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THE STRUGGLES OF RECOVERING ASSETS FOR

HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS

JOINT HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

AND THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE, EURASIA, AND 

EMERGING THREATS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

Serial No. 113–210

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

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

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

(III)

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE, EURASIA, AND EMERGING THREATS

DANA ROHRABACHER, California, Chairman 

TED POE, Texas 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

(V)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Mr. Jack Rubin (Holocaust survivor) ..................................................................... 10

Ms. Klara Firestone (daughter of Holocaust survivors) ....................................... 29

Barbara Paris, M.D. (physician who focuses on the care of Holocaust survivors) .................................................................................................................... 31

Ms. Eugenie Lieberman (daughter of Holocaust survivor) ................................... 37

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Mr. Jack Rubin: Prepared statement ..................................................................... 13

Barbara Paris, M.D.: Prepared statement ............................................................. 34

Ms. Eugenie Lieberman: Prepared statement ....................................................... 40

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 56

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 57

Ms. Klara Firestone: Prepared statement ............................................................. 58

The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress from the 

Commonwealth of Virginia: Prepared statement .............................................. 71

(1)

THE STRUGGLES OF RECOVERING ASSETS 

FOR HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA AND

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE, EURASIA, AND EMERGING THREATS,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:05 p.m., in room 

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

(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. The joint subcommittee will come to order. 

After recognizing myself, Chairman Rohrabacher, Ranking Member Deutch, Ranking Member Keating for opening statements, we 

will then recognize other members seeking recognition and we will 

hear from our witnesses. 

Without objection, the witnesses’ prepared statements will be 

made a part of the record and members may have 5 days in which 

to insert statements and questions for the record, subject to the 

length limitation in the rules. 

The Chair now recognizes herself for 5 minutes. 

This is a hearing we never should have to hold. Yet, it is a topic 

that must be addressed as Holocaust survivors around the world 

continue to suffer injustices of the past and their needs and wellbeing go neglected. 

I want to acknowledge our late Congressman, the chairman of 

this committee, Tom Lantos, whose painting adorns the wall, a 

Holocaust survivor with whom I worked closely during his time 

here on the committee. 

Six million Jews were murdered at the hands of the Nazis during 

the Holocaust, and millions more suffered unspeakable atrocities 

committed against them and their loved ones. All of their properties and belongings were stolen as the Nazis deported them to 

ghettos and concentration camps where most of them died of starvation, exhaustion, torture, or in gas chambers. 

The toll the Holocaust has taken on survivors is unimaginable 

and it is unforgivable, but we cannot forget that it takes a tremendous toll on the second generation as well, as we will hear from our 

brave witnesses. 

Today there are less than 1⁄2 million survivors of humanity’s 

darkest period, with nearly half of all survivors worldwide living at 

or below the poverty level, and it is painful to see those who have 

2

suffered so greatly continue to struggle day in and day out as if 

they had not suffered enough. 

And with the average age of Holocaust survivors estimated at 82, 

time is truly running out for us to bring them some sort of justice, 

some kind of closure, so that they can live out the rest of their lives 

in dignity and comfort. 

I believe that more can and must be done. Holocaust survivors 

are barred from suing in Federal courts those insurance companies 

that failed to pay out Holocaust-era policies. At the very minimum, 

given that no money can ever replace the experience of suffering 

under the Nazis—at the very minimum, we should let the survivors 

and their families have their day in court. 

Another avenue for the survivors was the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, ICHEIC, which closed in 

2007, no matter how many times they say it is never closed. This 

system was flawed due to the problems with accountability and 

oversight, which led to—listen to this—84 percent of the claims 

being rejected, 84 percent being rejected. 

These survivors and their families need to be made whole, and 

this is why it is vital for Germany and other nations to fulfill their 

obligations and for insurance companies that have been running 

out the clock in a deliberate attempt to avoid paying out rightful 

claims to be held accountable and to finally pay for what they owe 

these survivors, for what they owe these survivors. 

These countries and these greedy insurance companies owe these 

survivors. This is what is rightfully theirs and what has been denied to them for decades, forcing them to relive this atrocity over 

and over again. 

And it is not just these insurance companies and foreign governments that have let our Holocaust survivors down. We need to take 

a closer look at what more our own Government, the United States 

Government, can be doing as well. 

As a Member of Congress who represents Holocaust survivors, I 

hear from my constituents that we in Congress must do more. 

Folks like Joe Sachs, like David Mermelstein, folks we will hear 

from today, they tell me that all the time. 

I have heard repeatedly concerns from some of my constituents 

regarding the failure, the deception, the lies of the Claims Conference and how, though this is intended to help survivors receive 

fair compensation, it has been an impediment in the process. 

Just like so many other senior citizens, survivors need extensive 

medical care. They are likely to have greater health needs than the 

general population and are more likely to face a number of certain 

illnesses, such as chronic depression, cognitive impairments, 

osteoporosis, post-traumatic stress syndrome. It is, therefore, vital 

for survivors to receive the financial, medical, and social support 

that so many desperately need. 

Struggling to make ends meet and still fighting to correct the injustices of the past, it is important to hear from Holocaust survivors and their relatives as they share their stories and their daily 

struggles that they face as they seek to live out the remainders of 

their lives in security and dignity. Is that too much to ask? 

3

ICHEIC has let Holocaust survivors down, no matter how the 

members of ICHEIC spin this. So it is up to us in Congress to step 

up and help the survivors. 

Thank you. 

And I am looking forward to hearing from our witnesses. 

And I would like to point out that we have a person in the audience who is very interested in this—I am sorry if I don’t pronounce 

your name correctly—Yael Fuchs, who is the Assistant Attorney 

General, Charities Bureau of the State of New York, Office of the 

Attorney General. Thank you very much. 

And they have been closely following the plight of survivors and 

want to see justice for them. 

And, with that, I turn to a fighter for Holocaust survivors and—

from his early days as a college activist and even before, Congressman Ted Deutch. 

Thank you, Ted. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Madam Chairman, thank you. I want to thank you 

not for just calling today’s hearing, but I want to thank you for 

being such a tremendous advocate and a partner in our efforts to 

ensure that every single survivor can live out their lives in dignity. 

I want to recognize and I want to thank our witnesses for being 

here, in particular, my constituents from South Florida, Jack Rubin 

and Eugenie Lieberman. 

Over the years, Jack has shared his own story and has shed light 

on the plight of other survivors so many times here in Congress, 

and he has done it out of his commitment to achieve justice. 

And, Jack, I am grateful that you are here with us once again 

today. 

I am privileged to represent a significant number of survivors in 

South Florida, like the chairman as well. I often speak of how, 

when I was first elected to office in 2006, it used to be standing 

room only at the Yom HaShoa at the Holocaust Remembrance Day 

events, and every year, unfortunately, there are more and more 

empty seats. 

The survivor population, a group that endured some of the greatest horrors in history, is now one of our most vulnerable. Today we 

will examine the particularly unique set of challenges to and the 

needs of the survivor community. 

According to most estimates, there are over 500,000 survivors 

worldwide with roughly 120,000 survivors living in the United 

States. Estimates show that up to half live in poverty. 

Survivors face a set of challenges different from most older 

Americans. Their experiences have left them fearful of the loss of 

control and independence that can come with aging, and the 

thought of depending on meal services or institutionalized care can 

dredge up painful memories. 

Most survivors are dependent on social service agencies to supplement their needs. However, for survivors, the process of applying for assistance or filing claims can be difficult and can be painful. Some are still wary of disclosing too much personal information. Often survivors may be unaware of what benefits and resources are available to them. 

The Jewish family service agencies on the ground in our communities, other social service agencies who work with them, face the 

4

daunting task of allocating funds for survivor care that are, quite 

frankly, never enough. 

According to the Association of Jewish Family and Children’s 

agencies, an umbrella organization of social service providers, its 

members report that they require anywhere from an additional 

$100,000 to $4 million per year to provide for the basic needs of 

survivors in their communities. 

Some communities have resorted to private fundraising to fill 

this gap, but most survivors do not want the American taxpayer to 

shoulder the cost of their care. 

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims—the Claims Conference was established to negotiate reparations from the German 

Government, and it is worth remembering that German Chancellor 

Konrad Adenauer pledged to care for every survivor until their last 

breath. 

Unfortunately, in recent years, the Claims Conference has been 

plagued by accusations of mismanagement of funds. And I was extremely concerned to see the recent announcement that the Claims 

Conference was going to consider devoting more and more of their 

resources to Holocaust education rather than to the care for survivors. I am glad to see that this decision has since been reversed. 

I also remain concerned that there is not an updated accurate accounting of survivors’ needs, and I welcome the recent steps taken 

to address this issue. This administration has also taken a series 

of steps to help survivors. 

The State Department, under the leadership of the Special Envoy 

for Holocaust issues, has been intimately involved in pressing European capitals to pass restitution laws, but more must be done to 

ensure that those who have not enacted restitution laws do so and 

that those who have are actually abiding by these laws. 

Under the leadership of Vice President Biden, the White House 

last year announced a new initiative to aid survivors, including the 

appointment of a special envoy for Holocaust survivor services that 

serves as a liaison between communities and social service agencies, a volunteer training program to build the capacity of these 

agencies, and $5 million in the President’s budget to leverage a 

public-private partnership. 

But despite the best intentions—the best-intentioned efforts to 

aid survivors, the unfortunate reality is that care is still lacking. 

These men and women who have overcome life’s most unimaginable horrors should not live one more day in poverty. 

Madam Chairman, the simple fact is that we cannot allow one 

more survivor to have to face the painful choice of whether to buy 

that month’s medicine or groceries. 

As the population ages, there are many survivors who will need 

round-the-clock care. Constraints placed on funding and caps on 

home-care hours prevent them from getting the care they desperately need while being able to remain in the comfort and familiarity of their own home. 

Chairman Ros-Lehtinen and I have in past years introduced the 

Tom Lantos Justice for Holocaust Survivors Act, named for the 

former chairman of this committee, the only Holocaust survivor to 

serve in Congress. 

5

Too often the process of filing claims for property or insurance 

policies was far too arduous for survivors and their heirs. Finding 

proper documentation left over after the war is nearly impossible. 

There must be a better way to ensure that these families get the 

justice that they deserve. 

Madam Chairman, there are 500,000 survivors worldwide, a 

number that is decreasing every day. We must get an accurate understanding of the needs of the community, not the needs based on 

limitations imposed by existing agreements, but what it will actually cost to ensure that every survivor can live out his or her life 

in dignity, and we need to find the money to provide that care. 

That is what we owe our survivors. 

I stand ready to help. I will work with the Claims Conference. 

I will work with local social service agencies, with the survivor 

community, with any group that wants to help. 

But instead of fighting about the merits of particular actions that 

have been taken over the years, let’s agree that at this point time 

is running out for the survivors, and let’s figure out what’s necessary to do and then let’s get it done. 

I can’t—I can’t adequately express my gratitude to the witnesses 

for being here today to courageously share their stories or the stories of their loved ones. Please know that we are committed to 

working until every survivor gets the care they need and until 

every survivor gets the respect that they deserve. 

I yield back. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Deutch. 

And I am so pleased that Mr. Rohrabacher and Mr. Keating’s 

subcommittee have joined in this effort to get justice for Holocaust 

survivors. 

So I am pleased to yield to our subcommittee chair, Dana Rohrabacher of California. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you very much. And I would like to 

thank Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen and Ranking Member Deutch for 

their great leadership on this issue. 

My committee was invited to participate, and we are proud to 

participate today and to support you in this very worthwhile and 

admirable endeavor. So you can call on us, too. We again thank you 

for this. And I am pleased that we are able to hold this as a joint 

hearing today and that may make this a joint project. 

This afternoon’s hearing is on the struggle to recover the assets 

of Holocaust survivors and to consider their well-being. It is an important and timely subject, as we have already heard. 

There are about 100,000 Holocaust survivors in the United 

States today. But due to the passage of time, that number is reduced nearly every day. Those survivors have been a living memorial to the tragedy and the crime of the Holocaust. It is a very good 

thing that today we are discussing how each one of them can find 

justice and compensation, even if it is delayed. 

I understand that a large percentage of survivors live near the 

poverty line. Perhaps a quarter of them in the United States live 

below that threshold. And it is a very sad statistic. Yet, I am glad 

that there are Jewish organizations working to help alleviate the 

harsh conditions in which too many of these survivors live. These 

groups have my sincere thanks and my admiration. 

6

Too often horrible things happen to innocent people in this world, 

but I am reminded of the saying, ‘‘The arc of the moral universe 

is long, but it bends toward justice.’’ And I think that is clearly the 

case here. It says something about what we are going to hear about 

today. 

And we have some heroic witnesses, including Holocaust—a Holocaust survivor and the family of two Holocaust survivors. And I 

thank them for being here and sharing their story with us, giving 

us a human face to the statistics that we can talk about. But it is 

really the human face that we are concerned about today. 

After the end of a conflict or war, it is often impossible to return 

land or property to its former civilian owners in a timely fashion, 

even if at all. But what we should make sure that we strive to ensure is that there be an equitable compensation for victims in this 

situation. 

During this hearing, I have learned more about the living conditions of Holocaust survivors and how we can make sure that their 

care and medical attention is there but, also, in how we bring justice to this issue. 

Thank you again for holding the hearing. I am happy to have my 

committee as a part of this. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Rohrabacher. We 

are blessed to have you join in this effort, and we thank you for 

that great opening remark. 

And now we would like to turn to the ranking member of that 

subcommittee, Mr. Keating of Massachusetts. 

Mr. KEATING. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

And I would like to thank our witnesses today, as their testimonies will allow us to determine the needs of Holocaust survivors 

in our communities and do everything to make sure those needs 

are met. 

As a young boy growing up in Sharon, Massachusetts, one of my 

neighbors was a survivor of a concentration camp. I didn’t understand everything I understand now. I recall seeing the tattooed—

tattoos on her wrist and inquired as to what that was all about. 

And as I reflect back now, being more mature and understanding 

more about what she went through, in growing up with her family 

and going to school with her children, I now can reflect fully on the 

challenges that she had. Sadly, she is now deceased. But estimates 

indicate that up to 5,000 survivors live in my home State of Massachusetts. 

One organization called Schechter Holocaust Services currently 

provides services to approximately 200 of these survivors, which include emergency financial assistance, home-care services, and case 

management. Eighty-six percent of this organization’s clients are 

over the age of 75, and 56 percent are female. Fifty-four percent 

have Russian as their primary language, which is why assistance 

is provided both in Russian and in English. 

Since the tale of the survivors tell us so much more than statistics can ever do, Schechter Holocaust Services has graciously allowed me to share a story that illustrates the needs of this population. 

Mrs. G is an 87-year-old woman. She was 8 years old when she 

was sent out of Germany alone to escape the Nazis. Her parents 

7

were killed. She settled in the Boston area and later married and 

had one child, who developed severe mental illness as a teen. Mr. 

G died 20 years ago and, since then, Mrs. G has struggled to provide for herself and to provide for her daughter, who is now 65 

years old. 

Mrs. G was introduced to Schechter Holocaust Services and was 

able to receive a wide range of support from emergency assistance 

and home care to management services, mental health counseling, 

a friendly visitor, an invitation to the holiday events. 

In the last couple of years, Mrs. G’s dementia unfortunately 

worsened and her daughter, who receives daily mental health services, had increasing medical and psychiatric problems. 

In light of this emergency situation, Schechter Holocaust Services spearheaded communications with Mrs. G’s only family, her 

deceased husband’s nephew and niece. They then worked with her 

relatives and with State programs. Finally, after months of effort, 

they found a place in a lovely assisted living facility for her and 

a nursing home for her daughter. Mother and daughter continue to 

visit each other. 

Schechter Holocaust Services states that it was a combination of 

private funding and Claims Conference funding that enabled them 

to help Mrs. G. I believe Mrs. G’s story reflects the remarkable capacity of the individuals and the organizations that care for the 

survivor population. 

That being said, many survivors do not seek or have access to 

these types of services. Further, I have heard repeated complaints 

that the Social Security Administration employees, at times, seem 

insensitive to the needs of this community and insist upon having 

survivors secure pensions from their former Soviet Union. This, 

quite frankly, is unacceptable. 

For this reason, I look forward to hearing our witnesses’ insights 

today as well as recommendations on overcoming existing impediments to accessing not only the care and assistance that they deserve, but, also, the necessary information about the family businesses and assets in Nazi-occupied areas as well. 

Thank you for being here. 

And, with that, I yield back, Madam Chairman. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Keating. 

Now I would like to recognize members for any opening statements they might like to make. 

And we start with Mr. Chabot of Ohio. 

Mr. CHABOT. Thank you, Madam Chairman, for holding this very 

important hearing. 

I was in Poland and Lithuania just about 3 weeks ago. And while 

in Poland, we drove out to Treblinka and saw the location where 

about 900,000 lives, mostly Jewish, were eliminated in about a 

year’s period of time. It was a very moving experience. 

And while in Vilnius, Lithuania, we met with a survivor there 

who told us what had basically happened there, and she was one 

of the—she escaped literally the day when the Nazis were coming 

in to exterminate the people there. 

And she escaped and spent the rest of the war with the partisans 

and survived. She was 93 years old and a very impressive young 

8

woman. Just incredible. Very—just a little woman. Not a young 

woman. A little woman. 

But, in any event, I also had the opportunity to meet with government officials there. And when I raised this particular issue, 

having talked with some folks prior to this codel, I got an indication of how difficult a process it is in trying to facilitate the recovery of assets of Holocaust survivors. 

The Poles maintain that they lost more than anybody in World 

War II, 3 million Poles dead, including 90 percent of the Jewish 

population, and that much of the property theft that took place in 

areas are no longer part of Poland, they claim, and they are 

Belarus and Germany and Eastern Ukraine, for example. Our Ambassador, who has worked extensively on the issue, told our delegation that some cases have taken 20 to 30 years to decide. 

When I brought up the issue to a top Polish Government official, 

he expressed some frustration with the process, but said—and I am 

quoting here—‘‘We are proud of what we have done. It takes time,’’ 

not particularly encouraging. 

So I hope we can discuss this afternoon how we can encourage 

the involved parties and governments to improve the adjudication 

process so it doesn’t take such an unconscionably long time and 

that property can be more expeditiously restored to the survivors 

and descendants of the rightful owners. 

I yield back. Thank you. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Well done—well said. 

Mr. Schneider is recognized. 

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I want to thank 

the chairmen of both subcommittees and the ranking members for 

calling this very important hearing, for our witnesses today for 

sharing both their experiences and their insights on this critical 

issue. 

Twenty-four years ago I had the opportunity to visit Poland and 

the camps of Auschwitz, others, with survivors. I was in Krakow. 

I recall the priests from Krakow for the first time to a Jewish 

group publicly apologizing for—and taking some responsibility. 

The hearing today, the conversations we have had now for generations, has been about justice. And 3 weeks ago, in synagogues 

around the world, Jews read from the Torah portion Shoftim, one 

of the lines of which is ‘‘Justice, justice shall you pursue.’’

This hearing is about pursuing justice and not stopping until—

and I will repeat the words of my colleague—the survivors have the 

care that they need, the justice that they deserve. This is what we 

are here today for. 

I thank you for your commitment and willingness to be here to 

share your stories. I look forward to the rest of this hearing. 

Thank you. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, sir. 

Mr. Cicilline of Rhode Island. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for 

your leadership on this incredibly important issue. 

And I also thank the ranking member for his strong and persistent leadership on this issue and for his very eloquent opening 

remarks. 

9

I just want to extend my gratitude to the witnesses who are here 

today to provide testimony to this committee. 

And I particularly want to thank and welcome Mr. Rubin because I am certain that sharing his personal experience will be a 

painful experience. And thank you for your willingness to do that 

again and for being before the committee. 

As we all recognize, the events of the Holocaust are one of the 

worst atrocities known to man where 6 million individuals were 

systematically murdered by the Nazis. And we have an obligation 

not only to remember that, but to be sure that we do all that we 

can to ensure that the survivors of this unspeakable moment in 

human history are both cared for and provided with all the dignity 

and justice they so richly deserve. 

So I welcome the witnesses and look forward to hearing the testimony. 

I yield back. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Cicilline. 

Mr. Vargas. 

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

And thank you, ranking members and chairs, for being here 

today. 

I would associate myself with all the comments made here today. 

I would also say that, in San Diego, we have had this wonderful 

program where Holocaust survivors have gone to the schools and 

have talked to the children. 

I have been in on a number of those talks, and I remember one 

that moved me very deeply when they talked about—the person 

that was there talked about all the things that did not happen in 

the world because we lost 6, 8 million Jews, all the things that 

didn’t happen in Qualcomm in San Diego. They said there could 

have been 10 Qualcomms. We could have discovered so many 

things. So much was lost to humanity. 

And so I am here to help in any way I can. And I thank very 

much the witnesses here, and I look forward to again hearing your 

testimony and helping in any way I can. 

Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Vargas. 

Mr. Connolly. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. And thank you 

for holding this hearing. 

There aren’t words to describe the horror of the Holocaust, and 

Mr. Rubin gives testimony to the fact that this is not ancient history. This happened not so long ago, as measured by history. And 

two words really come to my mind about the response. One is there 

has to still be accountability and then, secondly, there has to be expiation. 

We still find treasures robbed from Jewish victims that show up 

in museums, that show up in auction houses, show up in private 

collections. 

Just the other day, an individual in his 90s was fingered for having participated in atrocities during the Holocaust. So this is not 

something far away, and it is something that we must address and 

never forget. 

10

I thank both the chairman and ranking member for their holding 

this hearing and for their eloquent commitment to this issue. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Connolly. 

And now we are pleased to introduce our witnesses. 

First are—both of our subcommittees are pleased to welcome Mr. 

Jack Rubin, who survived the atrocities of the Holocaust. 

In 1944, Mr. Rubin was deported to the Beregsastz Ghetto. From 

there, he was once again deported to Auschwitz, where he was liberated in May 1945. Jack was fortunate enough to come to America, and he served honorably and proudly in the United States 

Army. 

Over the course of his life, Jack has reached out to other survivors and has dedicated so much of his time to creating awareness 

about the horrors of the Holocaust. He has testified before in many 

different venues, and he is joined by his son, who was kind enough 

to help him come here today. 

Jack, we are honored with your presence. 

We are also pleased to have with us Klara Firestone, who has 

worked with Holocaust survivors since 1978. She is a founding 

member of the Coordinating Committee of Generations of the 

Shoah International and a board member of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. 

We welcome you. Thank you so much. 

We are also joined by Dr. Barbara Paris, who is currently vice 

chair of medicine and director of the geriatrics division at the 

Maimonides Medical Center in New York. Dr. Paris has dedicated 

her life to studying the needs of survivors from clinical perspectives. Her practice is located in the neighborhood with the highest 

concentration of Holocaust survivors in the United States. 

Welcome, Doctor. 

And last, but certainly not least, we are pleased to welcome 

Eugenie Lieberman. Eugenie is the daughter of Iver Segalowitz, 

who was the only survivor of his family, the only survivor of his 

family. Her father invested countless hours advocating for other 

Holocaust survivors. Iver kept fighting his entire life until he could 

no longer with be us. 

Our deepest condolences, Eugenie. And his fight now carries out 

through you. 

So we welcome our distinguished panel for being with us today. 

We will first hear from Mr. Jack Rubin. 

Your prepared statement has been made a part of the record. 

Please feel free to summarize as you wish. 

Welcome, Jack. If you could push the button on the microphone 

and hold it close to your mouth so we can all hear you. 

STATEMENT OF MR. JACK RUBIN (HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR) 

Mr. RUBIN. Good afternoon, Madam Chairwoman Ileana RosLehtinen, Ranking Member Ted Deutch. 

As you know well, my name is Jack Rubin. I was born in Vari, 

Czechoslovakia, and I am a survivor of several Nazi concentration 

and death camps. 

You know from our struggle dating back to the late 1990s, we 

survivors have tried everything we know to lift our brothers and 

sisters out of this grinding poverty, and little has worked. 

11

Instead, we have been blocked everywhere we turned, in court 

cases right up to the Supreme Court, in Congress, and even seeking proper level funding directly from Germany. 

Small and inconsistent gains over the years from Germany, channeled through The Claim Conference, are delivered uneven and inadequate ways, and we still see the poverty and misery at tragically high levels still today. 

After all, out of 110,000 survivors alive in the United States, 

some 55,000 are living near or below accepted levels of poverty. 

The present system and funding available simply perpetuated the 

status quo and will not uplift survivors from their present tragic 

situation. 

We have struggled, along with our members in Congress, in our 

fight all the way to stop this tragedy of survivors living in poverty 

for over 15 years, and we have not succeeded. In 1 minute to midnight now, my friends, a solution must be found to stop this tragedy now, once and for all. 

As we have said here in the Senate over and over, the time has 

come to secure realistic funding level for the clinical mandated 

services needed by survivors to lift them out from their present 

cruel situation and to provide them with actually services needed 

once and for all. 

We have begged all the authorities involved in this tragedy to do 

the math and actually look what’s being negotiated by The Claim 

Conference from Germany and compare the dollar results with 

what the doctors and the professionals have mandated for each and 

every survivors in dire need to alleviate their physical and mental 

health problems. 

Right now there is a total disconnect and everybody knows it, but 

nothing is done to correct this horrible imbalance. And the survivors remain trapped in horrors, if not enough care, and continue 

their suffering. 

Many well-meaning people seem to believe that piecemeal private fundraising and volunteer services is the right way to go. We 

know this is simply not true. Survivors should not be forced to endure more, and the same system has brought about this calamity. 

Half measures cannot provide home care, for mental health care, 

nor medical services to treat the damages caused by the malnutrition, massive infections, and brain infections. We have real cases 

which would shock you. 

We hope that soon enough, dear friends, there will be a lot of 

time to study and speak and have concerts and all those other good 

things, but they should not come before taking care of the human 

sufferings. 

Please use your powerful voices to amplify our failing pleas to 

help those among us most in need now, and that can only happen 

with the government assuming full care and cost for the actual 

needs for our brothers and sisters continue to suffer. 

Ad hoc private fundraising, U.S. taxpayers’ fund, no volunteers, 

no matter how we are met, we will never do the actual appropriations. From Germany will do, as Chancellor Adenauer pledged. And 

we will never solve those tragedy survivors who are suffering. 

We believe the actually unmet need for survivors care for the 

needs among emergency services and proper professional-based 

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home care fund is in the billions of dollars. The only fair and decent option today is a partnership with the German Government 

will suffice today with guaranteed funding for the actual needs presented. 

Holocaust survivors are not asking more help from the U.S. taxpayers. Survivors already benefit from many programs for the elderly and should continue to do so. We hope this can be made better for our elderly in U.S. 

However, taxpayers are already burdened enough. And soon 10 

million American baby boomers will be turning 65 every year for 

the foreseeable future. 

Holocaust survivors endured ghettos, starvation, disease, concentration camps, killing factories, and death marches, came to the 

United States and became proud and productive American citizens. 

Many survivors served this country in combat in Korea and Vietnam. I myself am a U.S. military veteran. 

But survivors are fiercely independent and never wanted to rely 

on their fellow Americans for a penny of assistance. The same survivors now have to ask for help because they can no longer care 

for themself. 

The United States did not cause this problem for the survivors 

today. Nazi Germany did. Insurance companies, such as Allianz 

and Generale, should also be called upon to contribute to social 

funds because their Holocaust profits. 

We are losing more and more survivors every day. The remaining 

survivors need our help now. We need this committee to figure out 

how much they need for housing, dental care, home health care, 

and other services, and then use your stature of power to help us 

secure the needed funding today without any more delays. 

We need the President, the Vice President, the entire administration, this committee, and the entire Congress to pressure Germany 

and all culpable business entities to fulfill their moral obligations 

to the Holocaust survivors. 

We believe this committee and our elected Members of Congress, 

Madam Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, and Ranking Member Deutch, in 

bringing your caring colleagues in the House and the Senate along 

with you, as Senator Nelson and Senator Boxer have done in the 

Senate. 

Thank you, Madam Chairman and Mr. Ranking Member. We 

know each other too well for such formalities. You know better 

than anyone else what we need. Please, use this hearing as an opportunity to make a real difference for the remaining survivors who 

desperately need your help. 

Finally, I have several important articles, letters, that I wish to 

be included as part of my statement for the hearing record and ask 

they be included. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Rubin follows:]

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Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Rubin. 

And I do notice that you cite here various testimony. And subject 

to the length limitation of the rules, we will try to put some of that 

testimony in the official part of the record. So I note your request. 

Mrs. Firestone. 

STATEMENT OF MS. KLARA FIRESTONE (DAUGHTER OF 

HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS) 

Ms. FIRESTONE. Thank you, Madam Chairman, for this rare opportunity to present. My name is Klara Firestone. I was born in 

Prague, Czechoslovakia, immediately following the end of World 

War II. And I am the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. I am 

the founder and president of Second Generation of Los Angeles. 

And I am also a psychotherapist, specializing in treating children 

of survivors. 

Since 1978, I have been steeped in the Holocaust affairs, and 

have worked hand in glove with members of the survivor community in Los Angeles and our surrounding counties. I come here 

today to speak on behalf of myself, my family, and hundreds of survivors and second generation, who I have counseled and ministered 

to over the past 37 years and who have not had a voice to advocate 

for their rights. I have facilitated hundreds of support and therapy 

groups for children of all Holocaust survivors. And I have also been 

instrumental in helping survivor families navigate what have often 

been very complex and difficult relationships between parents and 

children, given the extreme trauma that served as the backdrop for 

our developmental years and most of our lives. 

There is a long trail of problems that thousands of survivors and 

family members have confronted, too often with incredibly frustrating and painful outcomes. If half of all survivors worldwide, including in the United States, are living today in or near poverty, 

lacking the basics for a dignified old age, then the approach of the 

past 50 years is obviously wrong. I echo the words of others who 

have discussed the medical and emotional issues that survivors and 

the second generation must deal with on a daily basis. The problems are real, and they require serious, professional attention with 

properly trained health care and psychological caregivers who understand the unique problems that survivors and their children 

must deal with. Proper care requires a sea change in the funding 

available. And it is only just and right that this responsibility be 

assumed by the German Government and other entities that collaborated and profited from the Holocaust. 

When the Holocaust ended, the fragments of Europe’s Jewish 

communities emerged broken and tattered, wanting nothing more 

than to find who of their families survived and begin rebuilding 

their lives. They were too busy fighting their demons to care about 

fighting the bureaucracy in order to claim what was due to them. 

Many believed, as my mother also did then, that this was blood 

money. How can you compensate me for the loss of my parents, my 

brothers, my sisters, my aunts, my uncles, in dollars? What value 

should I assign that? So, once again, their claims and needs went 

unmet. 

As the most active and visible leaders in our survivor community, my mother and I have been approached hundreds of times by 

30

survivors and their children beseeching us to intervene on their behalf to recover restitution which is rightfully theirs. Time and 

again we have attempted to do just that, and we too have met the 

brick wall. 

Even advocating for my own family has proved to no avail. My 

beloved father passed away in 2001. Prior to his death, he had received a letter from the Claims Conference confirming that they 

had assigned him a claim number for a particular fund, and he 

would soon be receiving the moneys. After contacting them numerous times over the years, we are still waiting for those funds. They 

now claim they are unable to find his claim in the system. 

You cannot imagine the pain and frustration this causes the 

loved ones of Holocaust survivors, not to mention re-traumatizing 

the survivors themselves. And this is the kind of problem I hear 

about over and over again. 

Most importantly, I wish to touch on an issue which has not been 

discussed before today, which is vitally urgent and which has no 

other platform to be heard. That is the plight and suffering of 

many of our second generation members, the forgotten victims of 

the Nazi atrocities. There is an awareness now of something called 

transmitted trauma, the concept that the trauma our parents went 

through has been passed down to us, and the results of which 

manifest as if they themselves had experienced the trauma directly, a sort of vicarious PTSD. I can’t tell you the number of desperate calls I have received from survivor parents troubled over 

their child’s mental health. Some of the children have been so damaged by their teenage years that they have been totally dysfunctional the rest of their lives. 

Dear committee members, we are at the eleventh hour and 59 

minutes. And if something is not done quickly and sufficiently, my 

fear is that thousands of the remaining survivors will die tragically 

suffering their unmet medical and psychological needs. You called 

this hearing to see what can be done today to remedy this dire situation. And the answer is plain: Simply put, Germany must fulfill 

its moral responsibility to care for all the medical and mental 

health needs of the survivors and their families, with no more 

shifting of these huge responsibilities onto the shoulders of others 

who had no hand in creating these conditions. If this committee 

does only one thing as a result of this hearing, it should be a concerted, bipartisan, and relentless effort to convince Chancellor 

Merkel and the German Bundestag to make good on Chancellor 

Adenauer’s pledge in 1952 to take care of Holocaust survivors ‘‘to 

their last breath’’ and to fully fund the needs of our aging survivors 

without offset or delay. In addition, we would strongly urge that a 

new vehicle for distribution of these funds be required, with full 

transparency and oversight. 

I thank Chairman Ros-Lehtinen for allowing me to testify today. 

I am particularly gratified that Chairman Rohrabacher, who is 

from my State, has agreed to cochair. 

I thank the ranking member, Congressman Deutch, who along 

with Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen, have been our steadfast champions. 

It is heartfelt. You don’t know. 

31

And I ask that certain exhibits be allowed to be also entered into 

the record. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Without objection, subject to the length limitation and rules. 

Thank you very much for powerful testimony, Mrs. Firestone. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Firestone was received after the 

hearing and appears in the appendix.] 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Dr. Paris. Thank you. 

STATEMENT OF BARBARA PARIS, M.D. (PHYSICIAN WHO 

FOCUSES ON THE CARE OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS) 

Dr. PARIS. Good afternoon, Chair Ros-Lehtinen, ranking committee members and subcommittee members. I am very grateful for 

the opportunity to speak before all of you today. 

Echoing in my head all day all the time is, ‘‘Doctor, I can’t sleep 

because every time I close my eyes, I am in Auschwitz.’’ How can 

I take care of this patient, a demented, elderly woman? Every time 

I visit her at home she is exhausted and she just can’t even close 

her eyes, telling me how she is so fearful of doing that. 

Can you, committee members and members of the audience, 

imagine the trauma of a child, a teenager, a parent being brutally 

shoved into a cattle car with no air, no bathroom, no food, for days. 

And that was just the beginning. Lined up for hours in the bitter 

cold with no shoes or coats, shaved heads, smelling the burning 

bodies and their loved ones in the crematoria. 

I ask you, committee members, does the German Government 

really need to spend their money interviewing anyone who could 

possibly have survived Hitler’s dehumanization, torture, rape, medical experiments, starvation, and death marches? Do they really 

need to interview the few people who have survived to determined 

if they have been psychologically and physically harmed enough to 

deserve reparations? It seems absurd to me. 

Even when the German psychiatrist acknowledges damage, these 

patients are not physically or emotionally capable of completing the 

highly formalistic, complicated, and overly bureaucratic correspondence requiring yearly physician input, notarization, and more. I as 

a physician, with all of my degrees, am truly challenged to complete these forms. They are written in German, and they ask for 

a level of detail about past events that I cannot ascertain from a 

demented patient. And from other patients, it is very traumatizing 

to have to relive these details and be forced to rejustify their right 

to reparations every single year. It is a very clever way of withholding money from disabled people. 

Thankfully, many survivors are well into their 90s, and I have 

the honor and privilege to be their doctor. While they have exhibited tremendous vitality in building new lives and families in 

America, they have sublimated their losses into flawed parent-child 

relationships, night terrors, and silently reliving the Holocaust in 

a hell to themselves. One second generation survivor poignantly 

pointed out to me, although I did not realize this as a child, I understand now that the Holocaust was playing out in my living room 

every single day. 

Make no mistake, every survivor suffers from post-traumatic 

stress disorder. The German Government needs to face this crystal 

32

clear fact and begin to act upon it. I just want to review what exactly this means, post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a disorder 

that occurs when a person has experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event that involved actual or threatened death or 

serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others. 

And the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or 

horror. It is characterized by repeated reliving of the life-threatening events in the form of images, thoughts, illusions, flashbacks, 

dreams, or hallucinations. I wonder how many health care providers today actually make that connection with a patient in front 

of them. 

A close professional colleague, Jochanan Stessman, has been 

studying aging survivors in Jerusalem since 1990 and comparing 

them to nonsurvivors of the same age residing in Jerusalem. Survivors tend to be less educated, have fewer social supports, greater 

difficulties with activities of daily living, and greater uses of psychiatric medications. This, of course, is not surprising and must be 

addressed. Aging survivors, with more time on their hands and 

fewer activities to occupy their day, are back in the ghettoes and 

concentration camps, grieving for their dead relatives, hiding food 

in their beds, depressed and guilt ridden that they survived, afraid 

of doctors, fearing to acknowledge any weakness, as that was an 

automatic death sentence, anxious about showers, standing on 

lines, wearing I.D. bracelets, and lots more. 

We need resources to create comforting, affordable care home environments designed that do not trigger these fears in these people. 

In their retirement and facing death of spouses and friends, survivors are beginning to uncover these painful, suppressed memories, and grieve the deaths of their own parents, sisters, brothers 

and, in many cases, their own children. For these survivors, the 

year is 1946; it is not 2014. Doctors and other health care providers 

and caregivers are not educated in the unique skill sets needed to 

respectfully and compassionately help survivors live in their final 

years in relative peace. Caring for survivors requires fully trained 

health care professionals who understand this unique population’s 

emotional and medical needs. 

And what about their children, the second generation, and even 

the third generation? Their therapists, mostly, don’t understand 

this transgenerational effect of trauma on their own emotional difficulties, including failed interpersonal relationships, depression, 

anxiety, schizophrenia, and much more. Their parents, depleted of 

psychological resources, were often emotionally detached but simultaneously feared any separation from their children in very suffocating ways. One frustrated lawyer son of survivors tells me the 

reparations program totally ignores emotional mental scarring and 

financial needs of the offspring of survivors. Growing up in a home 

with a parent who was incapable of nurturing her children led me 

to many years of psychotherapy. Yet the Germans refuse to acknowledge any causal connection or obligation to reimburse my 

therapy expenses. In fact, they exhibit a rigid, myopic notion that 

insisted that the effects of the Holocaust were not passed onto the 

children of survivors. Or even if there was some leakage, Germany 

maintains it has no obligation to compensate or assist members of 

that select offspring group. 

33

I ask you, committee members, how much can the recently announced $3,280 cover in expenses for child survivors? A set of dentures? A set of hearing aids? Six weeks of a 24-hour home attendant? How many home visits with an occupational therapist, a medical doctor, psychiatrist, social worker, bereavement counselor, 

medications? One month’s rent? Transportation costs? It does not 

even make a dent in addressing the ongoing, unmet medical and 

psychosocial needs. 

AMCHA, the National Center for Psychosocial Support of Survivors of the Holocaust and the Second Generation, is a group in 

Israel that has developed a rich body of unique knowledge in the 

late effects of Holocaust traumatization and its intergenerational 

transmission. You have an article that I submitted that tells you 

about the needed resources. The financial needs for caring, the resources, and education of caregivers and health providers are 

many. We must advocate for our citizens here who came here physically and emotionally spent, yet managed to rebuild their lives at 

great personal cost. We must not ignore or minimize their needs 

and the needs of their offspring. I am honored to have this opportunity to spell this out to you in Congress. And this is only a small 

part of what I do all day. I struggle daily to creatively piecemeal 

together and coordinate all the far too few resources that can help 

provide a modicum of relief and maybe even a little pleasure to 

these survivors in the last years of their lives. Their families are 

running out of time, as you have heard. They are depending on this 

committee and Congress to step in and use your power to help 

them and to be responsible in providing the many, many unmet 

needs of this population and their offspring. Thank you. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much for very vivid testimony about the real effects. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Paris follows:]

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Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Did you want that article to be included as 

part of the record? 

Dr. PARIS. Yes. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Without objection, and subject to the length 

limitation in the rules. 

Thank you, Dr. Paris. 

Ms. Lieberman. 

STATEMENT OF MS. EUGENIE LIEBERMAN (DAUGHTER OF 

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR) 

Ms. LIEBERMAN. Madam Chairperson and committee members, 

thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you here 

today. And before I start my prepared statement, I just want to say 

that the testimony of the other witnesses resonated very profoundly with me, especially the last of Dr. Paris. 

So, to begin, my name, as you know, is Eugenie Lieberman. I 

was born Eugenie Segalowitz, the daughter of Ivar Segalowitz, who 

some of you may have met before. Ivar was a Holocaust survivors 

who lived and raised his family in Great Neck, New York. Sadly, 

my father passed away just a few months ago, succumbing to prostate cancer on June 23rd, 2014. 

My mother, Bernie Segalowitz, who still resides in Great Neck; 

my brother, Ralph Segalowitz, who lives in East Setauket, Long Island; our children, Suzanne, Melissa, Jonathan, and Michael; 

spouses, Cathy and Jay; and I, will carry on his legacy of fighting 

for the rights of survivors. The sense of purpose and dedication to 

humanitarian causes that my father instilled in us brings me here 

today. My father was born in Memel/Klaipeda, Lithuania, on August 17, 1930, of parents who were German citizens. The entire 

family—his parents, Erna and Boris; his aunt Anna; and Aunt 

Eugenie, after whom I am named; Uncle Tobias Mazur; his grandmother; and great aunt, were all killed by the Nazis. Ivar, my father, survived life in three concentration camps, having endured 

imprisonment in the Kovno Ghetto, then Dachau, Auschwitz/

Birkenau, and, finally, a death march to Buchenwald. At 14 years 

of age, on April 11, 1945, he was liberated from Buchenwald by the 

American Army. He was the only member of his incarcerated family to survive. Upon liberation, he was shipped to a school for orphaned children of the Holocaust in France. And after being there 

for 2 years, his aunt, his mother’s sister, who had come to the 

United States before World War II, found him with the help of the 

Red Cross and brought him—sponsored him to come to this country. 

When he got to the United States, he finished his high school 

education by attending Stuyvesant High School at night and obtained vocational training as a machinist during the day. In the following years, he worked in machine shops, began attending college 

at night, got married, served in the United States Army Intelligence Corps as a corporal during the Korean Conflict. 

In 1968, he graduated from City College of New York with a 

bachelor’s degree in physics. My father spent most of his working 

career in manufacturing, serving as VP for two companies on Long 

Island and then as a consultant, obtaining six patents by the end 

of his time in the public sector. In 2002, he was elected for his first 

38

3-year term as a Great Neck parks commissioner. He served in 

that capacity for three consecutive terms, making significant contributions to the community, for a total of 9 years. 

Before World War II, Ivar’s father, my grandfather, Boris, was 

a successful processor and distributor of flax products in Lithuania. 

Ivar’s grandmother owned a popular shoe store. My father always 

believed that his father would have provided for his offspring with 

life insurance. He knows that both his father and grandmother 

were responsible business people who were committed to their families. They would have purchased insurance in good faith. My father, the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust, a 

U.S. military and Korean War veteran and a former elected official 

on Long Island, was also heir to several insurance policies, likely 

sold to his family by European life insurance companies. Yet after 

all this service and participation in American civic life, he was unable to employ the basic constitutional rights to bring suit on the 

insurance companies in court. 

For as many years as I can remember, my father was active in 

pressing for all survivors to have their insurance rights restored 

and to find help for tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors living 

in poverty. He was on the executive committee of the Holocaust 

Survivors Foundation and had traveled to Washington on several 

occasions to lobby the New York congressional delegation on these 

issues. 

My father was anguished and disappointed by the fact that the 

United States Government he revered and served would oppose his 

basic right to go to court to pursue his family’s insurance policies. 

He knew he might not win, but how could he not even have the 

right to try? He could not understand how Congress repeatedly 

turned the survivors down. 

I cannot understand that my father, a giant in life, died despite 

the incredible losses he endured, without the ability under U.S. law 

to reclaim the legacies of his parents, his grandparents, and other 

relatives, and that he was one of thousands, many of whom already 

died in frustration, whose rights had been denied as well. 

Now Ivar is gone and will never have the satisfaction of learning 

about this part of his family’s history, even though the records 

exist. Ivar had spent an extensive amount of time and effort compiling information to support his claims. He had presented these 

documents and information to the proper organizations, institutions, and governmental agencies, with no satisfactory response. 

We only ask your assistance in obtaining the definitive proof that 

these policies existed and providing the judicial forum in which to 

obligate the companies to disburse the benefits to the insureds’ 

legal beneficiaries and heirs. 

Ivar submitted claims to the ICHEIC on his relatives who were 

listed on the Web site. The only policy that was acknowledged was 

for Siegmund Joseph, his grandfather, who died in 1929 and whose 

policy was paid out. ICHEIC couldn’t find any information about 

the other relatives whose names were published, who were all alive 

when the Holocaust began. 

Recently, I attempted to meet with the German consulate in 

Miami about these issues and was left disregarded in the waiting 

room for 21⁄2 hours with an appointment. 

39

The unpaid policies have remained secret and not accessible to 

Ivar or his children despite the fact that German insurers published his relatives’ names on the ICHEIC Web site, proving that 

these individuals did have policies. But the system has denied him 

all this information, including the names of the companies who sold 

the policies. 

My father also devoted many hours in his retirement advocating 

for the needs of indigent survivors who could not afford the basic 

necessities for a dignified old age. Thankfully, my father’s situation 

was such that he could obtain the care he needed. But he knew 

that so many other survivors were not so lucky. He saw firsthand 

the prisoners subjected to unimaginable physical and emotional injuries at the hands of the Nazi regime. 

If he were here today, he would urge Congress to use its influence with the German Government and companies that profited 

from the Holocaust to provide full funding for the needs of Holocaust survivors who need help throughout the world. 

Madam Chairman and members, thank you for allowing me to 

testify. 

And please include the attached exhibits in the record of the 

hearing. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Without objection, subject to the length limitation of the rules. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Lieberman follows:]

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Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Ivar would be very proud to see you continuing the fight. Thank you very much. 

Thank you to all of our witnesses. Our panel has been extraordinary. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for your strength 

to keep at this year in and year out and never giving up. For everything you have done and will continue to do on behalf of Holocaust 

survivors in the U.S., Israel, worldwide, this hearing is about the 

needs and the well-being of survivors and their families. 

Regretfully, nearly 70 years later, humanity continues to fail the 

victims of Hitler and the Nazis. We have heard your heartbreaking 

and remarkable stories. And, again, I just want to say how truly 

inspiring each and every one of you is. As I said, my constituents 

continue to tell me about the failures of not just the other governments, but sadly, our own great, terrific government has let them 

down as well. My good friends David Mermelstein and his wife, 

Irene; Joe Sachs and his wife, Marcia; David Schachter; Alex 

Gross; Alex Moskowitz; Herb Karliner, so many others. They repeatedly tell me that they feel let down by our efforts on behalf of 

survivors. 

So, Mr. Rubin and Ms. Firestone, two questions for you. What 

more can we do in Congress? What more can our U.S. Government 

do to help alleviate some of these concerns? Also, what challenges 

and obstacles do survivors continue to face? And Dr. Paris, I would 

like to ask you a question. You have dedicated most of your career 

to the care of Holocaust survivors and their families. You detailed 

so many concerns that they have. What are the most common 

health issues that impact survivors? How can we help to ensure 

that they are getting the proper care and treatment that they 

need? 

And that first question for Mr. Rubin, Ms. Firestone, is also for 

you, Ms. Lieberman, because the second generation of survivors. 

And Ms. Firestone, you work with heirs and families of survivors. 

I think a lot of the times we overlook the toll that is taken on the 

families, the children of survivors, the many issues that they face. 

How are the problems facing the second generation different from 

the survivors? And do we have programs currently out there that 

can address those issues? So a lot of questions. 

We will begin with you, Mr. Rubin. 

Mr. RUBIN. Well, like I said before, Nazi Germany caused this 

problem that we are having today. And I think the German Government should be responsible to see to it that those of us who are 

still alive, that we can live out our lives in dignity, not in misery. 

I myself am very fortunate. I worked very hard. Thank God, I don’t 

have to go on welfare. But a lot of people, a lot of Holocaust survivors, they don’t have the same pleasant situation. And, like I 

said, Congress could see to it that the German Government sees to 

it, like Chancellor Adenauer promised, that Germany will take care 

of the Holocaust survivors to their last breath. So I don’t know, 

Germany does not honor their Chancellor, and that is a shame, because that was his request when he became Chancellor of a democratic Germany. And Germany could afford it. 

Not only Germany, but also the insurance companies who robbed 

us, robbed our parents’ policies. And they are sitting on billions of 

dollars. They are holding onto it. And they don’t even want to see 

44

to it that they just help us a little bit so we should have some final 

answers to see to it that those Holocaust survivors who are in need 

should be getting it. Thank you. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Rubin. 

Ms. Firestone. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. Thank you. I think that what people don’t realize is the vastness of the Holocaust, the far-reaching effects of the 

Holocaust. The ripple effects go down not only to the second generation, but the third and sometimes the fourth generation. But the 

second generation is very, very unique among populations, especially for mental health. 

And if I might just point out a couple of things briefly. Number 

one, we are a generation, if you can imagine, totally cut off from 

our ancestry. The buck stopped here at the Holocaust. We stand in 

the same position almost as an adopted child who doesn’t know 

where they came from. We begin at day one after the Holocaust. 

And we have no extended families, had no extended families, or 

only fragments of extended families to raise us and support us, 

where others had grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins 

for whom they could rely on support, especially emotionally. 

Because we had parents raising us who were children themselves 

when they went through the Holocaust and who had no training 

in parenting. So when they, in desperation, coupled up after the 

war, they now went on to raise children. With what tools? With 

what emotional tools? They didn’t have them. So we, the second 

generation, really got the brunt of it emotionally, because our parents up until the Holocaust had the benefit of wonderful childhoods 

up until that dire time in history. 

So whatever can be done that brings funding for mental health 

for second generation, I am begging you, it needs to be done. We 

have survivors who come to me because their children have been 

totally disabled and dysfunctional their entire lives. And now they 

are coming to the end of their lives, and they are frightened about 

what will happen to their children who can’t provide for themselves 

financially. And this is a very real concern and a very big concern. 

It is not just one or two people. So, again, whatever can be done. 

Certainly Germany needs to provide the adequate funding. It 

was they who caused the problem. And they need to accept that responsibility and provide adequate funds for it. But the Claims Conference needs to get up off the money and start giving it to the people for whom it was negotiated. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. If I could interrupt, because I know we have 

two more witnesses to answer. About the Claims Conference, about 

ICHEIC, so often we hear that this was settled, everything was 

taken care of, everyone signed forms, all the claims were paid out. 

And, in fact, very few claims were actually paid out. And one thing 

that ICHEIC was very successful in doing is denying you the right 

to go to court. What happens when a survivor puts in a claim in 

court and wants to have their day in court? What happens there? 

Ms. FIRESTONE. Well, now they don’t put it into court. There was 

a remainder committee created in New York that ostensibly is supposed to deal with those claims. And, yes, maybe a handful of 

claims have come through. My cousin was the first person to receive restitution from ICHEIC. Because at the very magical occurVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:47 Oct 22, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00050 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_MENA\091814\89815 SHIRL
45

rence when he returned home after the war, he found the insurance policy of his parents. So he did have——

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Which is very difficult for survivors and family members. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. It is not difficult; the word is ‘‘impossible.’’ No 

one marched off to Auschwitz with anything. And no one got to 

Auschwitz and 5 minutes later had anything—and certainly not 

documents. So this was the rarest of occurrences that he would 

have found this document still in the family home. 

When his nephew went to claim, because the families had these 

insurance policies, he was told it had already been settled. He 

didn’t even know that his uncle had claimed on the document. But 

why didn’t they do due diligence? Why didn’t they find out that 

there were other family members? Because they never put out adequate notices for us to know what was going on, for us to be able 

to come forward to do that. 

The same thing happened with the German properties in East 

Germany. They gave a 2-year window. What kind of 2-year window 

is that for the world to find out about something if you are not putting out adequate notices for us to even know that we can do this? 

But even when we tried, we get the door slammed in our face all 

the time. And ICHEIC paid out all of 3 percent of the moneys and 

claimed that they did a great job. 

The Claims Conference claims the same thing. They negotiated 

all these billions of dollars over the years, and they are still holding 

on to all of it. Why wasn’t it just given in the claims to the survivors when they claimed it? 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. The mechanisms were there, but it was 

never successful. Yet they—because they existed, they are able to 

say, See, we had this, everybody is fine. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. And in addition, the Claims Conference, and I 

know this from people who came to me for help, very often they 

had the proof of the claims, and they suffered the atrocities and the 

indignities, but artificial roadblocks were placed in there by the 

Claims Conference claiming that Germany had done it. Well, I 

have a friend in Germany who is an attorney. And I asked him at 

one point to please look into a particular case. He came back and 

told me there was no such roadblock given by the Germans. It was 

the Claims Conference who did it. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much. 

Dr. Paris and Ms. Lieberman. 

Dr. PARIS. Thank you. Oftentimes, or when I am dealing with a 

patient that comes into my office, I am actually dealing a dyad, a 

mother-daughter, a mother-son, or the whole family of multiple 

children and the patient, as a geriatrician, is usually the older patient. But it doesn’t really turn out that way because you really 

have to treat the whole family in order to treat the patient. 

And I think that brings up family therapy as a very significant 

unmet need in taking care of survivors and their offspring. Because 

there are many roadblocks to the care of the patient because the 

children in their dysfunctional relationships with their parents 

often create roadblocks to the appropriate care on many levels. 

Very specific health care needs I think are well documented in the 

literature and you are familiar with. You mentioned osteoporosis, 

46

the consequences for my patients are severe compression fractures, 

severe pain, immobility, and severe degenerative joint disease, multiple replacement of joints because of severely worn out joints. Terrible problems with teeth and dentures, which have tremendous effect on the whole well-being of the person in terms of malnutrition 

as a result of that and even heart disease, endocarditis because of 

an infection from very poor gum care over many years. 

It is important to point out that it is not a medical and a psychiatric need. Somebody who has post-traumatic stress disorder, severe anxiety, depression, paranoid behavior, that affects their physical health, too. So it is one sort of combined problem in these patients. It is frustrating for doctors, most of whom don’t have the 

sensitivity or understanding of this. And they say, Here is a pill. 

And it doesn’t work, and the family member doesn’t give it, and the 

patient doesn’t want to take it because they are so paranoid of all 

medical care that it becomes a very complex management team to 

even take care of what otherwise might be a very simple medical 

problem. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. 

Dr. PARIS. I think it is very important to recognize that. And now 

many of the people that I am taking care of are well into their 90s. 

And we are into a whole host of new medical care needs that have 

to do with end-of-life issues. And often patients and their children 

are unable to let go. They are unable to see suffering in their parents. But yet, at the same time, my mother saw death; you need 

to do everything to keep her alive right now. And inappropriate 

treatments or painful treatments because they just can’t let go. 

And doctors are not trained in how to sensitively discuss end-of-life 

issues and goals of care with these patients. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Dr. Paris. I am just so way out 

of time. 

I want to give Ms. Lieberman a chance to answer. Thank you so 

much. 

Ms. LIEBERMAN. Okay. As a child of a Holocaust survivor, I think 

Dr. Paris explained some of the challenges that we deal with. And 

then, as a parent in this country in this time, you want to bring 

up your children to be productive and happy members of society. 

My husband and I are both children of Holocaust survivors. And 

every day we face the challenge and exert great effort to make sure 

that the effects and horror of our parents’ broken childhood and 

their survivorship ends with us. And I am not sure we always do 

that successfully. 

In terms of your question, what would be appreciated or what 

kind of programs would we like to see in the future, from my point 

of view—and I hope I am representative of other survivors—we 

would be grateful for any programs that would enable us to reach 

that goal that all of us as parents want for our children, not to suffer the consequences of us having parents who are Holocaust survivors and underwent the horrific situations that they went 

through. 

And then, in terms of ICHEIC, I think the bottom line there is 

to have a legal remedy for citizens of the U.S. Government to file 

in the courts and be able to move the insurance companies forward 

47

with opening their books and allowing us to see who actually had 

insurance policies and who didn’t. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. What a concept. Thank you so much. 

Thank you to all of our panelists. 

So pleased to yield to another fighter for Holocaust survivors, 

Mr. Deutch, my colleague. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

And thanks to our witnesses today. I want to come at this a little 

bit differently. And I want to do it because of a conversation that 

Mr. Rubin and I had when I spoke with him as he was preparing 

his testimony before coming up here. 

And he told me that—I believe what you said, Mr. Rubin, is, I 

am 86—86—I am tired, and I just can’t keep doing this. We can—

and this is as much to the witnesses as it is to every group who 

is paying attention to this hearing. And for all of the groups that 

were worried, quite frankly, about where this hearing might go, let 

me be clear: Mr. Rubin is right. It is time that we do the math, 

that we determine what doctors and professionals have mandated 

in order to address—I am quoting you—the physical and mental illnesses, in order to address the emotional needs, housing, home 

health care, dental care. Let’s figure out what the needs are. And 

I am going to say something different. When I was in the State 

Senate, and now in Congress, we have worked to press insurance 

companies to open their books so that survivors can pursue justice, 

and I believe that. 

But I want to be clear, this is not, nor should it become, an ongoing battle to defend actions that have taken place in the past. This 

should be an effort to focus on the fact that there are survivors who 

are old and dying and need help. And we don’t need to attack—the 

groups don’t need to attack one another. And let’s just—let’s assume good will on all sides. I acknowledge that, despite some of the 

accusations against the Claims Conference and its successor organization for mismanagement of funds, there are an enormous number of people who have devoted substantial amounts of time 

through the Claims Conference, which has led to some $60 billion 

from the German Government, money from the Austrian Government, from Germany and Austrian industry, that has helped survivors. And I am so appreciative for all of that. 

But that doesn’t mean that because that is what has been done, 

that there isn’t more that can be done to address needs today. 

And I will say it with respect to ICHEIC, that $300 million to 

survivors, $100 million to social service agencies, and the incredible 

commitment by really dedicated people who care about survivors 

can’t be overlooked. And I am grateful for it. But suggesting that, 

when there are still real needs, that it is acceptable for us to have 

a conversation with those insurance companies to figure out how 

those needs can be met doesn’t blow up the entire ICHEIC process, 

doesn’t call into question the effectiveness of so many who have 

worked so hard, who worked so hard to put that in place. It simply 

means that we have to acknowledge what is on the ground now. 

And that is that there are survivors who have real needs that have 

to be met. 

So I know that there is a lot of money being spent on lobbyists, 

on lawyers, on PR professionals across all different groups, public, 

48

private. I understand that. But I would just ask that if we can figure out how to calculate the needs, not, as I said earlier, based on 

some formula of so many hours are permitted. Forget about what 

is permitted. What is needed in order to help our survivors live out 

their lives in dignity? There are communities in this country that 

have done it. And then they have gone out and they have raised 

the money in order to meet those needs. Why can’t we do that overall? Why can’t we figure out what the needs are, while respecting 

the work that has been done by so many for so long? This is not 

about indicting one group or another, one individual or another. I 

have respect—and I will say it one more time—I have enormous respect for all of the people who have worked so hard to put in place 

the programs that exist, the Claims Conference that has negotiated 

all this money, ICHEIC that has negotiated a lot of money. But the 

needs haven’t been met. 

I said before and I will say again, we remain willing to work with 

all of these groups to figure out how to make sure that these needs 

are met and to do it in a respectful way and ask only from those 

who can help us reach this goal to work with us, not against us, 

and to know that together there is an opportunity to do right by 

Mr. Rubin and by everyone here. 

And in Eugenie’s father’s, in Ivar’s memory, and in memory of 

all those survivors who have passed on before we had this opportunity to get this right, let’s work together on their behalf, in their 

memory. And on behalf of Mr. Rubin and the survivor community 

that he and Ms. Firestone and Dr. Paris and Ms. Lieberman and 

the chair and I and members of this Congress care so deeply about. 

We can do that. And I just hope that we have the opportunity. 

I yield back. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Clawson is recognized. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Thank you. And I want to recognize the ranking 

member, both from Florida, and both who are—neither one listening to me right now, but both I have a great respect for——

Mr. VARGAS. I am listening. 

Mr. CLAWSON. These are wonderful leaders. And I second everything that they have said here today. As I heard you talk, it 

brought chills on my spine. My own parents are in the autumn 

time of their lifetime. And, you know, you wonder what I would feel 

like if they were in your position. And I can’t imagine that. So I 

want to say that I appreciate you coming and sharing personal histories, personal things. 

Ms. Lieberman, I have spent a lifetime in manufacturing. Never 

imagined myself here. Would have loved to have met the giant that 

your father was. And I think that you pay him great honor by 

doing what you are doing here today. 

I don’t have the background that my colleagues do on these 

issues. This is my first time in this subcommittee. But I do think 

that there is no greater crime than genocide, and that the results 

of that go on forever. It is unmatched in barbarity. And, in addition 

to the lives lost, the day I hear about the looting, I heard about 

the looting across Europe, money and jewelry. And today we hear 

about looting via insurance policies. 

49

So, with me, you have an ally. My position is that the U.S. 

should lead and that Germany should step up. And I agree with 

what you said, Mrs. Firestone, to get it right, we should take care 

of these folks until the very last breath. And I am in full agreement 

with the concept and the heartfelt sentiment of that comment. I 

think deliverance—and the Jewish story is one of deliverance—and 

I think deliverance is never complete without financial justice as 

well, because I think—if I hear you right, Dr. Paris—that can help 

lead more easily to emotional justice and emotional peace. So I am 

on your side 100 percent in anything I can do to help you in your 

cause. I stand ready and willing. 

While I have the mike, I would like to say I am also concerned 

about anti-Semitism in general in our world, the safety of Israel. 

You know, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, these sorts of nations 

and organizations make me feel uncomfortable. So as long as I am 

in Congress, I will do everything I can to help you and your cause 

to recover what is rightfully yours, and also anything I can do to 

help with the defense of Israel. And I appreciate you all coming 

today and for your sacrifices. Thank you. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Clawson. We welcome you to 

our fight. Thank you. 

Mr. Vargas is recognized. 

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

I appreciate everything that was said today, especially the testimony of the witnesses. You know, if there is one group that deserves justice in this world, it is the Holocaust survivors and their 

children. And it really is hard for me to understand why Germany 

doesn’t come forward and meet its obligation, and why we allow it 

to not meet its obligation, why we don’t do more. It seems that 

there is something that we could do. And I would join my colleagues in saying that, you know, if Germany won’t do what it 

should do, we should stand up and we should do it. And we should 

in fact meet the needs of the survivors. I can’t think of a group of 

people more worthy of getting their needs met. And like you said, 

not only their needs, but have some joy, for heaven sakes. I was 

thinking, as you were talking about family members, I am one of 

10 kids. And my mom is one of over 10, as is my father. And their 

families were gigantic. And we have these gigantic families. And 

you are right, you know, I rejoice in the history and all the people 

that are around me and around my children. You know, what a 

horrible thing it would be not to have that. I couldn’t agree with 

you more. 

What should we do? Mr. Rubin, I mean, you have heard some of 

the testimony here. Why doesn’t the United States stand up, do 

what Germany should do? Why don’t we charge them? Why don’t 

we send them the tab? Why don’t we do that? 

And for anybody that would care to answer that. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. Are you sure you want the answer, Congressman? 

Mr. VARGAS. Yes, I do. I am new, too. I am new, too. I want the 

answer. 

Ms. FIRESTONE. In 2011, my mother sat where I am sitting and 

testified before the full House Foreign Affairs Committee. She also 

sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee. One of the main roadVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:47 Oct 22, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_MENA\091814\89815 SHIRL
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blocks that we have to the insurance legislation that we came 

pressing for was our own State Department. They put the kibosh 

on our ability to go and have our day in court. 

We have some survivors who were actually young enough when 

they got out, including my own uncle, who was 14 during the Holocaust, got out of Auschwitz, came here, and turned around and 

went back to Korea and served in Korea. We have survivors who 

were actually in the military and serving their country because 

they loved this country and saw it as their salvation. 

And now we have our own Government standing in the way. The 

executive branch, the Office of the President also, we have been 

told that our country has offered ‘‘legal peace’’ to the insurance 

companies and Germany in exchange for them putting together 

ICHEIC, I believe. But ICHEIC was woefully inefficient, closed its 

doors and patted itself on the back that what a great job it did. The 

Claims Conference does the same thing. 

But in the early—I believe it was 1982, but please don’t hold me 

to that exact date, but I know it was in the 1980s, when I saw the 

bylaws that changed their mandate to not providing only for the 

survivors, but now there was what we call the 80–20 split, where 

20 percent would go to Holocaust education and restitution. Did we 

really need the Claims Conference to do that? Almost every Holocaust museum and monument in this country was built by the survivors, was started by the survivors as a place where to memorialize their families. 

Dr. PARIS. Mr. Vargas? 

Mr. VARGAS. Yes, Doctor. 

Dr. PARIS. I would like to answer that question from a different 

viewpoint and that being the squeaky wheel viewpoint. I think you 

are looking at a very few select witnesses here and that most survivors do not advocate for themselves in any way. That is the majority of the survivors. And I think that goes back to when they 

came to Israel and when they came to this country, no one cared, 

nobody wanted to listen. And they themselves buried their memories and went on with their lives to rebuild new families. Many 

have been extremely successful financially and in many other 

ways, many, many children, et cetera. They are only now in their 

older age unburying those memories and can’t protect themselves 

anymore because of their mental—they are not able to mentally. 

But they no longer have the strength and the ability to advocate 

for themselves. So I think that is a big part of the problem also. 

Mr. VARGAS. Thank you. 

Madam Chair, thank you. I know my time is up, but I would be 

willing to help in any way, because I do think that this is an incredible injustice. And I can’t think of a worthier group. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. 

And we have got a great bill that you can cosponsor. 

Mr. VARGAS. Put me on. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, sir. 

Mr. RUBIN. Can I say one more thing? 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Yes, Mr. Rubin. 

And then we will go to Mr. Connolly. 

Mr. RUBIN. I have been saying this all my life. Nazi Germany 

created this problem. And we, Americans, and you people who have 

51

the power to keep reminding Germany, you are responsible for this. 

And time has come when the need is great. You created it, and you 

have got to do what you are supposed to do to take care of the Holocaust survivors who are in need. And no ifs and no buts. It is up 

to you people. You have the power. You have the strength. And just 

go after Germany that you must do this. I mean, you can’t just sit 

back and watch people fading away in misery. That is not fair to 

us. We are good American citizens. We love this country. I was fortunate enough to come to this country. But, in the meantime, to 

suffer and to see that the needy survivors are being neglected. 

They came up with $800 million last year to be spread out for 

4 years, which is $200 million. That is peanuts. That is a drop in 

the bucket. That is an insult. And that is why I beg you people, 

you have the strength. Please, don’t forsake us. It is enough that 

Germany destroyed us, my whole family, my parents. I was a 

young man—young man, I was 14, 15 years old. I lost my parents. 

I lost their love. I didn’t grow up to have their love or the love I 

could give them. But now is the time already. The need is survivors. We are begging you, it is in your hands. You have the 

strength. Do it for us, please. Because, you know, there is no time. 

Time is of the essence already. This thing should have taken care 

of yesterday, not tomorrow. Again, I beg you. 

And I hope—I am 86 years old. I testified so many times that I 

don’t even know how many times. I can no longer do it. I came up 

from Florida. I had to ask my son to come with me because I am 

feeling physically that I am giving out. But I see—I am on the advisory committee of Palm Beach County—I see what is going on. 

I see the need there. I am constantly in touch with the social workers. And they keep telling me, Jack, these people need 8 hours and 

some need 24 hours care, but we don’t have the money. We don’t 

have the money. And the money can only come from the German 

Government and insurance companies. So please do it. Do it for us. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Rubin. 

Pleased to yield to Mr. Connolly. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

And thank you, Mr. Rubin, for that impassioned plea. 

I was struck by all of your testimony, but particularly yours, Dr. 

Paris. I was so struck by the catalogue of afflictions. And part of 

the problem with, say, narrative coverage of the Holocaust as a 

point in history is survivors—you know, there were survivors. And 

I guess they all lived happily ever after. Almost no one talks about 

the lingering effects health-wise, and emotional, and psychological. 

Mr. Rubin just articulated it. He lost the love of parents as a young 

teenage boy. There is no getting that back. 

I would be interested in just hearing a little bit more about the 

progression. Is it common that, say, to—to be able to function, a 

lot of memories and emotions are suppressed, but as one ages, 

they—they are revisited, whether we wish it or not? Would that be 

a fairly common phenomenon? 

Ms. PARIS. Yes. Very common. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Could you please turn on your mic. 

Ms. PARIS. I am sorry. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. That is all right. 

52

Ms. PARIS. Yes. Mr. Connolly, that is very, very common. As one 

has—as a young, healthy person—fairly healthy person, you have 

the ability to suppress memories and events and go on with your 

life and you are very busy raising. You are a family, trying to rebuild your——

Mr. CONNOLLY. It is almost a necessary skill. 

Ms. PARIS. It is totally necessary. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Otherwise, you are not going to be functional. 

Yeah. 

Ms. PARIS. And society enforced that upon the survivors. Because, if you listen, no one wanted to hear anything, no one wanted 

to believe anything, and they didn’t even have an ear. 

And they—you know, they wanted to integrate back into society, 

not be once again the outsiders, the people they were pointing fingers at as bad people or wrong people. 

They wanted to be part of society, part of America. You have 

heard that today. They wanted not to be separated out anymore 

and singled out as Jews, even. 

So I think—but when you get older and when your cognitive 

abilities are diminishing and you have plenty of time on your 

hands, it becomes much more difficult for your brain to suppress 

those memories. 

And patients who become demented or have any cognitive impairment, they become disinhibited, which is a medical term, 

meaning they just can’t suppress them anymore, medically speaking, and the horrors get relived. 

As I pointed out in my opening comment, the patient was demented, but extremely hypervigilant. She—you know, ‘‘You are 

here, Dr. Paris,’’ you know, and she didn’t even know what world 

she was in. But she knew that I was there. Because she was afraid 

of a stranger in her house stealing something. 

And then she would say, ‘‘I can’t close my eyes. I can’t close my 

eyes. I am in Auschwitz when I do that.’’ And then she would start 

with the whole story of being a teenager there, having her head 

shaved, and it was horrible to listen to every time I went to visit 

her. And she didn’t know she was telling me that. She never told 

me that when she was healthier. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. You know, especially with dementia, the boundaries between today and yesterday are very blurred. It is a very 

common phenomenon that dementia patients identify people who 

are deceased as very much alive and part of their world. So that 

doesn’t surprise me at all, that that distinction between the past 

and the present kind of evaporates. 

Has—is there assistance of any kind available formally for folks 

as they get older—survivors as they get older to try to help provide 

treatment and care for the psychological and physical conditions 

you were describing? 

Ms. PARIS. I find it very challenging and difficult, as you pointed 

out, Mr. Rubin, to get any help. 

I have many patients who are confused and demented, and they 

don’t have 24-hour home care. They are living in unsafe situations. 

They are possibly above the poverty line. So, they don’t even 

qualify for Medicaid services, home attendance or a nursing home, 

not that they should, God forbid, go to a nursing home. I don’t 

53

think that is the best place for them. And they just are alone in 

very dangerous situations. 

And, you know, self-help gives, you know, 8 hours and this one 

gives 2 hours. And I can’t even piece that together for them to get 

24 hours. It is insane. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Thank you. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Connolly. 

I want to thank the witnesses for the courage, the stamina to 

once again come back up here and plead for justice. 

We will do everything within our power to continue the fight, 

and we don’t want to hear from the second generation, who are still 

coming up here and saying, ‘‘My father was not made whole, but 

I am here to fight for him.’’ We want to make this generation 

whole, and we will continue that fight. 

So we thank each and every one of you. 

Mr. Rubin, I know that you are tired, but you can’t give up. We 

need you. Thank you very much. 

And, with that, the subcommittee hearing is adjourned. Thank 

you. 

[Whereupon, at 4:51 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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