{"id":96348,"date":"2019-12-13T02:20:07","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T08:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=96348"},"modified":"2019-12-12T19:03:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T02:03:13","slug":"the-sinister-face-of-neutrality-the-role-of-swiss-financial-institutions-in-the-plunder-of-european-jewry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/13\/the-sinister-face-of-neutrality-the-role-of-swiss-financial-institutions-in-the-plunder-of-european-jewry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sinister Face of ‘Neutrality’ \t -The Role of Swiss Financial Institutions in the Plunder of European Jewry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy PBS.org<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\n<\/td> Switzerland’s reputation as a neutral safe-haven during World War 11 has been badly tarnished by recent revelations about its wartime transactions with Germany. What began as an examination of the dormant bank accounts of Holocaust victims has gained momentum to include the whole gamut of Swiss financial dealings with the Nazis. In recent months a vast amount of incriminating documentation has been unearthed that reveals the sinister side of Swiss “neutrality”. Switzerland served as a repository for Jewish capital smuggled out of Nazi Germany and the states threatened by it, and also for vast quantities of gold and other valuables plundered from Jews and others all over Europe. Right up until the end of the war, Switzerland laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen assets, including gold taken from the central banks of German-occupied Europe. At the war’s end Switzerland successfully resisted Allied calls to restitute these funds, and in the Washington Agreement of 1946 the Allies contented themselves with acceptance of a mere 12% of the stolen gold. Holocaust survivors and the heirs of those who perished met an implacable wall of bureaucracy and only a handful managed to reclaim their assets. As it turns out, some of the dormant accounts were taken by the Swiss authorities to satisfy claims of Swiss nationals whose property was seized by Communist regimes in East Central Europe. Among the most recent revelations is the fact that both the United States and the United Kingdom still retain looted gold recovered in Germany. Jewish groups and others have suggested that the gold be transferred for the benefit of Holocaust survivors. In the last year international pressure has steadily mounted on the Swiss to allow for the conduct of a transparent audit and investigation. US Senator Alfonse D’Amato has spearheaded these efforts to force the Swiss to restitute property and has called for the Washington Agreement to be re-negotiated. In May 1996 the Swiss Bankers’ Association signed an agreement with the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) to establish the “Independent Committee of Eminent Persons” to carry out a thorough and transparent audit which will identify and recover dormant accounts. Switzerland and the United States have also established special committees to investigate the fate of plundered Jewish and other property which was secreted in Switzerland. <\/td><\/tr>
\n\n<\/td>\n\n\nSwiss banks have long been a favored repository of capital from unstable\ncountries. Before the Second World War, with the rise of Nazism, many Jews in\nCentral and East Europe sought to protect a part of their assets by depositing\nmoney in Swiss accounts, and their valuables in Swiss safe deposit boxes. To\nencourage such transfers, in 1934 the Swiss even strengthened special banking\nsecrecy laws which facilitated preservation of the anonymity of depositors.\n\n\tMost of the Jews who availed themselves of the opportunity to transfer\ntheir assets failed to escape the flames of the Holocaust. While happy to\naccept Jewish capital, the Swiss were less happy to accept Jewish refugees\n(often their own depositors). It is well known that the Swiss vigorously\nblocked the entry of Jews attempting to flee Germany and occupied Europe. In\n1938 (at the suggestion of Swiss Chief of Police Heinrich Rothmund) Bern\nrequested that Berlin mark the passports of Jews with a “J” – so that German\nJews could be instantly distinguished from German gentiles – and be denied\nadmission to Switzerland. Indeed, the great majority of those denied sanctuary\nin Switzerland perished in the German death camps.\n\n\nIn 1995, speaking about Swiss complicity in the Holocaust, Federal President\nKaspar Villiger declared that “we bear a considerable burden of guilt for the\ntreatment of Jews by our country”. This was the first official admission of\nany Swiss culpability for the fate of European Jewry. It took the Swiss fifty\nyears to admit any responsibility for wrongdoing. It took the Swiss fifty-five\nyears to exonerate (posthumously) Paul Grueninger, the police chief in the St.\nGallen Canton who defied regulations and aided thousands of Austrian Jews in\nescaping to Switzerland. As a result of his actions, Grueninger was dismissed\nfrom the police and convicted of fraud.\n\n\nAfter the war, when the survivors attempted to reclaim their assets, they were\nensnared in a web of bureaucracy that refused to recognize the fact that death\ncamp survivors, or the heirs of those who perished, could not possibly furnish\ncustomary documentation such as death certificates. Swiss banks strictly\nadhered to the rigid restrictions of Swiss banking law in total disregard of\nthe special situation which had arisen out of the mass murder of the Jews of\nEurope.\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n\n<\/td>\n\n\nBut the Swiss enriched themselves not just from the victims of the Shoah, but\nalso from the perpetrators. Switzerland was the favorite haven for Nazi bank\naccounts and safe deposit boxes, which often contained property plundered from\nJews. Swiss banks did a lucrative business with the German Reichsbank and with\nindividual Nazi officials. Symbolically, even the royalties from Hitler’s\nMein Kampf <\/em>were deposited in a Swiss bank account.\n\n\n\tToward the end of the war, when other neutral states refused to purchase gold\ndirectly from Germany, Switzerland continued to carry on this highly profitable\ntrade. That gold generally came from two sources – the gold reserves of the\ncentral banks of the occupied countries and gold taken from individuals –\nincluding gold dental fillings extracted from corpses.\n\n\nDocuments recently uncovered in former East German archives suggest that in\n1944, SS Chief and German Interior Minister Heinrich Himmler sent a special\ntrain loaded with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold, jewelry and\nart objects to Switzerland for deposit in the vaults of Swiss banks.\n\n\n There is considerable evidence to suggest that these funds were originally\nearmarked for laying the foundations of a Fourth Reich. This scenario was\nfirst publicized in a novel by Frederick Forsyth called the Odessa File.\n<\/em>As Forsyth explained, his book was based on several actual events,\nincluding a meeting by German industrialists, representing some of the leading\nGerman concerns, in Strasbourg in November 1944. In recent months the WJC has\nuncovered secret documents confirming that the Maison Rouge <\/em>gathering\nactually did take place.\n\n\nAt that meeting, at which SS Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Scheid presided, the\ncaptains of German industry were told, “From now on German industry must\nrealize that the war cannot be won and that it must take steps in preparation\nfor a post-war commercial campaign.” These steps included smuggling over $100\nmillion in gold bullion to Switzerland.\n\n\nThus, Swiss banks managed to attract and retain the assets that Jews managed to\nsmuggle out, and much of what they did not. The latter, plundered by the\nGermans, was deposited in Switzerland. As it happens, not only Swiss financial\ninstitutions were beneficiaries of Jewish suffering, but Swiss commercial and\nindustrial firms as well. For example, Bally, the celebrated Swiss shoe\ncompany, appears to have acquired shops in Germany confiscated from Jews.\nDiamonds stolen from over 1,000 firms in German-occupied Belgium were sold to\nSwiss and Spanish dealers.\n\n\nSwiss art dealers trafficked in art seized from Jews and others. Britain’s\nchief investigator of looted art produced damning reports on the activities of\nthe Swiss dealers. Both American and British authorities pressed for the\nprosecution of several of the worst offenders. Nothing, however, seems to have\ncome of this.\n\n\nWorld Jewish Congress efforts to force Switzerland to look into the issue of\nthe dormant bank accounts of Holocaust victims led to a broader investigation\nwhich revealed the extent of Switzerland’s role as a depository of plundered\nJewish and Allied property. Consequently, we can distinguish several types of\nassets which wound up in Switzerland and which arc now the focus\nof international attention and a number of committees of inquiry:\n\n-Dormant private and corporate bank accounts and safe deposit boxes\n-Monetary gold plundered from the central banks of the occupied countries\n\t-Privately owned gold and other precious metals and jewels, including dental\ngold, much of which was melted down and intermingled with the monetary gold\n\t-All manner of assets, “legitimate” and plundered, including art work, stashed\nin Switzerland by German officials and businessmen\n\t-Stolen assets bought by Swiss individuals and institutions for disposal in\nSwitzerland or abroad\n -Insurance policies.\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n\n<\/td>\n\n\nA 1962 law compelled the banks to make what amounted to a half-hearted attempt\nto identify dormant accounts belonging to victims. It was up to Swiss banks\nthemselves to determine whether or not an account fell into that category.\nMoreover, there was no independent supervision. Banks were not obliged to draw\nup a list for outside inspection. Money from depositors in East Europe (the\nhome of the majority of Shoah victims), which had fallen under Communist\ncontrol, or in the names of corporate entities (which could not, claimed the\nSwiss, be victims of racial persecution) were disqualified. The banks were\nonly compelled to handle submitted claims – immediately eliminating cases in\nwhich beneficiaries or heirs did not themselves have knowledge of the existence\nof accounts, or were so intimidated by the bureaucracy that they never\nsubmitted claims. A total of SF 7.5 million in 961 accounts was turned over to\nclaimants, and an additional SF 2 million was given to the Swiss Jewish\ncommunities and a Swiss refugee organization. However, only a tiny fraction of\nthe 7,000 cases received in response to a Swiss appeal for submission of claims\nwere affected by this action. Safe deposit boxes were not affected by the law,\nnor were any of the other assets enumerated above.\n\n\nSome nine years ago, in an effort to assuage critics, Union Bank of Switzerland\ndonated US $40 million to the International Red Cross (IRC) as token payment to\ncompensate for unclaimed accounts belonging to victims of the Shoah. It is\ndifficult to ignore the irony in the fact that the recipient of the Swiss\nbanks’ charity was an organization particularly indifferent to the plight of\nEuropean Jewry during the war – as its present President, Cornelio Sommaruga,\nadmitted publicly. Addressing the WJC- sponsored Israel Council on Foreign\nRelations in Jerusalem in June 1995, Sommaruga expressed his “compassion for\nthe millions of victims of the Shoah… Our failure to speak out at that time\nwas a moral defeat.” WJC Secretary General Israel Singer characterized the\nmoney given to the IRC as “a gift of money from those who did not own it to\nthose who did not deserve it”.\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n<\/strong>\n<\/td>\n\n\nFor many years the Swiss banking community had maintained that its 1962\/63\npayout settled once and for all the question of unclaimed Jewish assets. Last\nyear, however, that facade began to crack. The international news media,\nincluding leading business publications such as the Wall Street Journal,\nBusiness Week <\/em>and the Financial Times, <\/em>devoted considerable\nattention to this issue. Two important Swiss banks – the Union Bank of\nSwitzerland (UBS) and the Societe de Banque Suisse (SBS) – were compelled to\nadmit that they “probably” still have the accounts of Holocaust victims on\ndeposit. That Swiss banks used the dormant accounts in order to enrich\nthemselves is now beyond question. Last year, there was already enough\nevidence of this to prompt Swiss MP Otto Piller to investigate the allegations\nand to submit the issue to the Swiss Parliament. The Swiss Government issued a\nreply which, while not admitting that the banks were engaging in such practice,\ndid call for the banks to cooperate and facilitate the handling of claims. The\nDirector of the Federal Banking Commission, Kurt Hauri, declared that “the\nmoney remains the property of the depositors and their legal heirs” and added\nthat the charges that banks had been appropriating such money “prejudice the\nreputation of the Swiss financial establishment”.\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n\n<\/td>\n\nLast year, in the face of a concerted campaign to induce the Swiss to address\nthe issue of Holocaust-era assets in Switzerland, SBA President Georg Krayer,\nadmitted that the banks were holding Jewish assets and announced the discovery\nof US $32 million in still dormant accounts. That figure was immediately\ncalled into question and independent researchers believed it to be a gross\nunderestimate.\n\n\nHowever, from the outset the World Jewish Congress made clear that irrespective\nof the amount of money that could or would be retrieved, a principle was\ninvolved. Neither Swiss banks nor any others should be allowed to benefit from\nthe murder of their depositors. This principle was acknowledged by Swiss\nPresident Villiger at a meeting with WJC President Edgar M. Bronfman in\nSeptember 1995.\n\n\nConsequently, the SBA finally agreed to establish a special commission to\ninvestigate this question and appointed an ombudsman to oversee it. A central\noffice was established to answer inquiries. Of particular importance was the\npledge to create a central research center which would gather the necessary\ndocumentation in order to determine the identity of heirs and accounts and\nwould look into the applications with a minimum of red tape and bureaucracy.\nGeorg Krayer claims that “banking secrecy does not obstruct the search for\nassets in any way”. A separate problem entirely is that of funds entrusted to\nlaw offices which were to act in a fiduciary capacity, and savings that were\nplaced in insurance policies.\n\n\nThe Swiss historian Jacques Picard attributed the willingness of the Swiss\nbankers to deal with this issue to the international expansion of their banks:\n“Internationalization means banks have to adopt world standards of business ethics.” \nThe WJC insisted on an independent and transparent audit and the Swiss agreed.\n\n\nThe Swiss bankers apparently thought that they could manipulate events to suit\nthemselves. In February 1996, in direct contravention of the understanding\nwith the World Jewish Congress, the SBA announced, unilaterally, that it had\nalready conducted its own (non-independent) audit and “discovered” a total of\nUS $32 million in dormant accounts its member institutions, reiterating the\nfigure it had publicized before concluding an agreement with the WJC. It was\nnever made clear whether the alleged US $32 million included interest on the\ndormant accounts. Conservative\nestimates placed the figure at several hundred million dollars. “This amount\ndefies credibility” stated Mr. Bronfman. “In any case I told them that we\nweren’t interested in the money but the process. Swiss banks cannot be allowed\nto profit from the Holocaust.”\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n\n<\/td>\n\nIn late April 1996, New York Senator Alfonse D’Amato chaired a hearing on the\nSwiss banks issue before the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban\nAffairs. Meantime, President Bill Clinton expressed his support for WJC\nefforts in a personal letter to Mr. Bronfman. In fact, the US Government has\nbeen particularly supportive of efforts to force the Swiss to conduct a\nthorough, transparent investigation. Its special envoy for restitution\nmatters, Undersecretary of Commerce Stuart Eizenstat, was charged with\nrepresenting the United States.\n\n\nUnder increasing pressure and eager to avert a public relations disaster (there\nwas even talk of a boycott of Swiss financial institutions along the lines of\nthat used against companies which did business with South Africa in the days of\napartheid was contemplated), the Swiss capitulated.\n\n\nOn 2 May 1996, Swiss banking officials signed an agreement with the World\nJewish Congress and the World Jewish Restitution Organization to investigate\ndeposits of Holocaust victims. The agreement provided for the creation a\nsix-member commission, an “Independent Committee of Eminent Persons”, to carry\nout a thorough audit which will identify and recover dormant accounts. This\nnew body is composed of three Jewish representatives and three representatives\nof the Swiss banking establishment. The Jewish side is represented by\nPresident of the Latin American Jewish Congress Ruben Beraja, Chairman of the\nJewish Agency Avraham Burg, and WJC Treasurer Ronald Lauder. The Swiss\nappointees are Professors Alain Hirsch, Klaus Jacobi and Curt Gasteyger. The\nCommittee is chaired by former US Federal Reserve\nchairman, Paul Volcker. The alternates for the Jewish side are \nZvi Barak of the Jewish Agency and WJC Secretary General Israel Singer. The\nSwiss alternates are Hans Baer and Dr. Pieder Mengiardi. The work of the\nVolcker Committee is to be completed\nby 1998.\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n\n<\/td>\n\n\nThe WJC investigation into Swiss banking transaction led to the discovery of\nincriminating evidence of Switzerland’s blatant collaboration with Nazi\nGermany. WJC researchers in the US National Archives found declassified\ndocuments on an American intelligence project called “Operation Safe Haven”.\nThe aim of this operation was to recover assets seized by Germany and sent to\nSwitzerland and other neutral states.\n\n\nAs already noted, throughout the war, but particularly toward the end, when it\nbecame clear to German leaders that the Reich would be overrun, vast amounts of\nplundered property were spirited to Switzerland. Even before the end of the\nwar, in April 1945, the US Legation in Bern advised Washington that “the Swiss\nagreed with the Germans to accept 3,000 kilos (6,600 lbs.) of gold for use\nagainst ‘diplomatic’ services”. There are, in fact, varying estimates of the\nvalue of these assets. However, one document suggests that the Germans\nsucceeded in seizing US $587 million in gold, of which US $402 million was\n“shipped to or through Switzerland” truly a money-laundering operation\nunprecedented in scope and magnitude.\n\n\nAfter the war, when US intelligence debriefed the director of the foreign\nexchange department of the German Economics Ministry, it became clear that\nwhereas all the neutral countries, out of consideration for their stance as\nneutrals, had refused to accept gold directly from the Reichsbank, Switzerland\ncarried on gold transactions with Berlin until the beginning of 1945.\n\n\nWith the cessation of hostilities in Europe, the United States and other Allied\npowers attempted to secure the return of this property. However, the Swiss\nwere less than eager to surrender their new-found economic windfall.\nEventually, after several years of stonewalling by Bern, the Allies agreed to\naccept a paltry $60 million or about 12% of the value of the gold sent to\nSwitzerland. This arrangement was formalized in the Washington Agreement of\n1946. That 12% was transferred to the Allied Tripartite Gold Commission which\nwas established to return monetary gold to the central banks from whom it had\nbeen plundered, and later divided among ten Allied claimants. Thus the lion’s\nshare of the booty enriched the coffers of Swiss financial institutions. In\neffect Switzerland was handsomely rewarded for its cozy relations with Nazi\nGermany. Researchers believe that much of the looted gold that found its way\nto Switzerland was sold to third parties, notably Portugal.\n\n\nOf late there have been calls, by Senator D’Amato and others, for the Allies to\nre-negotiate the Washington Agreement which was signed in part because the\nSwiss had withheld information on the true magnitude of their transactions with\nthe Germans.\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n\n<\/td>\n<\/strong>\n\nQuestions remain concerning the ultimate disposition of gold sequestered by\nGermany’s foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, who smuggled 15 tons of\ngold out of Berlin before the city’s fall to the Red Army. Recently\ndeclassified documents suggest that 6.5 tons of that gold was surrendered to US\nforces and some 2 tons wound up in the hands of the British army in theGerman province of Schleswig-Holstein. The balance was smuggled out to\nvarious neutral countries including Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and\nSwitzerland. A part of these assets, including some which fell into the hands\nof Allied forces, has disappeared – at least for the time being – without a\ntrace. SS Chief Heinrich Himmler also succeeded in smuggling plundered\nproperty to Switzerland and the whereabouts of this trove have never been\nestablished.\n\n\nSome of the loot never made it to Switzerland. In the Merkers salt mine in\nGermany example, Allied troops discovered a cache of valuables, including bags\nof gold and silver coins, huge quantities of candlesticks, kiddush <\/em>cups,\ndental fillings, jewelry, opera glasses and in other items. In a memorandum\nGeneral Dwight D. Eisenhower noted that “the hoard may constitute items of\nevidence… for the prosecution of war criminals.” What is known for certain is\nthat only a fraction of these assets were placed at the disposal of\norganizations working for rehabilitation of the survivors themselves. The\ngreat majority wound up in the hands of the Tripartite Gold Commission. As Mr.\nBronfman noted: “Everyone was blithe about Jewish property. It wasn’t just the\nSwiss. That was the attitude of everyone – the Americans, the English, the\nFrench. It was as if they were saying ‘The Jews are dead, so to hell with\n’em.’ They reallyweren’t very concerned that lots of people were\nmaking profits from the assets of dead people.”\n\n\nUnder these circumstances US Undersecretary of Commerce Eizenstat called on the\nUnited States to examine itsown records to see exactly what was done\nwith the US $60 million which the US Government received from Switzerland and\nwhy the Allies were not more forceful in their negotiations with the Swiss.\nSpeaking in Jerusalem in August 1996, he explained: “We know that in 1946 the\nSwiss Government turned a significant amount of funds over to the US\nGovernment, possibly looted money. We believe that the amount was distributed.\nSome was kept in the US Treasury, some was distributed to the Allied powers.\nWhat we do know is that none of that money went into the hands of those from\nwhom it was looted. Just as Switzerland may have to undergo some painful\nexamination about its role, so too will the US Government.”\n\n\nSince that time it has been revealed that some of the gold turned over to the\nUS, two tons in fact, has been sitting deep within the bowels of the US Federal\nReserve Bank in New York City for close to fifty years. Describing the latest\nfindings Mr. Eizenstat wrote: “We are peeling back the layers of an onion.”\n\n\nQuestions have been raised in Britain, which was also a party to the\nnegotiations with the Swiss and which received a lump-sum payment. The British\nGovernment initially denied any knowledge of the matter. However, pressed by\nMP Greville Janner, who revealed the existence of declassified secret documents\non the transactions, the government opened an investigation.\n\n\nThe findings of that inquiry highlighted Bern’s refusal to return more than\nwhat the Times <\/em>ofLondon called “a fraction of the huge sum of\nbooty hidden in Swiss vaults”. The government report confirmed that Germany\nlooted more than $550 million in gold (now worth more than $6 billion) and\ndispatched most of it to Switzerland – and that only a small portion was ever\nreturned to Allied governments. Apparently some of it (three tons) still sits\nin the vaults of the Bank of England. The Times <\/em>described the Foreign\nOffice report as “a fascinating account of greed, deception and double dealing.\nIt does not admit to any British conspiracy to hide ill-gotten ingots in the\nBank of England. But it does point to an almost unconscionable delay in\novercoming the legal and bureaucratic obstacles that stood between the Nazis’\nvictims, or their heirs and representatives, and the money plundered from them\nto fund Hitler’s war machine.” Together with the gold in the US Federal Reserve\nin New York, some $65 million has yet to be distributed to those from whom it\nwas looted, or at least their heirs.\n\n\nThe Bank for International Settlement (BIS) has also not emerged from this\naffair unscathed. Historians have revealed that the BIS was an important cog\nin the Reichsbank’s money-laundering operations. The BIS bought gold from the\nSwiss fully cognizant of the fact that it had had been looted by the Germans\nand sold to the Swiss. Moreover, the BIS had acted to facilitate Reichsbank\ngold transactions with third countries, directly aiding the German war\neffort.\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n\n\n<\/td>\n\nThere seems to be almost no end to the damning revelations of\nSwitzerland’s wartime and immediate post-war financial activity – and the\nextent to which the Swiss are willing to try to cover their tracks. For\nexample, attention has been focused on the fact that after the war Switzerland\nconcluded bilateral agreements with the Communist regimes in Poland and several\nother countries in East Europe. Under the terms of these arrangements\nSwitzerland transferred the proceeds of dormant bank accounts of Polish\ncitizens to Swiss businessmen in order to satisfy their claims for property\nnationalized in Poland. This handy deal considerably simplified the clearance\nof Swiss claims to Swiss-owned property seized by the Communists. Although\nthis agreement was not covert, and was debated in the Swiss Parliament, until\nrecently the Swiss Foreign Ministry vigorously denied the existence of any such\naccords. That denial rang hollow, however, when detailed documentation\nrevealing the matter was published in the Swiss and foreign media.\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n\n<\/td>\n\nThe question of heirless accounts is particularly troubling. Some Jews\nmanaged to secure their capital in Swiss banks, but they and their entire\nfamilies were wiped out. Under those circumstances many accounts have never\nbeen claimed. Here a precedent has already been established. In the case of\nproperty in Central and East Europe, the State of Israel and the Jewish people\nhave come forward as the legitimate beneficiaries of those who perished leaving\nno heirs.\n\n\nIn 1992, following the precedent set by the Conference on Jewish Material\nClaims Against Germany, leading Jewish organizations, including the WJC, B’nai\nB’rith, the Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Agency, and survivors’\ngroups created the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO). The\norganization’s activities are focused on the coordination of claims for the\nreturn of communal property and in the transfer of heirless holdings to the\nJewish People. WJC President and WJRO Chairman Edgar M. Bronfman and then\nIsraeli Minister of Finance Avraham Shohat signed a memorandum in November 1992\nin which the State of Israel’s special interest in the restitution of Jewish\nproperty was established. The memorandum recognized that “the State considers\nitself to be the natural and principal heir to Jewish public property and where\nthere is no other heir to Jewish private property, together with the local\nJewish communities and the Jewish People”.\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n\n<\/td>\n\n\nIn recent months, Switzerland has come under heavy international attack for its\nbehavior both during the war and after. The Times <\/em>of London called\nSwitzerland “the largest beneficiary of German gold efforts” and called its\nrefusal to hand over that money “outrageous”. Switzerland, it claimed, had\nrepeatedly displayed a “tidy habit of hiding away past embarrassments” and its\npresent behavior was “immoral, selfish and unworthy of a democracy”.\n\n\nAs a 1946 US government memorandum addressing the subject of “Allied Policies\nfor Negotiations of Looted Gold Question” noted: “Allied negotiators should\nmake it clear to the Swiss officials that the fact that specific looted gold is\nno longer in Swiss possession does not operate to defeat the Allied claim or\nhinder or impede the handing over of an equivalent amount of gold.” This\nprinciple should certainly be applied today, especially now when some in\nSwitzerland claim that the gold in question has already been passed on to other\ncountries, “fenced” as it were, and therefore Switzerland is no longer obliged\nto pay any compensation.\n\n\nClearly, in the wake of these findings, Switzerland’s neutrality in World War\n11 must be closely examined. Given Switzerland’s recent record there can be no\nlet-up of international pressure on the Swiss to resolve the issue of Holocaust\nvictims’ accounts and the return of property plundered by the Germans. The\nnumber of Holocaust survivors is dwindling fast. Speedy action has to be taken\nin order for them to enjoy some of the benefits that may accrue from the\nrestitution. There can be no rest until justice is done – even if its fruits\nare, alas, primarily posthumous ones.\n\n\nThe case of Switzerland highlights the fact that it is not just countries once\nshrouded by the Iron Curtain that have benefited from plundered Jewish assets.\nIndeed, in recent months considerable evidence has emerged to indicate that\nproperty stolen from Jews in Norway, the Netherlands, France, Austria and\nelsewhere was not always\n restituted. Countries which served as repositories for\nplundered property must be pressed to open their archives for investigation.\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n<\/strong>\n<\/td>\nJust as other nations in Europe have been forced to confront the seamy side of\ntheir history, so too must the Swiss, no matter how embarrassing or costly.\nSome in Switzerland have recognized this and said as much. Swiss MP Verena\nGrendelmeier has spearheaded domestic efforts to open a serious investigation.\nLili Nabholz, president of the lower house’s Legal Affairs Commission, told her\ncolleagues in parliament: “What we are doing we are doing late, but it is never\ntoo late.” Another MP, Paul Rechtsteiner, said that an investigation offered “a\nunique chance for Switzerland to draw up a picture of itself that is close to\nreality” adding that the current image was based on “self-deception and\nlies”.\n\n\nFifty years have elapsed since the catastrophe that claimed the lives of two\nthirds of the Jews of Europe, a third of world Jewry. In the face of\nincreasing evidence of the widespread Swiss collaboration, through omission and\ncommission, justice dictates that at least the assets of the victims be\nrestored to their heirs – and where there are none, to Israel and the Jewish\npeople.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy PBS.org Switzerland’s reputation as a neutral safe-haven during World War 11 has been badly tarnished by recent revelations about its wartime transactions with Germany. What began as an examination of the dormant bank accounts of Holocaust victims has gained momentum to include the whole gamut of Swiss financial dealings with the Nazis. In recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}