International
Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC)
to Webcast Press Conference via TVWorldwide.com
ICHEIC Chairman and Former Secretary of State Lawrence
S. Eagleburger to Speak about December. 31, 2003 Claims
Deadline
Live Webcast, Sept. 5, 11 AM, ET at www.tvworldwide.com
and www.ICHEIC.org
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Chantilly,
VA – TVWorldwide.com, a fast-growing web-based global
TV network, announced that it had been selected to webcast
the press conference of the International Commission on
Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), featuring ICHEIC
Chairman and former Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger,
live from Washington D.C. on September 5 at 11 AM ET.
As part of an ongoing international outreach effort, Eagleburger
is calling upon media outlets and relevant organizations
throughout the world to publicize the historic Holocaust
survivor insurance claims process, to inform potential
beneficiaries about the existence and availability of
recently-expanded policyholder lists.
"It is imperative that we reach out to all possible
claimants worldwide to make them aware of the policyholder
lists that are published on the ICHEIC website, www.icheic.org,
so that all of those who have a right to receive the proceeds
of an unpaid insurance policy have an opportunity to file
a claim before December 31, 2003," stated Eagleburger.
The free streaming video event will offer the latest in
interactive webcast technology to the press and the general
public, worldwide. Visitors to the webcast will be able
to post questions and participate in Q&A via e-mail,
providing a fully interactive forum for sharing of information.
Throughout
the webcast, ICHEIC is reaching out to media outlets in
countries where there are likely to be policyholders and/or
their heirs. These countries include: Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Libya,
Lithuania, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland,
Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the
United States. The claims resolution process provides
individuals with a central source for information on,
investigation into, and payment of potential outstanding
policies, without any charge to the claimants. Individuals
seeking more information on the claims process should
call 1.800.957.3203 or visit www.ICHEIC.org.
Since its inception in 1998 ICHEIC has managed a historic
research effort to identify Holocaust victims and/or their
heirs who may have unpaid life, education and dowry policies.
ICHEIC also continually reviews inquiries of possible
policy holders who have filed claims on their own initiative.
In April 2000 ICHEIC first published names of policyholders
and has updated it several times since. In total, nearly
450,000 names have now been published representing more
than 500,000 insurance policies. ICHEIC member companies
will contribute over 12,000 new names of policyholders
over the next 1 to 2 months. The majority of these names
will be provided from portfolios covering Eastern Europe,
Italy and Switzerland.
These lists result from extensive archival and other work.
With respect to potential German Jewish policyholder names,
for example, the German insurance industry compiled electronic
data on German policyholders, collecting more than 8 million
names. A group of archivists and historians then collectively
researched records in Germany, Israel, the United States
and other locations to gather all available data to create
a list of the pre-war German Jewish population. The data
included names extracted from a national census of 1939
as well as names from Memorial books, emigration and deportation
lists and other registers of German Holocaust victims.
Over 2.5 million data entries were collected in an attempt
to reconstruct information that had been unavailable for
decades. The list of 2.5 million entries is being processed
and edited over the coming months to create the most complete
list of German Jews ever assembled.
The two lists (the approximately 8 million names of policyholders
in Germany and the list of 2.5 million data entries of
Jewish residents of Germany) were matched to determine
who among the Jewish community might have had an insurance
policy. The fact that a name appears on the published
list is not a guarantee that the individual named or his
or her heirs or beneficiaries are entitled to payment.
Rather, these lists serve as a reference tool for the
public to facilitate the claims process.
The German Federation Archives, along with numerous other
individuals, played a key role in bringing this project
to fruition. Once completed, the list of Jewish residents
of Germany will be available to organizations in the United
States, Germany and Israel and will stand as a lasting
memorial to the victims of the Nazi oppression.
The webcast event will be available live and archived
for later viewing at www.tvworldwide.com
and www.ICHEIC.org.
Participants should have the free Real Player installed
prior to the event and should log on by 10:45 AM ET on
September 5th. Questions can be directed to 703-961-9250,
ext 223 before and during the event.
About ICHEIC
The International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance
Claims (ICHEIC) was established in October of 1998 by
the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC),
in conjunction with several European insurance companies,
European regulators, representatives of several Jewish
organizations, and the State of Israel. The Commission
is charged with establishing a just process that will
expeditiously address the issue of unpaid insurance policies
issued to victims of the Holocaust.
About
TVWorldwide.com
As a leading streaming video applications service provider,
TVWorldwide.com is developing a network of video channels
that is an affiliation of community-based Internet television
stations, each underwritten by a strategic partner, "aimcastingsm"
to targeted B2B and special interest demographic audiences
worldwide. TVWorldwide.com works with strategic partners
to develop the latest in live and archived state-of-the
art video streaming content applications. TVWorldwide.com
was recently named one of the streaming video industry’s
“Hottest Streaming Companies” by Streaming
Magazine, www.streamingmagazine.com.
