South Florida Holocaust survivors accuse Obama administration of ignoring their pleas for justice

[alp227]

Source: Miami Herald

U.S. Holocaust survivors who have struggled to gain the right to sue giant European insurers that stole their families’ death benefits during World War II are calling out the Obama administration for ignoring their pleas for justice.

Several of the leaders of the South Florida-based Holocaust Survivors Foundation-USA politically supported President Barack Obama. But the group is accusing his administration in a letter of denying victims of the Nazi death camps access to U.S. courts to recover untold millions of dollars in looted life insurance proceeds.

The group’s leaders met Friday on Miami Beach to draw media attention to their struggle while they commemorated the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht. It is recognized as the start of the Holocaust, when Nazi soldiers smashed the windows of Jewish homes, stores, businesses and synagogues in Germany and Austria.

The survivors distributed their letter, titled “Welcome back to Miami, Mr. President,” to reporters on the same day that Obama was scheduled to attend a series of private Democratic Party fundraisers in the Miami area.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/08/v-fullstory/3740145/south-florida-holocaust-survivors.html

[Zeke L Brimstone]

1. Report from: The Times of Israel

By 2017, some 40,000 Holocaust survivors currently living in Israel will have died, according to a new report released by The Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel on Wednesday, ahead of next week’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.

At a press conference at the foundation’s offices in Tel Aviv, Avi Dichter, a former home front defense minister and the incoming chairman of the foundation, said, “The mistake of not caring for Holocaust survivors in a determined way, and not giving them the proper respect while they are still alive, is an irrevocable mistake. And as a people, as a state, we cannot allow ourselves to make this mistake.

“In my opinion, giving Holocaust survivors the means to subsist in dignity while they are still alive is the mission, the goal, the target,” he said. Dichter spoke at the conference along with the foundation’s outgoing chairman, MK Elazar Stern (Hatnua), and its general manager, Roni Kalinsky. All three called on the government to do more to improve the lots of Holocaust survivors, citing the insufficient care they are currently receiving.

According to a survey presented in the report, some 67 percent of Holocaust survivors expressed dissatisfaction with the way Israeli governments have handled their needs, believing more could have been and can still be done to improve their conditions. The year 2012 saw a 7% increase, compared to 2011, in the number of Holocaust survivors in need of nursing care.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/holocaust-survivors-organization-rails-against-state-neglect/

So, what of Netanyahu?

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Quick...look over there!

The topic: American Holocaust survivors petitioning the US government.

[Zeke L Brimstone]

3. Even though the Israeli government has a worse record on the issue

Convene a jury, if you must.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. And yet, not the topic.

[Zeke L Brimstone]

6. An egregious sin, to be sure...

.....which I've thus far seen on at least a dozen threads. 'tis not just the Brits who go off on tangents.

[notadmblnd]

12. “In my opinion, giving Holocaust survivors the means to subsist in dignity..."

There's something wrong with this sentence, or is it just me?

but y real question is; Why would the survivors need access to go after people who beat them out of money? Wouldn't this be something that would be done in European courts?

[Ash_F]

5. What is the the reasoning for denying this?

Does Allianz not operate anywhere in the US?

[LibGranny]

7. When there is justice for the holocaust of the Native Americans, then

I can/will empathize with these people!

[Behind the Aegis]

10. What a sad statement.

[nomorenomore08]

11. And what a non sequitur too... n/t

[Doctor_J]

8. I don't see this president taking on Big Insurance

It's a shame but their money is more important to him and to the party than justice for these victims.

[ucrdem]

9. If the policies were taken out in Germany and Austria

isn't that where the claims should be made and the complaints should be lodged? And adjudicated?

[elleng]

13. I think so.