

36 missions to Israel and to the death camps of Europe. I was one 

of seven local leaders who came together to privately fund and 

build the magnificent Holocaust Memorial on Miami beach. 

Madam Chair, you have been there so many times with us, 

which is visited by tens of thousands of school children and adult 

tourists alike. I would like the chair to know that in 2010, over 

760,000 people walked through the Memorial. But the icing on the 

cake for me is the fact that over 300,000 were children. And to be 

very, very blunt, the children are my hope. The children are the 

hope of the survivors, those of us who are still around. We are so 

privileged to reach them, to speak with them, to make them aware 

about the Holocaust. Children are like sponges, you show him you, 

you speak to them, you make them aware and they remember and 

they are my hope and every survivor’s hope that the memory of the 

Holocaust is not swept under a rug. 

Just one last statement, ma’am, you know, we talk about 6 million people perished in the Holocaust, and we say it so quickly and 

its—say it in passing. I would like for this committee and you wonderful Congresslady of mine, I would like you to understand and 

reflect when you have a moment that over the 6 million people that 

were slaughtered, 1.5 million were children, from the age of infancy 

to the age of 12. And I very often reflect and I keep reflecting as 

to what would have happened had these 1.5 million children if 

given a chance to live. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. And I further reflect about the fact what this 1.5 

million children could have accomplished in their lifetime, what 

they could have contributed to humanity, to the sciences, to music 

had they been given a chance to live. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. And I would like to leave you with that thought. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Schaecter follows:]

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Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Schaecter. 

Thank you Mr. Schaecter, Ms. Firestone, Mr. Bretholz for evocative powerful testimony. Thank you so very much. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. Madam Chairman, can we just ask you——

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Mrs. Firestone, what is that? 

Mr. SCHAECTER. We both would like to ask for the exhibit to be 

included in the hearing. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. What was that now? 

Ms. FIRESTONE. To be included in the hearing record. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. The exhibit. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. The exhibit. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Oh, I see. 

Without objection, subject to the length limitations in the rules, 

because there are limits. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. I understand. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. 

I would like to begin the question and answer period. 

Mr. Schaecter, you founded and you are the president of the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA——

Mr. SCHAECTER. Yes. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN [continuing]. And you have stood firmly 

behind the position that non-survivors, non-survivors institutions 

cannot make decisions on survivors’ rights. Mrs. Firestone in her 

testimony gave some figures that out of the many organizations 

that were participating in the ICHEIC process only two of them, 

I believe she said, were survivor agencies. 

Can you describe to us, Mr. Schaecter and Mrs. Firestone, the involvement or lack thereof of a survivors group in the ICHEIC process? Were survivor groups invited to participate? Were they consulted? Did survivors or others voice concerns and critiques during 

the ICHEIC process and were those concerns and critiques listened 

to? How were those concerns received and responded to by those 

involved in the ICHEIC process? 

Mr. Schaecter, we will begin with you. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. Can I just give you a simple and straightforward answer? 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. I don’t know if Congress can handle 

that, but go ahead. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. This is part of this horrible injustice that is 

being perpetrated on an ongoing basis. We survivors are basically 

scarred. We have deep scars. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. But can you tell me about the ICHEIC 

process? Were you—the survivor groups, were they listened to? 

Mr. SCHAECTER. They don’t listen. They don’t really feel that 

they have to listen. Because, frankly, there are so many institutions that want to be involved in management, in managing the 

lives of the funds, managing the lives of the survivors, the funds 

that they receive, the method of distribution of these funds from 

ICHEIC to the Claims Conference to all the other Jewish established agencies. 

They have never asked me what I felt and how I felt about survivors that cannot manage from day to day, Madam Chair. They 

have never asked me, although I have screamed it in a very loud 

48

and continuous manner that we have people that cannot make it 

from hour to hour. Yet no one is asking for my input. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Schaecter. 

Mrs. Firestone, on this issue about survivors—non-survivor institutions being involved in the survivors’ rights issue, if you could 

address that; and also about the right of appearing before a court 

and having your day in court even without knowing what the outcome would be. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. That is right. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Can you explain the importance of the 

process of bringing these cases before a Federal judge even though 

you don’t know the outcome? 

Ms. FIRESTONE. Madam Chairman, the problem is, first of all, 

that all the decisions are being made back east. We in California 

are the stepchildren, even though we are the largest survivor community in the United States. 

For example, myself, I found out about ICHEIC through the lawsuit that my nephew claimed against the company. But there are 

many survivors who still don’t know anything about ICHEIC. They 

don’t even know that it exists and that they can or could have gone 

to court. 

Well, that is what we are asking for. We are asking for the right 

to personally claim what is rightfully ours and have the right to 

go to court for it. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much. 

And, Mr. Schaecter, if you could address that issue about the opportunity to bring a case before the Federal judge. And you have 

been an active proponent of this. Even though the verdicts of the 

cases are not prejudged, that does not mean that you are going to 

win. Could you address that issue? 

Mr. SCHAECTER. I think it is the only democratic way. I think it 

is the only fair way. And, for a change, we would like to see the 

fairness. And we expect that we are not going to be shortchanged, 

we expect to go to court, we expect to plead our case, and we hope 

that this Congress here will make it possible for us to do this in 

the future. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. 

Schaecter. Thank you, Mrs. Firestone. 

I did not mean to leave Mr. Bretholz out. It is just that we have 

limited time. 

So I am going now to ask Mr. Sires, who is taking the spot of 

the ranking member, to be acknowledged for his 5 minutes of questioning. 

Mr. Sires, thank you so much. 

Mr. SIRES. Thank you, Madam Chairperson; and I commend you 

for having this hearing. 

And I commend you for coming before the hearing. Your determination is admirable, and it really is a testament of your fortitude, what you have accomplished after what you have gone 

through, and I admire you for it. I really do. 

My question has to do with H.R. 890. There are a lot of critics 

to this bill, and they always use the word ‘‘damage,’’ that somehow 

this bill is going to damage relationships between America and European countries. I mean, they use that—to me it is a lot of bull—

49

excuse the word. But, you know, in all the critics they say that it 

will damage restitution and compensation that is still owed you. 

Can you elaborate on that a little bit? What are they talking about? 

Ms. FIRESTONE. What they owe us? 

Mr. SIRES. Yeah. They say that this bill, if it passes, it is going 

to damage the relationship between us and European countries and 

that there are other restitutions. What are they talking about? 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. If you could move a little bit closer to 

the microphone, Mrs. Firestone. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. There are no other restitutions. I don’t know 

what they are talking about. It is ridiculous. They are trying to get 

out of it, you know, dragging the time so that we are no longer here 

and then they don’t have to account to anybody. That is what they 

are waiting for. And it is very obvious. Because Germany was willing to do their part in the restitution. Germany gave billions to the 

Claims Conference, and we got nothing. And we know, of course, 

today that some of that money disappeared. We know that, also. 

Mr. SIRES. I can’t figure it out. We know you are looking for this 

information, and this bill doesn’t say that there is more money involved. All you want to do is be able to access the information. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. That is right. We want the list from the insurance companies. All we want is a list of the names of who were insured. Now, is that so difficult? I am sure they have the list. 

Mr. SIRES. I agree with you. I was just wondering. 

Leo seems to be the feistiest one. Do you have any comments 

about what I just said? I admire you. At 94, you are still fighting. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. I thank you. 

Mr. SIRES. All of you. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. She is a feisty lady. I assure you. 

Mr. SIRES. Leo, do you have any comments? Do you want to add 

to what Mrs. Firestone has said? 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. This is a different issue. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. A little bit closer to the microphone. I 

know that your issue is the rail justice. 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. Mine is the rail issue. This is a different issue. 

In fact, I don’t understand much of it. 

Mr. SIRES. Okay. No problem. 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. I know it is all about money. 

Mr. SIRES. Yeah. It makes the world go round. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. It really isn’t. 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. But it is. And justice. Justice, yes. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. May I just—one short example here. 

ICHEIC became very much involved, and it was decided that this 

is the agency we should look to, this is the agency we should listen 

to, and they are going to go ahead and take care of all our problems. 

Well, you have heard part of the report. But the most amazing 

and most insulting and most degrading of all things that ICHEIC 

has done, out of $20 billion worth of insurance policies they paid 

approximately $32 million worth of claims. 

And I further submit to you that they went ahead when there 

was some dismay shown by the world—I am hopeful the world—

but by the survivor people, they finally decided to go ahead and 

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ered humanitarian—just because you guys are nice, we are going 

to give you $1,000. And that is so degrading, and I think that you 

beautiful people ought to know that. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. May I just make a comment about when my 

nephew claimed—he had the papers. He found the papers at home, 

the insurance papers. And when he approached the insurance company they offered him—the insurance was originally—I don’t 

know—40,000 Czech crowns, whatever that is. The way he figured 

it out, they owed him over $1 million. When he approached them 

with the papers, they offered him $10,000. And of course he wrote 

back he is not taking it, and that is when he sued. And finally they 

gave him over $100,000. But still he figured out that they owed 

him about $1 million. 

Mr. SIRES. Thank you very much. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Sires. Excellent questions. 

Mr. Chabot, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Middle East 

and South Asia, is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. CHABOT. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman, and 

thank you for holding this very important hearing here this morning. 

Although I was not here for all the testimony, I heard some of 

it and read the rest; and I have to say that this is some of the most 

inspiring testimony that I have heard in my time in Congress, 

some of the most disturbing, too, when you consider what we are 

talking about here and the loss of so many lives during probably 

the most horrific time in world history, the number of people who 

were affected by the Holocaust. And we are looking now at co-sponsoring this, and I am sure as a result of the three of you coming 

here a lot of us will seriously consider this legislation. 

I just have one question before I head off to another committee. 

Your written testimony underscores the need to hold the insurance companies accountable for their actions. Do you see a distinction between restitution efforts and holding these companies accountable for their Holocaust-era activities? Can you just explain 

what the distinction might be? How will bringing these cases before 

a Federal Court provide a different type of justice than contributions made to restitution? 

And I will open that up to any of the folks here. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. Well, an insurance policy, as far as from what 

I know about insurance policies, it is a contract. It is a contractual 

instrument. The insurance policies written especially by Generali 

and Allianz, they highlight the fact that you can go anyplace in the 

world and claim on that policy, but it is not happening. 

The fact that Allianz, the chairman of Allianz became the exchequer of the Reich and the fact that he went ahead and used the 

funds to actually pay for part of World War II expenses, if you will. 

The fact that the people that worked for Allianz had records, had 

access, had the privilege to every Jew alive, to every Jew that existed in central and Eastern Europe, they took this information and 

gave it to the Gestapo so that the Gestapo could go ahead and implement the looting of assets. The insurance company needs to 

meet and fulfill its contract on these policies, if nothing else. 

51

The fact that they were collaborators—there were many, many 

other companies, many other institutions in Germany that were 

collaborators of World War II and maybe even collaborated in the 

final solution of the Jewish people. So my beef is really from the 

standpoint of decency, from the standpoint of morality, from the 

standpoint of international understanding that these policies could 

be cashed anyplace on Earth. 

Mr. CHABOT. Thank you very much. I appreciate your response. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. 

Mr. Chabot, since you are done, I was wondering if you could 

yield me that remaining minute. 

Mr. CHABOT. Yes, I yield. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Chabot. 

To Mrs. Firestone or Mr. Schaecter, ICHEIC issued, as you had 

pointed out, 34,000 humanitarian awards of $1,000 each. And you 

said in your written testimony that survivors found these offers insulting, and you had just spoken about that, Mr. Schaecter. Can 

you explain for the record why survivors felt as they did regarding 

these awards? 

Mr. SCHAECTER. I can tell you, Madam Chair, that when you are 

desperate, those who are really, really desperate, that 35 to 40 to 

50 percent of survivors still alive today they are very, very desperate, they took the $1,000. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. And it also helped ICHEIC to—you 

look at the records, and they will say, here, look at the big numbers 

of cases that were resolved. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. You are right. They displayed their magnanimity to the world that they care and that they have done their 

job. 

On a personal level, Congresslady, you know me for a long, long 

time. You represented me in the House in the State of Florida. I 

was blessed to have met you. I was blessed that I didn’t need the 

$1,000 from ICHEIC. But I would also admit to you that I was 11 

years old when I was taken away. I don’t know how much an 11-

year-old guy is supposed to know about insurance. And I didn’t 

want to go ahead and eat my guts out and search, so I decided to 

be an advocate. I decided to be the mouthpiece for the survivors. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. And we thank you for that. Thank 

you, Mr. Schaecter. 

I thank the gentleman from yielding me the time. 

Mr. Deutch from Florida is recognized. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

First, I want to thank you for coming. I want to commend you 

not just for the work that you do here, but, Mr. Bretholz, you spoke 

beautifully about your experience and the amount of time you 

spend with kids and helping them understand the horrors of the 

Holocaust. 

And, Mr. Schaecter, I am not privileged to represent you, but I 

am right up the road, and your work in south Florida is legendary. 

It is an honor to have you here, and thank you for all that you do 

in the community. 

Mrs. Firestone, you have managed to become a movie star by 

being such a staunch advocate for survivors and telling the story. 

52

And I had a whole series of questions, but I wanted to just ask 

you, you have all spoken about kids in one way or another. We 

spend a lot of time, those of us who are blessed to have kids, giving 

them the opportunity to hear from you, giving them the opportunity—as I tell my kids often, they are going to be—my kids will 

be the last generation who will hear this story firsthand. I would 

like you, if you would, spend a minute to talk about the message 

that this Congress can send to the kids that all of you speak so 

passionately about and spend so much time sharing your stories 

with. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. Well, of course, I feel, first of all, that non-Jewish kids should really learn about the Holocaust and about all 

these issues. Like I personally think that this $1,000 ICHEIC 

project was an insult. I mean, how—these kids should know that, 

after we suffered what we suffered through the Holocaust, here we 

are again second-class citizens. We are deprived of our rights as a 

citizen in the United States. 

And we want these children to know that when they grow up 

they have to correct all these wrongdoings. And this is why we are 

teaching them to respect humanity and to help humanity. There 

are atrocities going on all over the world which most people don’t 

acknowledge or don’t even know about. And we think that the Holocaust was the only thing that we should talk about. We should 

talk about all these horrible atrocities that are going on in the 

world today, and our children must learn from them. And that is 

why I have been teaching now for 34 years about the Holocaust. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Bretholz. 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. Well, it is a simple thing with children. I speak 

a lot to schools, and I get very good reactions from young people. 

The whole thing when we speak about the Holocaust was based 

on unbridled hatred, hatred not for what we had done but who we 

were. And the children are being left with that message. When a 

hater ever approaches you, he or she involves you, wants to involve 

you in hate talk about religion or race, nationality, it behooves you 

to immediately tell that person they cannot count on you. I am not 

on the same page with you because you cannot engage me in a 

method to hate people. 

And that is the only message that we have to leave with young 

people. It was hatred, and hatred breeds hatred. And when you—

it has to go from family to family, from block to block, from home 

to home, from town to town. And when I tell the children you can 

make a difference and you can make a difference and you can 

make—all of you can make a difference. When I tell the students, 

each of you can make a little difference, but, collectively, it makes 

a big difference. 

Mr. DEUTCH. And, Mr. Schaecter, what kind of difference can the 

United States Congress make right now with respect to these 

issues? 

Mr. SCHAECTER. Congressman Deutch, you know, south Florida 

usually takes the initiative. I am talking about many things. But 

from the standpoint of our communities and the issue of the Holocaust and the issue of survivors, I was one of five other survivors, 

plus the child of a survivor, plus a real personality in our community in Miami, and we collectively built a memorial. 

53

And when the memorial was finished after 5 years, we realized 

we kind of forgot what the real purpose, what our real purpose is. 

And that is to reach children, because they are the important element of everything and anything, and we started a program called 

the March of the Living. 

And this committee needs to understand what happens if you 

start from scratch. We spent 2 months trying to label it, give it a 

name. And, finally, we came up with a name, with a word called 

March of the Living. 

Because no one ever—when people got into Birkenau from 

Auschwitz, Birkenau was the killing factory. No one ever came out 

alive from Birkenau. And we wanted to impress the children that 

they are going to come with us, that survivors will accompany 

them and that the survivors will embrace them. We know these 

young children, we know their tenderness, we know that the survivors will embrace them and hug them and hold their hands and 

walk with them hand in hand even to the gas chambers. We wanted them to understand what had happened. 

And they quickly—and it is not easy. When they cry, I cry. When 

they cry, Mrs. Firestone cries. We do it. This gentleman I am sure 

has gone through the same experiences. 

So I will tell you this. We tell all of them, each and every one, 

and they accept the responsibility that we charge them with. We 

want them to be ambassadors. We want them to tell the world. Because there are so many Holocaust deniers, and these kids will set 

these deniers straight and make believers out of them because they 

are the witnesses. 

So that is our part, and we will keep doing it. I know this, that 

this young lady here, she has been teaching and nurturing children 

for over 35 years. I think it is closer to 45 years. But she is only—

she is still a youngster. And I am hopeful that I am probably 

amongst the youngest of the survivors. I just turned the ripe old 

age of 82. And if the guy upstairs really likes me I hope to continue 

for another 8, 10 years. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Well, we hope so. 

Thank you so much, Mr. Deutch, and thank you for your leadership role. As the witnesses in the audience may know, Mr. Deutch 

is the lead Democrat sponsor of our bill for justice. Thank you so 

much, Mr. Deutch. 

Mr. Bilirakis, another wonderful Florida colleague. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. 

I appreciate it. And I want to thank the panel for sharing their stories. Please continue to do so. You are making a difference. And of 

course I want to thank the wonderful chairperson for holding this 

hearing. 

Holocaust survivors must be made whole, and we should disassociate ourselves from those who seek to profit from the unprecedented tragedy. I co-signed a letter along with several of my Florida colleagues recently alerting the Florida commissioner of education to the hypocrisy of SNCF, which refused to make whole victims of Nazi death camps, including American POWs, while seemingly wanting to educate Florida’s children of the Holocaust by underwriting a 3-year partnership between Florida’s Task Force on 

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cerned that SNCF America will profit from high-speed rail contracts in the U.S. What are your thoughts on that? Can you please 

share them with us? 

Maybe we can start with Mr. Bretholz. 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. On the SNCF issue, well, the SNCF participated 

all throughout the period. They participated in the discussions 

about the technical conditions of the deportation trains, so they 

were involved. 

Now comes the point where we need our day in court, and the 

court will decide. We need our day in court to show the SNCF has 

done something wrong. And it is self-interest on their part. You 

see, they apologized, yes, but the apology came only after they were 

interested in that high-speed rail contract here. Which means, in 

addition to the money that they made by sending Jews to the death 

camp paid per head and per kilometer, of its interest in sending 

more people and more people means more money, they now are 

bidding for a rail contract here, which means again more money. 

But this has to be handled in the court. We want that justice to 

be done officially, openly, and with interest in doing the right 

thing. That finally justice be done. They did an awful thing. That 

night on the train on the 6th of November, it is something that is 

like a nightmare. And that is the only thing I would like, a day in 

court to see justice to be done. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Thank you, sir. 

Anyone else wish to comment on that? 

Ms. FIRESTONE. Yes. I just want to say that SNCF is not the only 

railroad that should be responsible, because we are now beginning 

hear about the Hungarian railroad also trying to maybe—maybe 

they are worried because they hear what is going on in France, so 

they are coming forward, and they are trying to also make some 

compensation. We have been transported the same way as they 

were. 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. But the Hungarians do not have the know-how 

and the technical know-how like the French. The French are good, 

they are the best in fast railroads, and the Hungarians will have 

a very little chance against the French. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. They are not against the French. 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. I understand. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. They are claiming from the world, you know, experience. It is the railroads all over Europe were the same. I mean, 

they transported these people. In my carrier car, for example, there 

were 120 of us, 120 of us, the children crying, begging the parents 

to take them home. The parent had no idea if they were going to 

go home. So you cannot say that the French railroads were different. 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. But you forget that we are here not to talk about 

the Hungarian, but we are here to talk about SNCF. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. I know. But I am just saying that we have to 

really look at the whole European situation, what happened at the 

time. 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. But the Hungarians did not ask to build railroads 

here. This is the issue that we have. You have SNCF. You can 

mention any railroads in Europe that shipped Jews to——

Ms. FIRESTONE. That is right, and they should. 

55

Mr. BRETHOLZ. But we are dealing with SNCF, isn’t that right? 

This is the bill on hand. Otherwise, you are going to be sidetracked. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. I would like to comment about—and maybe that 

will give you a partial answer to what I think you are looking for. 

I spoke to probably the largest group of high school seniors in the 

area. At Coral Gables High, they had 3,000 kids graduating; and 

I was asked to speak to them. The children ask very, very profound 

questions; and they want answers. 

And then one little young lady, I think she wasn’t even 17, 

maybe 16, 161⁄2, and she stopped me while I was speaking. And she 

says, do you believe, do you believe in God? And I said, yes, I do. 

And then when I finished speaking she says, well, how could you? 

How could you? How could someone like you even now say so, without hesitation, say, yes, you believe? 

And I looked at her and, honest to God, I was stunned for a couple of seconds. Because she in reality wanted me to find a whole 

host of people to blame. And the thing that stunned me the most 

was the fact, how could I? And then I had to give her an answer. 

She insisted I give her an answer. 

And I said, you know, 6 million people were destroyed. It is on 

an ongoing basis. There are Holocausts in so many other places in 

the world, and it is ongoing. 

But let me tell you about the Holocaust. We really should not 

ask, where was God; how could he have permitted that? and not 

pause for a second. Because I wanted to say the right thing that 

would be acceptable to her. And I said, ‘‘Instead of asking, where 

was God? I think that we ought to ask, where were the people? 

Where was the world while all that was happening and where is 

the world while all this is happening today and yesterday and tomorrow?’’

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. Thank you very much. 

And I thank Mr. Bilirakis. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Thank you. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Did you want to say something? 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. No, I am fine. Thank you so much. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much. Excellent questions. 

Mr. Connolly, thank you so much for being here; and you are recognized for your questions. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Thank you, Madam Chairman; and thank you for 

your leadership on this issue. 

I don’t really have a question. I just want to say my profound appreciation for the three witnesses who joined us here today and 

provided their testimony. 

You know, the Holocaust has been something seared in my memory since I was a child. I will never forget the first time I was exposed to the reality of the Holocaust. I was a young child watching 

television in the 1950s; and there was some program, probably a 

documentary, and the image that came on television of the opening 

up of the camps and the number of bodies and the bulldozing of 

bodies into trenches. And I couldn’t have been 7 or 8. And I was 

stunned at this image as a child, stunned that human beings could 

do such things to other human beings. And for the rest of my life 

56

I have searched for the answers, Mr. Schaecter, that young girl 

asked you. Because the reality of it is so hard to encompass that 

maybe you are tempted to want to deny it. 

I can remember my first trip to Europe. I went to Munich, and 

I insisted, over the objection of my traveling companions, that I go 

to Dachau. I wanted to touch the ovens to make sure this was real; 

this wasn’t some fantasy; it was real. And this was near a modern 

European city today. 

And I don’t know that any of us here in Congress, even with legislation, can really ever help come to closure on something that 

ought not to ever come to closure. 

And, you know, I listened, Mr. Bretholz, to what you said. It 

wasn’t for something we did. It was for who we are, who we were. 

When a political system demonizes any class of human beings for 

any reason, this is the risk. You objectify humans, and they become 

things. 

And I wish the answer were as simple as it was just a unique 

defect in one particular ethnic European strain. But how often do 

we need to be reminded that it is universal, sadly, that when political systems allow unbridled assaults on a group, a subgroup within its population, Holocausts follow? 

And so I am so honored to have three Holocaust victims and survivors here honoring the halls of Congress. Thank you for your testimony, thank you for the witness you give, and thank you for reminding us always that this must never leave our consciousness 

even as the generation fades away. 

With that, I yield back. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. 

If the gentleman would yield me his remaining time. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. I would be honored to. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. 

Because I just want to give thanks to Mr. Schaecter for providing 

us with Mr. Karliner’s testimony. As you pointed out, he fell on the 

anniversary commemoration of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken 

Glass. And how ironic it is, as you pointed out in his statement, 

that the insurance company that held the policy for Herbie’s family 

said that they actually paid it out on the Night of the Broken 

Glass. 

This is the night, Kristallnacht, when Jewish synagogues, businesses, homes were attacked by Nazi Germany, by Nazis in Germany and in Austria, and that was the night that Herbie’s father 

was deported to Buchenwald. And it is incredible for this insurance 

company to state that on this horrific night, as he is being deported 

to a concentration camp, Herbie’s father passed by the insurance 

company and they cashed out his policy. 

What do you say to that, Mr. Schaecter? 

Mr. SCHAECTER. Madam Chair, you know, there is so many, so 

many things that we have heard and that are done and said that—

not just borderline, on absolute ugliness—to assume that Herbert’s—Herb Karliner’s father on the way to the train that was 

going to take him to Buchenwald went ahead into the Allianz office 

to cash his policy. That was the answer ICHEIC’s people gave Herbert Karliner when he went ahead with the policy—with a copy of 

the policy. 

57

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. That was in the ICHEIC system that 

was supposed to work so well. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. That is correct. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Madam Chairman. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Yes, sir. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. I just want to be fair to one of our witnesses. I 

think Mr. Bretholz, when you asked me to yield, was seeking recognition. I wonder if we could accommodate him. I think he wanted 

to have a comment. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Without objection. Yes, Mr. Bretholz, 

did you want to say something, and I interrupted you? 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. Yes. Just a couple of personal quotes. 

There was a book written by a Jesuit priest, Father Edward H. 

Flannery, the title, ‘‘The Anguish of the Jews.’’ And in this book 

Father Flannery says, ‘‘To say that the Holocaust is the most horrifying event in the annals of Jewish history is an understatement. 

It is the most horrifying event in the totality of recorded history, 

not just Jewish history.’’

And the other important quote is by none other than Elie Wiesel, 

Professor Wiesel, answering your question about God. Elie Wiesel 

is an Orthodox Jew, but when he is being asked about his faith 

there comes an answer—and, believe me, this is not to be disregarded when it comes from Elie Wiesel. When he is being asked 

about his faith, ‘‘Yes, I have faith, but my faith is wounded.’’ Is 

that a good statement? His faith is wounded, and he explains it, 

when he witnessed his father’s death in the camp. That is when 

he decided that his faith is wounded, and that is what you are 

dealing with. 

And of course we have not much broached the subject of the 

SNCF here, and I hope that the Congress will do the right thing 

to give us a fair hearing in court. And that the SNCF, which is also 

very self-serving, you know, they have not come up with an excuse 

until they ask for a contract. But they never came up with a contrite statement that was satisfactory. So perhaps I hope the Congress will work on that SNCF thing, because I don’t want them to 

get any contracts. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. 

Thank you, Mr. Connolly, for giving Mr. Bretholz that opportunity. 

Mr. Rivera of south Florida is recognized for his statement. 

Mr. RIVERA. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

And I certainly want to associate myself with Representative 

Connolly’s remarks earlier regarding the manner in which you 

have honored us with your presence here today and honored Congress for the important lessons of history that must remain 

present, ever present in our minds to make sure that these types 

of horrific actions never replicate themselves again. 

Mr. Bretholz, you alluded specifically to a question that I wanted 

to ask. Because in your testimony and in Representative Maloney’s 

testimony both referenced the allegation that the SNCF maintain 

control over operations of their railroads and sought to maximize 

their efficiency in deporting their victims. Can you elaborate just 

58

for the committee somewhat on the evidence you have seen supporting this claim? 

Mr. BRETHOLZ. Well, sure. 

The transports and the whole organizing the transports, these 

convoys were formed, directed, and implemented by the French. 

They did the utmost to do it with deception, with cruelty, and with 

precision. 

You see the perception—the deception was when we were in the 

camp of Drancy, which was called the antechamber of Auschwitz, 

they took away belongings from us. Well, I didn’t lose much, just 

a wristwatch and a stamp collection. But there were some very important valuables, jewelry from the ladies, fur coats. We received 

a voucher, and on that voucher every item that they took from us 

was mentioned in that voucher. It was an itemized voucher. 

And do you know what the deception was? An admonishment to 

us, don’t lose this voucher. Because when you get there, wherever 

you are going to get—and we never knew where it was—when you 

get there and you don’t have that voucher, you won’t get your belongings back. 

So this gave us a—it should have given—they wanted us to have 

a sense of safety. It will be all right. We will get it back. That was 

the deception. 

And the cruelty was separating families. 

And the precision was with which they pushed us into this railroad car. You know, they could have just asked us to step into the 

car instead of using rifle butts to push us into it. 

The SNCF was very instrumental in doing it the way they did 

it, yes. 

If that is satisfactory to you, you can ask another question——

Mr. RIVERA. No. 

Earlier, Mrs. Firestone, you were nodding when Chairwoman 

Ros-Lehtinen asked the question of Mr. Schaecter earlier regarding 

the incident on Kristallnacht in the documents. Did you want to 

add something to that as well? 

Ms. FIRESTONE. Well, you know, the fact that everybody wants 

documents is an outrage. Because when we were packed into the 

cattle cars we already were limited to nothing. Everything was already taken away from us. 

And then when they say that he paid—they paid—that he 

claimed his insurance, I mean, it is so outrageously awfully unbelievable. Because, by that time, by the time we were at the railroad 

station, we had absolutely nothing. Everything was taken away 

from us. 

So they were giving us something? We were already stripped of 

everything. We were told how big the suitcase can be we can take 

with us and how much it can weigh. The suitcase was maybe this 

size. 

So they stripped us of everything, take our homes, take our belongings, take everything away from us, and they were giving him 

money at the railroad station? I mean, it is so outrageously unbelievable that they even can claim something like this. 

Mr. RIVERA. Yes, sir, you want to add something. 

Mr. SCHAECTER. Yes. I would like to—again, I guess I survived 

for a reason, and I am humble enough to say that I survived, and 

59

I need to go ahead and make sure that the world is aware and the 

world doesn’t forget it. But the reality is that no other people, no 

other country has ever done what the Reich did. 

The very first thing they did to us after they rounded us up and 

took us and quickly made the decision as to who was to live and 

who was to die, even those that they suggested that they are going 

to let you live, the very first thing they did to you is dehumanize 

you. They took away your name, and they went ahead and tattooed 

a number on your left arm. 

And I was no longer David. I was number 4172. And I guess I 

knew my place very quickly. And if I hadn’t stood on the feet of 

my older brother to make me look a little bigger or taller, I would 

never have survived. I was standing on his two feet, and I looked 

a little bigger. And they were just—he pointed me the other way. 

And when history is written, and it has been written so many 

times, that dehumanizing element is one of the cruelest and most 

painful. And I guess—I guess our destiny is to keep on doing what 

we are doing and at the same time have the energy and perseverance to come and see you all and plead with you. And we know, 

we know that you have heart, we know that you are human beings 

and that you are good human beings. And in my book all of you 

are a gift from God to us. 

Mr. RIVERA. Well, thank you for maintaining that energy and 

perseverance. 

I yield back, Madam Chairman. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Rivera. 

I am pleased to yield to Mr. Sherman of California, the ranking 

member on the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and 

Trade, who is a co-sponsor of the Holocaust legislation that we are 

talking about today. 

Thank you, Mr. Sherman. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Thank you, Madam Chairman, for having these 

hearings to explore once again the horror of the Holocaust and to 

give us the honor and the education of being with Holocaust survivors. 

As we explore what the Holocaust means about the nature of humankind, we should realize that, as others have stated, while this 

was the most horrific act it is not an act that was unprecedented, 

nor is it an act that was never repeated, and America’s own history 

is marred by great crimes. 

I want to focus a bit on perhaps another way to go about this 

issue as to insurance companies. Because the issue is, under what 

condition can European insurance companies do business in the 

United States? It would seem to me that they would publish on the 

Web a list of the insureds that are over 100 years old whose policies they have not paid. They might exclude those where they have 

had contact with the insured in the last 5 years. There may indeed 

be a 100-year-old man somewhere in Europe with a policy. 

We shouldn’t just focus on the Jewish victims of the World War 

II era but all those whose families were destroyed and whose insurance was never known about and never paid. Likewise, the Roma 

people; likewise, those from the Armenian genocide. 

If we simply had a requirement that those who sold policies during or before the World War I era in the areas affected by World 

60

War I and likewise those who sold policies before World War II and 

just said put on the Web the name and the hometown of every insured who is over 100 years old, and we may find that there are 

German and French families who simply didn’t know there was a 

policy. 

I would point out, because I sit on the Financial Services Committee, that in virtually every State under these circumstances the 

insurance company doesn’t benefit. When they lose contact with the 

insured and the insured has reached a certain age, the money is 

paid to the unclaimed property fund of the State and is advertised. 

So why should Holocaust victims, why should victims of the Armenian genocide, why should the Roma victims of the Nazis not get 

this same benefit of a list? 

Now, the response I have gotten from the insurance companies 

is they want to protect the insured, the 100-year-old, the 150-yearold. They have to hold onto the money secretly in order to protect 

the consumer, confidentiality of the consumer. 

Well, any secrets that I have about my insurance policies I give 

to the world when I hit age 150. 

The fact that companies would continue to hold the money knowing that the insured have probably died over 50 or 60 years ago, 

whether as a victim of murder or simply of the expiration of life, 

to hold on to that money raises the question is this the kind of 

company that American consumers should be allowed to do business with. 

My God, you pay into an insurance company for decades in the 

expectation that when you and your family need the money they 

are going to pay. And if they are still holding the money from 150-

year-old Holocaust victims, are these companies that act in good 

faith? Are they acting in good faith when they sell policies in California or just in bad faith when they sell policies in Poland? 

And I am going to continue our efforts to say put the names on 

the Web or you are not the kind of company that Americans should 

do business with. This is not just a matter of justice for those who 

died in Europe and their families. This is a matter of protecting 

Americans from companies who would say, well, yeah, we haven’t 

talked to that person in 60 years. Yes, I guess they are 160 years 

old. But we are going to hold on to the money. They might be alive 

somewhere. 

I do have one question for Mrs. Firestone. I have many questions, but I have time for one. 

During the Senate hearing on this issue in 2008, Mr. Rubin, who 

is a survivor, observed that ICHEIC did not follow its own relaxed 

standards of evidence. I notice the State Department yesterday 

agreed to support claims submitted to insurance companies that 

use an ICHEIC-like process. What should this standard look like 

and is there anything Congress should do to enforce this standard 

with the companies? 

And I realize there may be other witnesses with a response. It 

is kind of a technical question. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. I don’t know much about the insurance business, 

but all we survivors are asking is for that list that you are talking 

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fornia are very grateful to you for many issues that you stood by 

us, and I just can’t tell you how grateful we are. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Thank you. I yield back. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. And I regret that we have 

run out of time. Thank you for your support, Mr. Sherman. 

Thank you to the three of you and Mr. Shearer. Thank you for 

being here today to prove that there are American victims of this 

injustice as well. We will continue to fight for you and in your 

name. Thank you so much. 

The committee is now adjourned. Thank you. 

[Whereupon, at 12 o’clock p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

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MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE HOWARD L. BERMAN, A

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA


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71


71263g-2.eps
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71263g-3.eps
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71263g-4.eps
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71263g-5.eps
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71263g-6.eps
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71263g-7.eps
77


71263g-8.eps
78


71263h-1.eps
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71263h-2.eps
80

f


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81

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE ANN MARIE BUERKLE, 

A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK


71263i.eps
82


71263j-1.eps
83


71263j-2.eps
84


71263j-3.eps
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71263j-4.eps
86


71263j-5.eps
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71263j-6.eps
88


71263j-7.eps
89

f


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90

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE CAROLYN MALONEY, A

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK


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71263k-2.eps
92


71263k-3.eps
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71263k-4.eps
94


71263k-5.eps
95

f


71263k-6.eps
96

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY MR. LEO BRETHOLZ, HOLOCAUST

SURVIVOR, AUTHOR, ‘‘LEAP INTO DARKNESS’’


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71263l-2.eps
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71263l-3.eps
99


71263l-4.eps
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71263l-5.eps
101

f


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MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY MS. RENEE FIRESTONE, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, AND MR. DAVID SCHAECTER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, PRESIDENT, HOLOCAUST

SURVIVORS FOUNDATION


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71263o-2.eps
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71263o-3.eps
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71263o-5.eps
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71263o-6.eps
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71263o-7.eps
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71263o-8.eps
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[NOTE: Additional information may be accessed on the World Wide Web at

http://www.hsf-usa.org (accessed 1/19/12).] 

f


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MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY MS. RENEE FIRESTONE, HOLOCAUST

SURVIVOR


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71263p-2.eps
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71263p-3.eps
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71263q-1.eps
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sies is not reprinted here but is available in committee records.]

[NOTE: Material submitted for the record by the Dutch, French and German EmbasfÆ


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