Holocaust survivors hail end of Allianz as sponsor

Holocaust survivors celebrated the end of German insurance giant Allianz’s sponsorship of a Florida golf tournament, saying it may boost efforts to collect on World War II-era policies.

Holocaust survivors on Monday celebrated the end of German insurance giant Allianz’s sponsorship of a Florida pro golf tournament, saying it may boost efforts to collect some $2.5 billion in World War II-era policies issued to Jews that they say have gone unpaid.

Survivors, their heirs and Jewish groups for seven years have protested the company’s sponsorship of the PGA senior tour’s Allianz Championship in Boca Raton, saying it failed to pay off policies of tens of thousands of Holocaust victims and other Jews who died under Nazi rule.

They say the company has demanded death certificates, which the Nazis didn’t issue to concentration camp victims, and copies of policies lost during wartime upheaval.

Monday was Holocaust Remembrance Day.

David Schaecter, president of the Holocaust Survivors Foundation — USA, said Allianz has refused to pay off a policy he is sure his parents bought because he couldn’t provide paperwork. His father was arrested by the Nazis in 1940. He, his mother, two younger sisters and older brother were forced from their Slovakian farm in 1941 and taken to Auschwitz, where his mother and sisters were soon executed and tossed into a mass grave.

He and his brother, Jacob, spent nearly two years at Auschwitz and then were sent to Buchenwald, forced at both death camps to clean the railcars that transported other Jews. His brother died in 1944. He later learned his father had spent the war doing forced labor at an Austrian salt mine, dying in 1945 of typhoid soon after being liberated.

“Survivors everywhere are relieved that our voices have been heard and in at least one place Allianz will no longer be able to pretend it has acted honorably,” said Schaecter, 87.

His group led the tournament protests, which included about 200 people last February.

He said that years ago when an Allianz representative demanded his family’s death certificates, he responded, “Where should I go? Where should I get it?” Samuel J. Dubbin, the group’s attorney, said Allianz has copies of the policies in its archives but has refused to cooperate with survivors.