Report to Congress: German Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility, and the Future"

Section 704 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, FY 2003, as enacted in Public Law 107-228, requires the Secretary of State to report to the appropriate Congressional committees on the status of the implementation of the Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany concerning the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility, and the Future," signed in Berlin on July 17, 2000, and, to the extent possible, on payments to and from the Foundation and on certain aspects of the functioning of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims ("ICHEIC"). This is the fifth report submitted pursuant to that law.

The United States Government played a critical role in a multilateral effort that resulted in the establishment of a Foundation under German law entitled "Remembrance, Responsibility, and the Future" ("Foundation"). The Foundation was capitalized with DM 10 billion, valued in March at approximately 5.1 billion Euro or 6.7 billion dollars. Since June 2001, the Foundation has been making payments to survivors in recognition of the suffering they endured as slave and forced laborers. The Foundation also covers other personal injury claims and certain property loss or damage caused by German companies during the Nazi era, including claims against German banks and insurance companies. Further background is available in previous reports submitted to the committees.

The United States and the Federal Republic of Germany have taken various steps to implement the Foundation Agreement. In August 2000, a German law establishing the Foundation took effect. In October 2000, the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany exchanged diplomatic notes to bring the Foundation Agreement into effect. The United States' note indicates that the German law, as clarified and interpreted by several German Government letters, is fully consistent with the Foundation Agreement, which sets forth the principles that shall govern the operations of the Foundation.

The United States Government has filed statements of interest recommending the dismissal, on any valid legal ground, of lawsuits brought against German companies for wrongs committed during the Nazi era, and is committed to do so in future cases that are covered by the Foundation Agreement.

On May 30, 2001, the German Bundestag declared that "adequate legal certainty" had been achieved for German companies in the United States. Under the law establishing the Foundation, this declaration by the Bundestag authorized the Foundation to make funds available to the seven partner organizations (foundations that had previously been established in Belarus, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia and Ukraine, as well as the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the International Organization for Migration) that would make payments to individual recipients.

By early 2002, the entire sum of DM 10 billion had been made available to the Foundation by the Federal Republic of Germany and by German companies.

Payments from the Foundation

As of December 2004, approximately $5 billion (3.84 billion Euro or DM 7.5 billion) had been paid to approximately 1,614,000 surviving slave and forced laborers. This represents 93 percent of the funds (DM 8.1 billion) available from the Foundation's capital for slave and forced labor payments. The remaining funds will continue to be paid out over the next 12 to 18 months. A breakdown of payments by partner organizations follows:

ICHEIC

The law establishing the Foundation provides funds to ICHEIC for the payment of claims arising from unpaid insurance policies issued by German insurance companies, as well as for the associated costs, and also a contribution to the ICHEIC humanitarian fund. The Foundation Agreement provides that insurance claims made against German insurance companies will be processed according to ICHEIC claims handling procedures and under any additional claims handling procedures that may be agreed among the Foundation, ICHEIC, and the German Insurance Association.

Following two earlier extensions, the deadline for filing claims was extended to December 31, 2003. The later filing deadline was designed to provide additional time for applicants, assisted by the recently publicized list of names, to determine whether to file a claim. Applicants who contacted ICHEIC prior to the December 31 deadline to obtain claim forms had until March 31, 2004, to complete the form and send it so that ICHEIC receives it by that date.

The Department of State was unable to obtain such information on the ICHEIC claims process as required by Section 704(a)(3)-(7). Some information about ICHEIC, including statistics on claims and appeals, however, is publicly available on ICHEIC's Web site (www.icheic.org). As of March 4, 2005, ICHEIC has received approximately 81,000 claims or inquiries, of which 3,000 were transferred to other relevant claims organizations. ICHEIC's statistical report on its Web site shows that, thus far, ICHEIC and cooperating companies have made 6,200 payments offers totaling $101 million. An additional 16,200 individuals received payments of $l,000 each through ICHEIC's humanitarian claims process. Thus, as of early March, ICHEIC reports that its claims processes have resulted in a total of $117 million in payment offers on some 22,400 claims cases. To date, some 7,900 claims have been denied.