Holocaust claims get new chance from insurance co.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An Italian insurance company's agreement to extend by 17 months the deadline to accept new claims from Holocaust victims and their relatives gives some victims another chance to find records of their losses, a museum official said. Paul Shapiro, an executive of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, said Tuesday the decision by Assicurazioni Generali to extend the March 31 deadline to Aug. 31, 2008, means victims may benefit from the opening of sealed Nazi archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany. The settlement would end the last of the large cases brought in US courts to get money from companies responsible for aiding Nazis during the Holocaust. "It's very hard to tell whether there's documentation here or not that relate to those claims in a way that will help people," Shapiro said. "The key, however, is to give people an opportunity to find out."