Secretary Blinken appointed Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat as his Special Adviser on Holocaust Issues. He is a former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, and Ambassador to the European Union, and is currently with the law firm of Covington & Burling. Ambassador Eizenstat held the same advisory position for Secretaries of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Kerry. He served as an Expert Advisor on Holocaust Issues during the previous Administration.
Ambassador Eizenstat brings with him extensive experience in resolving Holocaust claims and related disputes. As the Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust-era issues during the administration of President Clinton, he negotiated landmark agreements with the Swiss, Germans, Austrians, French, and others covering the restitution of property, compensation payments to slave and forced laborers, recovery of looted art and bank accounts, and payment of insurance policies.
In the Carter Administration, Ambassador Eizenstat was Chief White House Domestic Policy Adviser. His recommendation to President Carter to create the Presidential Commission on the Holocaust headed by Elie Wiesel led directly to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, for which he is recognized as a key founder.
He chairs the board of the Defiant Requiem Foundation, honoring the memory of the musicians and artists at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. He has received eight honorary doctorates and more than 75 awards, including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s highest honor, the Elie Wiesel Award, as well as honors from the governments of France (Legion of Honor), Germany, Austria, Belgium, Israel, and the United States. He has authored three books, including Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor & the Unfinished Business of World War II. He is a Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which created the Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat Chair of Modern Jewish History, and of Harvard Law School.