Here is Part II of the Finkelstein addendum to Chapter III of "The Holocaust Industry", the best-selling booklet that has rocked and shocked Europe. A real eye-opener - invaluable for Germany and other countries who have fallen victim to the Reparations Racket of the exploitative and brazen Holocaust Lobby:
[START]
Apart from a trivial sum, the Gribetz Plan earmarks the Swiss monies only for Jewish victims of the Nazi holocaust. The settlement technically covered every "Victim or Target of Nazi Persecution." In fact, this seemingly inclusive, "politically correct" designation is a linguistic subterfuge to exclude most non-Jewish victims. It arbitrarily defines "Victim or Target of Nazi Persecution" to include only Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and the disabled or handicapped. For reasons never explained, other political (e.g., Communists and Socialists) and ethnic (e.g., Poles and Belorussians) persecutees are left out. These are numerically the larger victim groups; except for Jews, the groups designated "Victim or Target of Nazi Persecution" in the Gribetz Plan are numerically much less significant. The practical upshot is that almost all the compensation monies will go to Jews. Thus, the Plan covers 170,000 former Jewish slave-laborers; of fully 1,000,000 non-Jewish former slave laborers, however, only 30,000 of these are deemed to qualify as a "victim or target of Nazi persecution." Likewise, the Plan allocates $90 million for Jewish victims of Nazi plunder but only $10 million for non-Jewish victims. This division is partly justified on the ground that prior compensation agreements used such a ratio. Yet the Plan suggests that non-Jewish victims received a disproportionately smaller share of compensation monies in the past. Shouldn't a just allocation plan redress, not perpetuate, past inequities? (25)
The Gribetz Plan sets aside fully $800 million of the $1.25 billion Swiss settlement to cover valid claims on Holocaust- era dormant accounts. The Plan's text, annexes and charts run to many hundreds of pages with well over a thousand footnotes. The singular oddity of the Plan is that it makes no attempt to credibly justify this - the crucial - allocation. It merely states that, "Based upon his analysis of the Volcker Report and the Final Approval Order, and upon consultation with representatives of the Volcker Committee, the Special Master estimates that the value of all bank accounts that will be repaid is within the range of $800 million." (26) In fact, this estimate appears wildly inflated. The actual sum paid out on dormant accounts will probably not come to more than a tiny fraction of the $800 million. (27) The "residual" monies - that is, what remains of the $800 million after all legitimate claims have been processed - are supposed to be distributed either directly to Holocaust survivors or to Jewish organizations engaged in Holocaust-related activities. (28) In fact, the residual monies will almost certainly go to Jewish organizations, not only because the Holocaust industry will have the final say, but because they won't be distributed until many years from now, when few actual Holocaust survivors will be alive. (29)
Besides the $800 million for Holocaust-era accounts, the Gribetz Plan allocates some $400 million mainly for the "looted assets," "slave labor," and "refugees" classes. The Plan enters the crucial caveat, however, that none of these monies will be released until "all appeals in this litigation have been exhausted." Conceding that the "proposed payments may not commence for some time," the Plan cites a crucial precedent in which the appeals process lasted three and a half years. (30) For elderly Holocaust survivors this is a no-win and for the Holocaust industry a no-lose situation. Many Holocaust survivors, appalled by the Gribetz Plan, will undoubtedly want to appeal, but doing so means that few will be around to benefit even if an appeal is sustained. The Holocaust industry, already the main beneficiary of the Gribetz Plan, can only gain from an appeals process in which more monies will by default flow into its coffers as survivors die out.
Once the appeals process is completed, the Gribetz Plan provides for these allocations of the $400 million: 1. In the "looted assets" class, $90 million is earmarked not for direct payments to Holocaust survivors but for Jewish organizations servicing Holocaust communities "broadly defined." The largest allocation will go to the Claims Conference, which the Gribetz Plan repeatedly acclaims for its "unmatched expertise in serving the needs of Nazi victims. (31) The Plan sets aside $10 million for a "Victim List Foundation, the objective of which is to compile and make widely accessible, for research and remembrance, the names of all Victims or Targets of Nazi Persecution." It recommends that the Foundation start from the "irreplaceable data contained in the Initial Questionnaires" for Holocaust victims. A typical response in this "irreplaceable data" is that fully one of every six Jewish victims (71,000/430,000) claimed title to a Swiss bank account before World War II. Did one in six also own a Mercedes and Swiss chalet? (32) 2. In the "slave labor" class, each of 170,000 Jewish former slave laborers supposedly still alive will receive a token payment in two installments: $500 after the appeals process is completed, and "up to" an additional $500 after all claims on dormant accounts are processed. (33) In fact, the 170,000 figure is grossly inflated, and it is unlikely that many of the Jewish former slave laborers really still alive will yet be around to collect the first, let alone the second, token payment. Applications will be processed by the Claims Conference, which - as the main beneficiary of residual compensation monies - will profit from every rejection. 3. In the "refugee" class, legitimate claimants will receive payments ranging from $250-$2500 in the same two installments as the "slave labor" class. (34) Based on the "irreplaceable data contained in the Initial Questionnaire," some 17,000 Jews have claimed membership in this class. It is likely that only a small fraction of these 17,000 will demonstrate a valid claim (the Conference processes applications), and that even fewer will still be around to collect the payments.
A close analysis of the Gribetz Plan thus confirms the main arguments in chapter 3 of this book. It demonstrates that the pretexts invoked by the Holocaust industry to force a non-recoupable settlement on the Swiss banks were false, and that few actual survivors of the Nazi holocaust will directly - or, for that matter, indirectly - benefit from the Swiss monies. A comparable analysis of other Holocaust industry settlements would presumably yield comparable results. Indeed, buried in the details of the Gribetz Plan is a nest egg for the Holocaust industry. Most of the Swiss monies probably won't be distributed until after all but a handful of survivors are dead. With the survivors gone, the monies will pour into the coffers of Jewish organizations. Small wonder that the Holocaust industry was unanimous in its praise of the Gribetz Plan.
Norman G. Finkelstein
June 2001
Notes
1. For this and the next paragraph, see Joan Gralla, "Holocaust Foundation Set for Restitution Funds," in Reuters (22 August 2000), Michael J. Jordan, "Spending Restitution Money Pits Survivors Against Groups," in Jewish Telegraphic Agency (29 August 2000), NAHOS (The Newsletter of the National Association of Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors) (1 September 2000, 6 October 2000, and 6 November 2000), Marilyn Henry, "Proposed `Foundation for Jewish People' Has No Cash," in Jerusalem Post (8 September 2000), Joan Gralla, "Battle Brews Over Holocaust Compensation," in Reuters (11 September 2000), Shlomo Shamir, "Government to Set Up New Fund for Holocaust Payments," in Haaretz (12 September 2000), Yair Sheleg, "Burg Honored at Controversial NY Dinner," in Haaretz (12 September 2000), E.J. Kessler, "Hillary the Holocaust Heroine?" in New York Post (12 September 2000), Melissa Radler, "Survivors Get Most of Cash in Shoah Fund," in Forward (17 September 2000), "The WJC Defends Event Panned by Commentary," in Jewish Post (20 September 2000).
2. "Remarks by The President During Bronfman Gala," Office of The Press Secretary, The White House . Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, US Department of State (http://usinfo.state.gov).
3. The plan was formulated by Judah Gribetz, past president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and currently member of the board of New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. He was appointed "Special Master" by Judge Edward Korman of New York's Eastern District Court, who presided over the class- action litigation in the Swiss case. The full plan is posted on http://www.Swissbankclaims.com. On 22 November 2000 Judge Korman issued a "memorandum and order" that "adopt[s] the Proposed Plan in its entirety." (In re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (United States District Court for Eastern District of New York: 22 November 2000), p. 7))
4. Alan Feuer, "Bitter Fight Is Reignited On Splitting Of Reparations" (New York Times, 21 November 2000). "Statement of Burt Neuborne" appended to Gribetz Plan. Judge Korman's "memorandum and order" (see note 3 above) points up the crucial role of Neuborne in deflecting criticism of the Plan (pp. 4, 6). As lead counsel in the Swiss litigation, Neuborne was credited with contriving the "legal theories" used by the Holocaust industry.
5. Radler, "Survivors Get Most of Cash in Shoah Fund."
6. Significantly, Raul Hilberg, the world's leading authority on the Nazi holocaust, has explicitly charged that the World Jewish Congress blackmailed the Swiss: "It was the first time in history that Jews made use of a weapon that can only be described as blackmail." In a declaration supporting the motion to approve the Swiss settlement, Burt Neuborne, clearly worried by the blackmail allegation ("certain persons may be tempted to mischaracterize legitimate settlement payments as a form of blackmail"), called on Judge Korman to repudiate it, which the Judge dutifully did. ("Holocaust Expert Says Swiss Banks Are Paying Too Much," in Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 28 January 1999; Declaration of Burt Neuborne, Esq. (5 November 1999), para. 8; Edward R.Korman,In re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (United States District Court for Eastern District of New York: 26 July 2000), pp. 23-4)
7. In re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation, p. 19 (Korman).
8. Burt Neuborne, "Memorandum of Law Submitted by Plaintiffs in Response to Expert Submissions Filed By Legal Academics Retained by Defendants" (United States District Court for Eastern District of New York: 16 June 1997), p. 68 (cf. pp. 62-4). Hereafter: Neuborne Memorandum.
9. For non-recoverability of the final settlement, see Gribetz Plan, p. 12n18: "It should be noted that no part of the $1.25 billion settlement amount will revert to the defendant banks or to any other Swiss entities."
10. Gribetz Plan, pp. 11 ("vital significance"), 13-14, 93, 101-4.
11. Neuborne Memorandum, pp. 3, 6,-7, 11-12, 28-31, 34-5, 43, 47-8. The memorandum concedes that the Swiss banks would be legally liable only if they "knowingly" profited from the ill-gotten gains of the Nazis: "If one assumes lack of notice on the part of defendant banks, defendants' actions would not give rise to a claim for equitable disgorgement of unjust profits" (p. 34).
12. Gribetz Plan, pp. 23, 29, 113-14, 118n345, 128-9n371, 145-8, Annex G ("The Looted Assets Class"), pp. G-3, G-43, G- 57, Annex H ("Slave Labor Class I"), pp. H-52, H-57-8.
13. Gribetz Plan, Annex J ("The Refugee Class"), p. J- 26n85. Buried in a footnote we also learn that, according to a leading authority, Seymour J. Rubin, "Switzerland did admit many more refugees, in proportion to its population than any other nation. This is in contrast to a United States that not only denied entry to the desperate St. Louis refugees, but systematically failed to fill even the limited immigration quota that was available" (p. J-5). Noting that refugees barred from entering Switzerland during World War II would now receive compensation, Burt Neuborne, in a letter to the Nation magazine, regretted : "I only wish that a similar sanction could be imposed on the United States for its identical refusal to accept desperate refugees from Nazi persecution" (5 October 2000). Apart from hypocrisy and cowardice, what prevented the Holocaust industry's lead counsel from pressing this claim?
14. Gribetz Plan, p. 89. The quote is cited from Judge Korman's Court order granting final approval to the Settlement Agreement.
15. Gribetz Plan, Annex C ("Demographics of `Victim or Target' Groups"), p. C-13.
16. Gribetz Plan, pp. 135-6.
17. Gribetz Plan, Annex C , p. C-12, Annex F ("Social Safety Nets"), p. F-15.
18. Ukeles Associates Inc., Paper
3 (revised), Projection of the Population of Victims of Nazi Persecution, 2000-2040 (31 May 2000).
19. Gribetz Plan, p, 9, Annex C, p. C-8, Annex E ("Holocaust Compensation"), pp. E-89 and E-90n282. The 250,000 figure was used to distribute the monies from the "Special Fund for Needy Victims of the Holocaust" established by the Swiss in February 1997.
20. Gribetz Plan, Annex C, p. C-7, Table 3. The Plan concedes in a footnote that "in the former Soviet Union, there are relatively few survivors of the concentration camps, ghettos, or work camps" (Annex E, p. E-56n150).
21. Gribetz Plan, pp. 122-3, 125, Annex E, p. E-138, Annex F, p. F-4n13
22. Gribetz Plan, Annex E, p. E-56.
23. Steve Paulsson, "Re: Survivor Article," posted on http://H-Holocaust@N-Net.MSU.EDU (28 September 2000).
24. Gribetz Plan, p. 135. It bears notice that the figure for Holocaust survivors in the original sense also undergoes a radical revision upward in the Gribetz Plan. The plan states that in the neighborhood of 170,000 former Jewish slave-laborers currently receive pensions from Germany. (Gribetz Plan, Annex H ("Slave Labor Class I"), pp. H-5-6) It is estimated that only one in four former Jewish slave- laborers received a German pension. This would put the total figure for former Jewish slave-laborers still alive today at nearly 700,000, and the total for Jewish slave laborers alive at war's end at 2,800,000. The standard scholarly figure for Jewish slave-laborers alive at war's end is about 100,000, with perhaps several tens of thousands still alive.
25. Gribetz Plan, pp. 7, 25-7, 83-4, 118-19, 138-9, 149, 154, and "Summary of Major Holocaust Compensation Programs." Apart from precedent, the Plan tautologically justifies this distribution "by current demographics, as Jewish victims now constitute the overwhelming proportion of surviving `Victims or Targets of Nazi Persecution' as defined under the Settlement Agreement" (p. 119). Jews only constitute the "overwhelming proportion" because of how the category "Victims or Targets..." was defined. For Gypsy reservations to the Plan, see Romani Comments and Objections to the Special Master's Proposed Plan of Allocation and Distribution. (Ramsey Clark et al., In re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (United States District Court for Eastern District of New York: November 2000))
26. Gribetz Plan, p. 15. The same statement is repeated verbatim on pp. 98-9.
27. The Volcker Committee recommended publication of the names of some 25,000 accounts having the highest probability of a relationship to victims of Nazi persecution. The total "fair current value" of 10,000 of these accounts for which some information is available runs to $150-$230 million. Projecting these estimates on the 25,000 accounts yields $375-$575 million. To judge by the Claims Resolution Tribunal's prior processing experience, valid claims will be filed against only one-half the 25,000 accounts and one-half the monies in these accounts for a total value of $188-$288 million. In addition, however, the 25,000 list overwhelmingly comprises not dormant but closed accounts bearing names that match a Holocaust victim. The Volcker Committee concluded that there is "no evidence of...concerted efforts to divert the funds of victims of Nazi persecution to improper purposes." Accordingly, the safe assumption is that almost all the closed accounts on the 25,000 list were properly closed by the actual account-holders, rightful heirs, or those with a legitimate and credible power of attorney, and that the CRT will validate only a few claims against these closed accounts. The total value of validated claims against the 25,000 accounts will thus likely fall well below even the $188-$288 million estimate that assumed all the accounts were dormant and the claims on half legitimate. (Gribetz Plan, pp. 94n298, 96-7, 105-6n326; Independent Committee of Eminent Persons, Report on Dormant Accounts of Victims of Nazi Persecution in Swiss Banks [Bern: 1999]), p. 13, para. 41(a))
28. Gribetz Plan, 12, 19-20. The Plan states on p. 12 that the "remainder of the Settlement Fund is to be distributed among the other...settlement classes"- i.e., "looted assets," "refugees," and "slave laborers." As shown below, the monies allocated for the "looted assets" class will be paid not to Holocaust survivors directly but rather to Jewish organizations involved in Holocaust work The Plan further states on pp.19-20 that "it also may be possible to allocate a portion of the remaining Settlement Fund to some of the proposed cultural, memorial or educational projects that have been submitted to the Special Master."
29. The Plan specifies that distribution of residuals from the $800 million cannot begin until all claims on the 25,000 accounts have been processed. It took the CRT fully three years to process 10,000 claims on a prior, separate list of 5,600 Swiss accounts. The Plan reports that many more than 80,000 claims will likely be filed against the list of 25,000. In addition, the Plan provides that all claims must be checked not only against the published list of 25,000 accounts but against millions of other Swiss accounts bearing no apparent relationship to Holocaust victims. Thus even if the CRT process is streamlined, it will surely take many years to complete. (Gribetz Plan, pp. 91, 94n299, 105-6n126) Apart from Holocaust victims holding dormant accounts, the Plan makes only vague and narrow provision for heirs. (pp. 18-19, and Annex D ("Heirs"))
30. Gribetz Plan, pp. 16-17.
31. Gribetz Plan, pp. 25-6, 120-1, 119-38.
32. Gribetz Plan, pp. 18, 27, 116, Annex C, p. C-10, Exhibit 3 to Annex C, p. 1. (The "Initial Questionnaires" were distributed to "Victims and Targets of Nazi Persecution" after Judge Korman approved the Swiss settlement.) Dismissing the extravagant claims of the Holocaust industry against the Swiss banks, Raul Hilberg, who fled Austria as a child with his parents, recalled in a recent interview: "In the 1930s, Jews were poor. My family belonged to the middle class, but we did not have a bank account in Austria, let alone in Switzerland." (Berliner Zeitung, 4 September 2000)
33. Gribetz Plan, pp. 29-31, 154-6.
34. Gribetz Plan, pp. 35-9, 1
[END]
Please send your comments to Professor Norman Finkelstein at normangf@hotmail.com and thank him for this work!
Thought for the Day:
"The cry of the little peoples goes up to God in vain, for the world is given over to the cruel sons of Cain."
(Richard Le Gallienne, 1866 - 1947)