Jews praise Swiss action on Holocaust fund
DANIEL KURTZMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Switzerland's decision to establish a fund for Holocaust victims may signal a sea change in the way the embattled nation is confronting its wartime past.
After months of pressure from world Jewish leaders, the Swiss government announced last week that it would work with Swiss banks and insurance companies to set up a fund to begin compensating Holocaust victims and their heirs whose assets vanished into the Swiss banking system half a century ago. Switzerland's critics welcomed the move, which came six weeks after World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman publicly called on Switzerland to make a "good faith financial gesture" to Holocaust survivors and the world Jewish community.
New controversy
Jewish officials see the Swiss decision as an important breakthrough - a sign that Switzerland may finally be willing to offer both a financial and moral accounting of its dealings with the Nazis and its handling of Jewish assets. But just as Switzerland won rare praise from its leading critics, a new controversy erupted this week that threatened to create new strains.
Carlo Jagmetti, Switzerland's ambassador to the United States, resigned Monday after the publication of a confidential diplomatic cable he authored last month calling for a public relations "war" against "adversaries," such as the WJC and Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) Jewish and U.S. government officials lambasted him and called his resignation appropriate.
Over the course of the last year, Switzerland has found itself besieged by international criticism surrounding allegations that it hoarded the wealth of Holocaust victims while helping to finance the Nazi war effort. Last week's decision to set up a fund "means they're willing to address the two demands the Jewish world has placed before them: the demand for moral restitution and material restitution," said Elan Steinberg, executive director of the WJC.
"By moral, we mean honestly addressing their history so that we may deal with each other in an honest fashion and face each other with dignity," he said. "By material, we mean returning to those victims who were deprived of their possessions the assets that clearly belong to them."
A 'breakthrough'
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, characterized the Swiss move as an important "psychological breakthrough."
"Rather than being angry and defensive, they're coming to grips and moving forward," said Foxman, who met with top political and banking officials earlier this month in Switzerland.
D'Amato, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, called the Swiss plan a "step in the right direction," as did State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns. The fund, Burns said, constitutes an important move for the Swiss "in the process of coming to terms with the past."
Jewish organizations claim Swiss banks hold up to $7 billion in assets belonging to Jews killed in the Holocaust. But the Swiss banks say initial searches of their archives have found only $32 million in unclaimed assets.
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