|
|
Report puts focus on other wartime 'neutrals'
MITCHELL DANOW
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - This week's release of a long-awaited report about the role of six so-called neutral nations in the Nazi war effort means that Switzerland no longer stands alone under the microscope.
Swiss officials had been looking forward to the second installment of a U.S. State Department report, with its examination of the trade in war material by Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Argentina, as well as by Switzerland - trade that "helped to sustain the Nazi war effort," according to the report.
The first report, issued last year, focused on the amount of looted gold that made its way during World War II from Nazi Germany to the Swiss central bank. That report provided blistering evidence of how Switzerland profited from bankrolling the Nazi war machine. The latest study - also created under the guidance of Stuart Eizenstat, the U.S. undersecretary of state for economic affairs - deals with the extent and importance of the trade that the Nazis engaged in with the six neutral nations, estimated at $7 billion in today's dollars. Beyond providing details about these financial dealings, the report extensively addresses what it calls the "complex phenomenon of neutrality."
The Swiss government, the focus of intense international criticism since revelations surfaced two years ago about its financial wartime dealings and its handling of Holocaust-era assets, angrily denied last year's conclusions. But this week it welcomed the new report "as a further contribution to clarifying events" related to the conduct of neutral nations during the war. The Swiss Federal Council, the country's Cabinet, also pointed out that the new report "mentions many positive aspects of Switzerland's conduct" during the war.
Critics of Switzerland's wartime dealings with the Nazis, however, see the report's implications quite differently. The World Jewish Congress, which has spearheaded international efforts to get the Swiss to confront their wartime past, believes that Switzerland will now face greater pressures to make restitution for its financial dealings with the Nazis. "Moral responsibility is spread to other neutral nations" as a result of the latest report, said Elan Steinberg, the WJC's executive director. "But financial liability is increased for Switzerland."
Steinberg's assessment was based on the report's estimate that $300 million in gold looted by the Nazis was transferred to the five other neutral nations. "Three-quarters of that - or more - went through Switzerland," Steinberg said.
This could increase the liability of the Swiss National Bank because, under agreements reached after the war, the country that first received looted assets - not those to whom the assets were subsequently transferred - is responsible for their return. But Swiss officials disagree with Steinberg's assessment.
"The Eizenstat report contains no new findings," said Caroline Heimo, spokeswoman for the Swiss Embassy in Washington. Pointing to the Swiss National Bank's decision to provide about $75 million to a fund for Holocaust victims, she said that her government's "course is the right one."
|
