For the most recent distribution data for the Looted Assets Class, please click
here.
Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the Looted Assets Class consists of
those claimants whose assets were looted by the Nazis and disposed of or transacted
through Switzerland or Swiss entities. Given this broad definition, virtually every
individual who lived under or fled from Nazi occupation is a class member, since
virtually every such person may be presumed to have been looted by the Nazis.
The Special Master concluded that neither a case-by-case adjudication nor a pro
rata distribution was acceptable due to the large size of the Class coupled with
the impossibility of determining whether specific property was transacted through
a Swiss entity. Relying on legal precedent, including the principles set forth by
the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in connection with the
Agent Orange class action settlement, the Distribution Plan recommended a
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remedy for those most in need of assistance. The assessment of need was based upon
analysis of demographic, mortality and social welfare data from a variety of sources
ranging from academic experts to the Swiss Humanitarian Fund to the Settlement Agreement
Notice Administrators.
The Distribution Plan provides that the neediest class
members (all of whom are presumed to have been victims of Nazi looting, the proceeds
of which may have been transacted through Switzerland) are to benefit from humanitarian
aid programs providing food, medicine, shelter and similar assistance. For more
information on the Looted Assets Class, please read Annex G of the Distribution
Plan.
The Distribution Plan allocated $100 million over a ten-year period to augment although
not replace already-existing assistance programs implemented, managed and/or monitored
by the JDC and the Claims Conference for Jewish needy Nazi victims, as well as to
fund new programs to be implemented and monitored by the IOM for Roma, Jehovah’s
Witness, homosexual and disabled needy Nazi victims. On September 25, 2002, Judge
Korman approved a recommendation made by Special Master Gribetz that increased the
Looted Assets Class funds by 45% (to $145 million) due to unanticipated tax relief
and interest already earned on
the Settlement Fund. Moreover,
on November 13, 2003, Judge Korman approved the Special Master’s recommendation
that an additional $60 million in excess funds be allocated to the Looted Assets
Class, increasing the total amount of funds to be
distributed to $205 million. Of that sum, $184.5 million was designated for the assistance of needy
Jewish survivors, with the remaining $20.5 million for needy Roma, Jehovah’s Witness,
homosexual and disabled survivors, based upon demographic data and historical precedent.
To read more about the Court-supervised JDC programs in the former Soviet Union,
please click here to view the JDC Report on 2005 Welfare Programs for Jewish Nazi
Victims in the Former Soviet Union
For a brief overview
of the Court-supervised Claims Conference Emergency Assistance Program, please click
here. Looted Assets Class funds will continue to be distributed to these programs through
2011. Under the Court’s supervision, the IOM’s Humanitarian and Social Programme
(“HSP”), completed in January 2006, assisted more than 73,000 needy Roma, Jehovah’s
Witness, homosexual and disabled Nazi victims. To view IOM Humanitarian and Social
Programme’s Final Report on Assistance to Needy, Elderly Survivors of Nazi Persecution,
please click here