Money Going To Holocaust Survivors

A federal judge approved a plan to distribute a $1.25 billion settlement in a lawsuit by Holocaust survivors against Swiss banks, clearing the way for payment of more than a half million claims worldwide.

The ruling on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Edward Korman came two days after a public hearing where some survivors complained that the settlement was too small and that the distribution plan — proposed by a court-appointed special master — was flawed. Plaintiff attorneys had assured Korman the proposal was fair and was supported by the majority of claimants.

The plan relies on a complex set of formulas for locating qualified claimants and distributing the money — a process that could take several months.

In his six-page decision, Korman quoted the mediator, Judah Gribetz, who wrote that he had tried to craft a plan "that is not only fair and equitable, but also meaningful as possible given the number of potential claimants."

Wrote Korman: "I believe that the special master has succeeded in that endeavor."

The distribution plan sets aside $800 million for claimants who can prove their families deposited money in Swiss banks to hide it from the Nazis and never got it back. At last count, about 80,000 people had identified themselves as depositors or their heirs.

The remaining $450 million will go to refugees denied entrance to or expelled from Switzerland, slave laborers forced to work for companies with Swiss accounts and victims whose belongings were plundered by the Nazis and apparently ended up in Switzerland.

Gribetz has estimated that each refugee would get $2,500 and each laborer $1,000. Lawyers acknowledged that the settlement was insufficient to settle every claim, though plaintiffs' attorney Burt Neuborne called it "scrupulously fair."

By Tom Hays