President Obama was in Miami Friday and a handful of Holocaust survivors are hoping he has a radio on right now. They say their claims on life insurance policies dating from the Nazi era remain unpaid, and only the president can help.
About a 100,000 Jews with direct memories of the Holocaust live in the United States. All of them old and many running out of money.
Miami Beach resident David Mermelstein, a survivor, said, "There are survivors that can't get enough help. And here lays $20 billion that is rightfully ours and we can't get to it."That $20 billion represents insurance benefits, with interest, owed to survivors, according to the Holocaust Survivors Foundation, by big insurance companies that still exist. Mermelstein tried to make a claim to the Italian company Generali, but it didn’t go well.
"When I applied they said bring us the policy. I said Auschwitze didn’t save policies. They said give us the death certificate. Auschwitz didn't give death certificates", Mermelstein said.
Florida passed a law in the 1990s requiring the companies to open their books and pay up. But the US Supreme Court struck it down. Sam Dubbin, the lawyer for the survivors, says they're out of legal options and the insurance companies, such as Allianz, still have their money.
"Allianz is out there sponsoring golf tournaments in Boca Raton, tennis tournaments all over the world, and doing everything but paying the money that is owed", Dubbin complained.
According to Dubbin, some small payments were made by the companies through an international commission, only about three percent of what he believes is owed. With President Obama in Florida today, Dubbin hopes he will do two things for the survivors: ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel to keep German promises to repay survivors, and persuade Congress to pass a law that will allow claims to go forward in court.