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

New York, New York, U.S.A.: Public Affairs, 2003. Second ed. . Hardcover. As New/As New. Some B/W Photos. Signed by the author on a Tribute to Holocaust Survivors bookplate. Embossed seal on title page. From the Inside Flap In the second half of the 1990s, Stuart Eizenstat had perhaps the most controversial assignment of any U.S. foreign policy official in Europe. His mission had nothing to do with Russia, the Middle East, Yugoslavia, or any of the other hotspots of the day. Rather, Eizenstat's mission was to provide justice-albeit belated and imperfect justice-for the victims of World War II, while maintaining positive diplomatic relations with the nations being asked to pay. Imperfect Justice is Stuart Eizenstat's personal account of how the Holocaust became a political and diplomatic battleground fifty years after the war's end, as the issues of dormant bank accounts, slave labor, confiscated property, looted art, and unpaid insurance policies convulsed Europe and America. His story is not one of easy successes or an idyllic view of justice. Rather, it is a revealing chronicle of high-stakes negotiations involving heads of European governments, played out on an international stage in an emotionally charged atmosphere, with a subtext of crimes against humanity and billions of dollars on the table. Eizenstat recounts the often heated negotiations with the Swiss, the Germans, the French, the Austrians, and various Jewish organizations, showing how moral and legal issues shunted aside for so long, exposed wounds that had never healed and conflicts that had never been properly resolved. Each country responded in its own way: Switzerland fought the disclosures about its past and deeply resented the outside pressure it faced; Germany accepted that it was once again called upon to account for its wartime sins, this time for those committed by private industry; Austria was torn, seeing itself as both victim and collaborator with Hitler; and France courageously accepted national responsibility for the Vichy regime. And on the other side of the table were a remarkable cast of characters: class-action lawyers, some of whom were altruistic while others were as interested in their own press clippings as in serving the needs of the survivors they represented; Jewish organizations that were at each other's throats over who best represented the victims in their quest for justice; politicians with their own agendas and ambitions, including New York's colorful senator Alfonse D'Amato, who turned the issue into his own personal crusade; and the President of the United States, Bill Clinton. After six years of effort, Eizenstat and his team secured settlements totaling $8 billion for the victims of the Nazis, Jews and non-Jews alike, from some of the most powerful firms in Europe; they returned assets to their rightful owners; and they helped the countries of Europe face their past. Eizenstat's work has also laid the groundwork for resolving future disputes arising from man's inhumanity to man, proving that it is possible to bring justice, even imperfect justice, to an unjust world. About the Author Stuart E. Eizenstat served in severa l high-level positions in the State, Treasury, and Commerce Departments from 1993 to 2001. He is cur rently the head of international trade and finance at the law firm of Covington & Burling in Washing ton, D.C.