Generali settles Nazi-era insurance lawsuit

MILAN, Nov 30 (Reuters) Italy's leading insurer Generali has settled a class-action suit over insurance policies issued to thousands of Holocaust victims, following years of conflict with Jewish survivors and action groups.

Generali was one of the biggest insurers in eastern Europe before World War Two, and its insurance policies were popular with the Jewish community to provide for marriage dowries and schooling for their children.

US law firm Kohn, Swift&Graf said in a statement posted on its website that the settlement covered all individuals or their ancestors who purchased a Generali policy between 1920 and 1945 and still held it at the time of the Nazi persecutions.

The lawsuit alleged that Generali withheld the proceeds of the insurance policies during the Holocaust, when six million Jews were murdered at Nazi concentration camps along with dissidents, Roma, homosexuals and others, and refused to pay or give any information on the policies afterwards.

''This will be an opportunity for many people to finally receive funds that are owed to them and their families,'' Robert Swift, one of the attorneys representing those who claimed compensation from Generali, said in a statement dated November 20.

The settlement includes all claims received by the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, as well as new ones.

The law firm did not give an estimate of how much the claims could be worth, and Generali was not immediately available for comment.

US ACTION ''We are very happy that this matter has been resolved, but we're unhappy that it took so long,'' Shimon Samuels, who heads the Simon Wiesenthal Center's European office in Paris, told Reuters by telephone yesterday.

''The biological clock has been ticking and many of us whose life could have been eased by this settlement have passed away.'' The Simon Wiesenthal Center, famous for tracking down Nazi war criminals, had also clashed with Generali, accusing it of holding back archive material and refusing to settle the claims.

Samuels said Generali had at first argued that the relevant archived documents were lost when its businesses in eastern Europe were expropriated by the communists after the war.

He said the insurer had also asked for death certificates of Holocaust victims whose heirs were making claims, even in cases where the victims had been gassed to death at Auschwitz and no certificates had been issued.

''The fact that it took a class action in the United States to reach a settlement shows that Italian law was not sufficient to solve this,'' he added.

There will be a court hearing to consider final approval of the settlement in New York on Jan. 31, 2007, the law firm's statement said.

All those seeking compensation have until March 31, 2007 to file a claim form (www.nazierainsurancesettlement.com).

Many European insurers and banks have been involved in lawsuits over assets seized during the Holocaust.

The law firm said individuals who had already received compensation from Generali for their policy would not be eligible for further compensation resulting from the settlement.

REUTERS SBA BST0521