Collecting Unpaid Insurance (Wall Street Journal)

Since the 1950s, there have been German and other government reparation programs, class-action lawsuits in the U.S. and international initiatives to provide restitution for all sorts of property seized by the Nazis — including insurance policies. But while a 2000 agreement between the U.S. and Germany was supposed to resolve all Holocaust-era claims with European insurers through an international insurance commission, tens of thousands of people with claims have gotten nothing, survivors’ groups and advocates say. Now, with most survivors in their 80s, fresh campaigns are under way to get them their benefits before they die — or to get benefits to their heirs.