Customer Reviews

Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II

5 star:		(9)
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1 star:		(4)

 

 

Imperfect Justice is a book that will appeal to many readers . . . but for different reasons. At one level, it's a magnificent story of turning back the clock to right wrongs dating back to the 1930s. At another level, it's an intriguing story of how to secure agreement among those who have vastly different interests and are pursuing them aggressively. At a third level, it's a tale of how a negotiating team learned from its experiences. At a fourth level, it's an inspiring tale of what the U.S. can accomplish when it focuses its attention on improving life for everyone. At a fifth level, it's an insightful case history of how agreements can have negative, unintended consequences. At a sixth level, it's a template for working on other important international issues in the future. I felt greatly enriched by this book, and am sure you will to. I believe this book deserves many more than five stars.

Although I had read about some of the many settlements made in the 1990s by European countries and companies concerning slave labor, looted bank accounts, and misdeeds during World War II, I had no idea of the scope of that experience and effort until I read this book. It's a candid appraisal of how class action lawyers, Jewish groups, the U.S. government, some state government officials, some well-meaning Europeans and lots of recalcitrant parties came together to recognize wrongs that had been previously ignored.

To me, it was shocking to recognize the full extent of misbehavior during World War II. The numbers of slave laborers and the conditions are beyond easy comprehension.

The misbehavior of companies and countries since then to take advantage of those who were victims of the Holocaust and the Nazi era was even more shocking. The insensitivity and lack of concern for others described in this book made me shake my head in disgust.

I also came away with a different impression of the leaders and Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Israel and many other countries as a result of understanding more about how they handled these issues. It's an important education that you should have for yourself.

Ultimately, we must all be very grateful for the good will of those who worked so hard to provide some justice (including apologies and some payments) for those who had been overlooked and ignored for so long. Those who obstructed the process know who they are (and the book names many of them), and should be ashamed of themselves.

I was pleased to see that this paperback version has a new epilogue to update the implementation of the agreements since the end of the Clinton administration. I was disappointed to see that the Bush administration has not been very effective in following up on the fine work that preceded them in office in this important area.

If you think justice is important, read this book!

I was waiting for this book to be published before it even hit the printers. The reason is because I played a role in this, went to see Eizenstat specifically to point out what he left out, and politely confronted him over it.

One thing Eizenstat brings out is that the Jewish community of America seems to have problems getting along with the European Jewish community. There is also a question of style, in that American president Bronfman would show up with a huge entourage, whereas European Jews tend to be more subtle.

My role in this sordid tale, which got cut out of the book for reasons below, regards the looted books. Just check the index and you will not see "Offenbach Depot" or "Library of Congress." What happened during WWII was that the Nazis not only looted art but books as well. In an odd twist of fate, the Nazis wanted to found a center to study Jews and Judaism. With that in mind, they collected over a million books rather than destroy them. At the end of the war the Nazis had them stored at the Offenbach Depot along with a number of other items.

A committee was set up, which included men from the Library of Congress, in order to repatriate books to the countries they had been looted from. The Nazis had also identified individual Jews with their own private libraries (I believe of 10,000 books) and confiscated those as well as items from Jewish libraries and synagogues. Just as with the art, many of the Jew owners had been murdered, so they went back to the country of origin. But what to do about Germany and those considered "unclaimed?" It was decided these for the most part would go to newly-founded Israel as the moral inheritors.

Unfortunately, in my opinion (and for which I was quoted in The Washington Post), the Library of Congress brought over hundreds of thousands of books, keeping some for their own collection and distributing others to 250 institutions. This is where I come in. I was the Library employee who had brought over the Library archives from storage (35 boxes I think) for some research on Third Reich materials in the Rare Book Division. For this reason, I was called to speak with the historian on Clinton's presidential commission as well as, three days later, the historian for the Department of Justice working on the same issue.

I told both the same thing when they asked "Does the Library have any Holocaust loot?": Yes. Surprised, they asked me how I knew. Easy, the documents point to this. Furthermore, there are stamps on the books which so identify them. Indeed, "transfer" and Offenbach Depot identifiers are all over the books. The problem, as I told them, is twofold. First, with over 20 million books at the Library, the majority of the loot was in the general collection. Secondly, thousands were sent to other libraries. I provided each with copies of the documents proving this. Interestingly, a number of the institutions receiving the material were worried about the legality and morality of the books. Of all the institutions that received the books, though, only Canada properly identified each book as being Holocaust loot. This was in case a family member appeared and wanted to search for family property.

After finding this out, Eizenstat's assistant called me up and asked to meet me. I agreed, but told him only off-site. I was then told that the Librarian of Congress, James Billington, had told this man to get lost. I then came home to a message on my answering machine from Bronfman's assistant, Elan Steinberg, giving me his office and cell phone numbers. By the time I called him back in a couple of days, events had moved very rapidly, including a DOJ meeting where my name was mentioned quite a few times. A woman answered Steinberg's phone and told me he didn't want to talk to me. Fine.

The book issue was at first on the commission's website, which I copied before they decided to erase that part. So what happened when I met Eizenstat? At the book talk at the Library of Congress he was warmly greeted by the Librarian as "his friend of thirty years." Okay. At the book signing I identified myself as the "unidentified Library employee" in his initial report regarding the books. His pen stopped in mid-air before he could sign. "Was this resolved to your satisfaction?" I replied, "Absolutely not."

This book, therefore is quite hypocritical on the part of the author. I am sure he is a nice guy and means well. But this country builds statues to people who tell the truth simply for the fact that telling the truth is always quite difficult--otherwise everybody would always tell the truth. I paid a price for telling the truth, even though I have no agenda and am not Jewish or the son of some SS doctor. That's why I read with amusement his closing statement and quote on page 356, "It is not your obligation to finish the task, but neither are you free to exempt yourself from it."

Having lived through the Holocaust, and as someone personally involved in ongoing efforts to recover art works stolen by the Nazis, I found Mr. Eizenstat's new book both revealing and insightful.

Pissarro's Impressionist masterpiece "Rue St. Honore, apres midi, effet de pluie," stolen from the Cassirer family by the Third Reich in 1938, is currently being held, in violation of international law, by the Spanish government in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. Mr. Eizenstat has selflessly provided much needed assistance to our family in connection with our efforts to effect its return.

"Imperfect Justice" illustrates, from a rare insider's point of view, the many challenges of typically difficult, complex and not infrequently controversial recovery efforts, and how these obstacles have been overcome on behalf of Holocaust victims and their families. The author's remarkable descriptions of how compensation agreements were forged, and many other fascinating details he shares from his first-hand experience on the "front line" of Holocaust recovery efforts are really most compelling. I encourage everyone interested in the "unfinished business" of the Holocaust to carefully read this unique work of non-fiction by a key figure in these extraordinary matters.

On one level, this book is worth reading just to affirm that there have in fact been times when important people, in this case one in particular -- the author -- cared fiercely about showing many suffering and powerless thousands that the world cared about the unfathomable injustices they had suffered. The victims didn't really get justice, as that was, as the title acknowledges, not remotely possible. But at least they knew that, finally, after decades of wall to wall indifference, someone was listening and trying, seriously, to do what could be done.

But what will make it hard for many readers to put this book down is that it is both a good story, entertainly told, and a shrewd analysis of a complex multi-party, multi-governmental, legal and political negotiation with high stakes, bitter differences, and high-powered protagonists. The book is certainly one of the best case-studies in captivity of the tricky and combustible mix of law, diplomacy, and politics both bureaucratic and democratic, that drives such processes. That this episode stayed on track to reach the best result that it could have was very far from a sure thing, from the beginning to the end. Eizenstat's seasoned, sometimes cynical, frequently amusing exegisis of the calculations, mistakes, and victories of the players makes the book hugely instructive for professionals as well as entertaining for casual students of government. It could be a popular teaching aid in law schools, especially for Eizenstat's exposition of his own strategies, and his often surprisingly candid Monday Morning quarterbacking of himself.

As the son of a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust refugee I do have mixed feelings. I got frustrated by many issues that were carefully avoided or downplayed in this book.

The preposterous claim that Switzerland had never dealt with it's own past is a recurring theme throughout the book. Wrong. Many books, movies, conferences, TV documentaries dealt with those issues before the crisis. Neither Stuart Eizenstat or D'Amato uncovered anything new but the distortion that was made of those documents was extremely cynical to say the least. Stuart Eizenstat believes that any declassified piece of information from the OSS blasting Switzerland is the absolute truth and continues to claim that the actions of the Swiss government helped extend the war. This is false and has been debunked over and over.

I also wish the book would have more than a passing reference to the holocaust assets in US and Israeli banks. Where is the outcry over those? Not only did the US close its gates to Jewish refugees, before, during and after the war, but immediately after the war helped Nazi war criminals. In fact every Allied or neutral country had terrible policies that turned away refugees.

How embarrassing that 2 of the most visible individuals among the plaintiffs were eventually found to be dubious characters. One was fired from the WJC in 2007 for allegedly embezzling [...] (an affair that was discovered in part thanks to the persistence of Alfred Donath, The president of the FSCI). While that individual was denouncing the perfidious Swiss, he was helping himself with WJC monies in his own secret Swiss bank account. The other one was arrested for having sex with a 17 year old prostitute in Austria in 2005.

Mr. Eizenstat is satisfied for having made Switzerland do the "right thing". The author says "Only the United States cared enough to try to repair the damage...". Very well. Then when will the US do the "right thing" and indemnify the descendants of African-American slaves, Vietnamese civilians or more recently the Iraqis affected by the war?

What transpires from the book is a disturbing feeling of great moral superiority from the "benevolent" United States government represented by Stuart Eizenstat in this instance, lecturing, guiding, or chastising foreign nations on about anything. That the plaintiffs were right on some instances, no doubt. But frankly reading the book 10 years after those events, it is in retrospect laughable to get lectured by a country that has since invaded nations, tortured, water boarded, detained innocents, spied on it's own citizens, and has presided over the collapse of the world economy.

I think it is correct to analyze Switzerland's role during WW2, but the Swiss population is rightly outraged when the US, which has whitewashed and muted its own cooperation with the Nazis and has done very little to help Jewish refugees, takes the moral highground to judge Switzerland. Switzerland has paid much more than it ever kept in terms of unaccounted deposits ($1.3billion paid versus a fraction of that amount unaccounted for according to the Bergier commission) it still gets criticized constantly by self-righteous individuals like the author of this book.

Terrific book! This is a deeply moving, informative and fascinating account. It should be read by everyone-- ordinary citizens, businessmen and women, religious leaders, lawyers, government officials, academics and students of the political process.

Everyone can learn from this book. Read it if you want to learn more about how:
· One committed government leader- in this case, Stuart Eizenstat- can tenaciously speak truth to power, proving that democratic government, in the hands of highly ethical and competent people, can serve well the interests of the powerless;
· A small group of international leaders, using lawsuits and diplomacy, media coverage and legislative action, can wrest some justice from the jaws of great multinational evil, even half a century after atrocities have been committed;
· Profoundly unethical corporate behavior can be effectively challenged and brought to justice- and how such immoral practices might be prevented in the first place;
· Real political power works in a democracy- from the inside out, and how ordinary individuals can cooperate with and use democratic power to obtain some justice for the wrongs they have suffered; and how
· The former Communist countries of Eastern Europe are supporting (or not) emerging democratic processes, the rule of law and the resurgence of many religious traditions-and how all this intersects with a fragile but hopeful renewal of Eastern European Judaism, previously decimated in these countries by the Holocaust and then by Communism.

Imperfect Justice is one splendid man's spellbinding account of the dogged search for compensation for those who survived the horrors of Nazi concentration camps- and for those (survivors and heirs) whose personal bank accounts, property, artworks and insurance policies were stolen from them and held hostage for more than fifty years.

In the end, against all odds, Stuart Eizenstat and his colleagues won eight billion dollars from the power centers of Europe as compensation for Holocaust victims, both Jews and non-Jews. A tremendous victory!

This book is the very readable, information-packed and compelling story of how it was done. Don't miss it!

I worked with Stu Eizenstat when I was Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights in the Clinton Administration. Although I did not know him before, except by reputation, I soon came to know him as an inspired diplomat and public servant. The work he did in bringing a resolution to the Holocaust Assets dispute was a remarkable display of ability, imagination, persistence, and conscience. This book not only tells Eizenstat's story in a compelling way, and from a profoundly human perspective, but also captures the rare decency and commitment of the author to what many considered an impossible cause. As a modern human rights memoir, it ranks with Aryeh Neier's Taking Liberties and Jeri Laber's The Courage of Strangers. This is a memoir of conscience that anyone who wants to make human rights real should read, and remember.

Stuart Eizenstat has written an excellent book - it's a fair account of the protracted negotiations for compensation for victims of the Holocaust. Eizenstat is a sharp observer, and he doesn't hesitate critizising people (including himself) when he thought they made mistakes.
This is the first real inside report of the sometimes dramatic negotiations on compensation for Nazi slave labourers and property restitution. As a German who has closely followed these issues I can only congratulate Mr. Eizenstat, not just for his work, but also for his book: it is quite the contrary of what I expected - honest, balanced (but never boring), and above all: very authoritative. An absolute "must" for everyone interested in these issues.

Imperfect Justice was unbelievable. Eizenstat's accomplishments are incredible and heroic. This book is not to be missed. Let no reader confuse a bitter and vitriolic diatribe for objective criticism. Any criticism or praise for a book should focus on the book itself, rather than the author's behavoir, or the actual topic of the book. This is the very definition of intellectual integrity (emphasis added towards the review above).

It is a great shame that Mr. Eisenstat and some 24 lawyers, the Organizations, Judges Gribitz and Korman, Prof. B. Neuborne had a great opportunity to finally secure payment for the victims for what was taken from them and they deliberately blew it. The German Companies worked us to death and paid "a pitance" under this agreement. The Swiss Banks promissed to safeguard our accounts and instead kept them mostly for themselves and hid the legdgers from us. Mr. Eisenstat writes at the end of his book (I paraphrase) "dont worry Gizella, Greta and-------I will take care of you". Yes, he Stuart Eisenstat, is taking care, but of himself and not the victims. He is portraying himself as a hero rather then a villain. Burt Neuborn has taken $5,000,000 from Germany for masterminding the Settlement and the other lawyers got over $54 million, or about $1 million each. Mr. Eisenstat is now seeking recognition. For what? He got for each victim approximately $7,000 from Germany and $400 from the Swiss Banks. He left Gizela bitter and due to the stress during the whole affair Gizela's son died from becaming terribly distressed because of the way Mr. Eisenstat and the others named above have treated her and the other concentration camp victims. It is a great shame that a Stuart Eisenstat, a Neuborn and a Korman could so terribly hurt the survivors and at the same time are able to give immunity from suits to the German and Swiss companies that became wealthy by sucking the blood and the life out of the still living survivors. Even worse is that they have destroyed the last hope of the survivors for a final, decent and fair treatment under a transparent due process. This whole process and attitude over which Eisenstat has presided in these two settlements is a morally bancrupt undertaking. And now they claim credit for themselves from an uninformed public. Read the book, if you have to, but the outcome for the victims speaks louder then what has been stated in the volume. We ask the general public; will someone correct this injustice and any future ones that a Suart Eisenstat is part of? Holocaust victims must be properly and directly compensated just like our brethren the US GIS who were in the camp with us at Berga during WWII and each received an appology and a payment between $75,000 and $100,000 from the German Government.