2005 Washington Revised Code RCW 48.104.020: Findings. (Expires December 31, 2010.)

The legislature finds the following:

     (1) In addition to the many atrocities that befell the victims of the Nazi regime, in many cases insurance policy proceeds were not paid to the victims and their families.

     (2) In many instances, insurance company records are the only proof of insurance policies held. In some cases, recollection of those policies' very existence may have perished along with the Holocaust victims.

     (3) Several hundred Holocaust survivors and their families, or the heirs of Holocaust victims live in Washington today.

     (4) Insurance companies doing business in the state of Washington have a responsibility to ensure that any involvement they or their related companies had with insurance policies of Holocaust victims are disclosed to the state to ensure the rapid payment to victims and their survivors of any proceeds to which they may be entitled.

     (5) There has been established an international commission to investigate and facilitate the payment of insurance policies to victims of the Holocaust and their survivors. It is in the best interest of the people of the state of Washington to authorize the insurance commissioner to cooperate with and coordinate his or her activities with the international commission.

     (6) Other states are establishing Holocaust survivor assistance offices and registries of insurance policies and Holocaust victims in order to identify policyholders and their survivors to whom policy proceeds may be payable. It is in the best interest of the people of the state of Washington to authorize the insurance commissioner to cooperate with and coordinate his or her activities with those other states.

     (7) In addition to unpaid insurance policies, Holocaust victims lost unknown billions of dollars of assets seized by Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe between 1933 and 1945.

[1999 c 8 § 2.]