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Deadline May Be Extended for Holocaust Claims

Survivors of the Holocaust and their relatives, who have been fighting to compel European insurance companies to pay death benefits for victims of the Nazis, are getting a break from a big Italian insurance company, lawyers for the insurer and policyholders said yesterday.

As part of a proposed class-action settlement, the company, Assicurazoni Generali, has agreed to give heirs of Holocaust victims another 18 months to uncover documentation on unpaid life insurance policies at long-sealed Nazi archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany.

Representatives of several countries, including the United States, have been pushing to open the archives since May.

“This adds another motivation and a very concrete one to get the archives opened right now,” Paul Shapiro, an executive of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, said of the deadline extension.
Read entire article at NYT