"Who Is Reaping Benefits from the Holocaust?" Rzeczpospolita April 26, 2000 by Krzysztof Darewicz in New York Interview with Dr. Norman G. Finkelstein, lecturer in political sciences and theory of international relations at NYU and Hunter College What made you study the issue of compensations for Holocaust victims? [Finkelstein] My parents' life story. My father, who managed to survive the Warsaw ghetto and the Auschwitz concentration camp, obtained compensation from the Germans because he was seriously harmed during the war.At the end of his life it amounted to $600 a month. As for my mother, who survived the ghetto and Majdanek, the Germans would not grant her compensation because she had no visible injuries. She only received a symbolic compensation of about $3,000. My mother kept wondering who was receiving money from Germany totaling $118 billion to Jewish Holocaust survivors. In principle, no one deserved higher compensation than my parents,persecuted throughout the war and having lost their entire family and personal assets. The other reason I decided to study compensation were Daniel Goldhagen's "Hitler's Willing Executioners" and Peter Novick's "Holocaust in American Life." I was asked to review these works and, after some historical research, I decided to write a book on it myself. It will be entitled "The Holocaust History: The Abuse of Jewish Victims." [Darewicz] What conclusions have you drawn from your studies? [Finkelstein] First I analyzed the negotiations and the agreement signed in 1952 by the German government and the Jewish Claims Conference (JCC). Under this agreement the Germans paid the JCC about $1 billion in compensation for people like my mother who did not qualify to receive compensation. It turns out that the JCC either kept most of the money for itself or parcelled it out according to its whim. Some of the money was earmarked to suport Jewish communities in Arab countries, some for the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem and for other museums -- or for purposes unrelated to compensations for victims. [Darewicz] How much money was actually paid out to victims, then? [Finkelstein]Ultimately, only about 15% of that $1 billion. It should be added that the JCC parcelled out even this portion among "prominent Jewish leaders of the World War II and rabbis," and actually among its activists. Ordinary victims only received a small fraction of that sum. Then I examined closely the issue of the Swiss bank accounts that had to pay compensations for Jewish losses in savings.Interestingly enough, the deposits which Jews made prior to the war in Swiss banks were not higher than deposits made in US banks. Logically, the JCC, an agency of the U.S.-based World Jewish Congress (WJC) should have first demanded compensations from US banks. Meanwhile, the only target were the Swiss. First to demand compensations were the WJC and the JCC. Then US lawyers filed class action suits against Swiss banks. And then they were joined by New York financial auditor Alan Havesi, a highly influential figure in the financial world, who threatened economic sanctions against Switzerland. This spawned congressional hearings in the banking commissions of both the House and the Senate. Finally, Deputy Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat appeared on the battlefield representing the authority of US government. Under duress the Swiss swiftly agreed to have the accounts audited and as early as February 1996 assured all that they would pay compensations to every owner of the account or their heirs. However, the WJC opposed this deal. If it went along, the money would only have gone to victims and the WJC with its lawyers would get nothing. That is exactly what this is all about. The WJC and the JCC demand compensations on behalf of Holocaust victims, but take the money for themselves. In August 1998, the WJC and lawyers forced Swiss banks to sign a settlement which obliged banks to pay $1.25 billion in compensation. To date--April 2000--not a penny went to a single victim. Why? Are they waiting for all the victims to die? When the WJC was demanding compensation and the Swiss proposed waiting until the results of the audit were made known, the Jewish side argued there was no time because Holocaust victims in need were dying off every day. Once the WJC achieved its goal, the time pressure disappeared. Now the WJC has plenty of time because it already has the money. [Darewicz] Do you think that Jewish organizations acted in like manner during the negotiations with the Germans concerning compensations for forced labor? [Finkelstein] Yes, I do. The strategy was repeated. In August 1998 a settlement was reached with Swiss banks, and as soon as September of the same year, the same lawyers filed class action suits against German businesses. Once again Alan Havesi turned up; once again hearings held in Congress and Senate,once again Stuart Eizenstat in the role of "mediator." I began examining the issue more closely and raised two questions: "What happened to the money the Germans had paid to victims earlier?" "How many victims were still alive today? The JCC claimed during the negotiations that there were still 135,000 former Jewish forced laborers still alive today. It follows that, at the end of the war in 1945, there were approximately 600,000, because only a fourth lived for the next 50 years. Meanwhile, Holocaust historians estimate that in May 1945 there were 50,000, and certainly not more than 100,000 Jewish survivors who used to work as slave laborers. How was the 135,000 figue arrived at? The number of victims was overestimated to get more money. Now the JCC will put ads in the press asking entitled individuals to collect their compensation money. Predictably, the number of these people will not exceed 20,000; in addition, if the JCC rejects some applications for a variety of reasons, such as incomplete documentation, the actual number of individuals who will collect the money may reach 10,000. The rest of the money will remain with the WJC. This is why I believe Jewish organizations are turning the Holocaust into a lucrative business. I am firmly opposed it. Neither the Germans nor the Jews ought to make money off the Holocaust, because this insults the memory and the dignity of the millions of Jews who were the victims of the annihilation. [Darewicz] Like Jews, Poles also were the victims of the war. However, recent class action suits were also filed against Poland, which has been asked to return to Jews the assets lost in the war. [Finkelstein] Poles are next in line. The strategy which had a trial run in Switzerland and Germany will be used to obtain huge compensations from Poland under false pretenses. It is to be the "grand finale." It is to be "grand" because Jewish organizations are going to demand much more money than they have demanded from any other country. The Swiss paid the WJC $1.25 billion and, recently, the Germans paid $1.3 billion in compensations for the work of forced laborers. In the case of Poland there is already talk of Jewish assets valued at several dozen billion dollars. This campaign is already under way. Suits have been filed, congressmen have been writing letters to Polish government, and, as far as I know, Alan Havesi will visit Poland before soon. A motion requesting holding congressional hearings has been submitted.Stuart Eizenstat will once again get into the act, and so on. My mother's father had a tobacco shop in Poland before the war, and my father's father owned a small sawmill. I do not even know the names of my grandparents; my parents never spoke about them, and, even though I am the legal heir, it would never occur to me to demand restitution of that property. Frankly, my parents hated Poles as much as Germans, because those were their experiences. I neither condemn nor condone it. However, I know my parents would never have agreed to have the current Polish owners of their former estates thrown out under the aegis of compensation. [Darewicz] What about the Jews who want the return of their former assets in Poland? Aren't they entitled? [Finkelstein] Of course, the small Jewish community in Poland is no doubt entitled to some of the former assets of Jewish communities, synagogues, cemeteries, schools, etc. But all the synagogues, hospitals, and schools? Are several thousand people entitled to an infrastructure which once served several million Polish Jews? The chapter on privately owned assets, except for claims documented beyond any doubt, should be closed. A huge majority of former owners are already dead anyway, so why should the WJC and their lawyers have even reason to talk of tens of billions of dollars when only a handful survived? The Polish authorities should not talk to blackmailers since they are mostly bluffing and playing a waiting game. If you make one concession, new claims will surface sooner or later. The Germans already paid Jews upwards of $100 billion and now they had to pay again. If Poland makes any concessions, I am sure that after a time, when Poland gets richer, the WJC will show up again to ask for money. WJC Chairman Edgar Bronfman has his own jet and claims he needs money for "poor" victims. Here is what I would say to him: "Mister, your personal assets exceed $3 billion. Share it with the victims. You would have more than enough. Leave Poland be." _______________________________________________________