3.11.4 Switzerland: World War II: The stolen gold / dormant accounts.
Description
This article is from the Switzerland FAQ, by Marc Schaefer schaefer@alphanet.ch with numerous contributions by others.
3.11.4 Switzerland: World War II: The stolen gold / dormant accounts.
In summary, the following actions have already been taken by the
Swiss government, individuals and private banking institutes:
- Money deposited by Jews and non Jews before and during the War,
which was not reclaimed, or was reclaimed but without sufficient
proof will be refunded. Meanwhile, a special 300 MSFr fund has
been created (mainly privately funded) because it is expected
enquiries will take a long time.
- Two separate commissions have been launched, whose goals is to
create a clear viewpoint on this part of History.
- The Foundation for Solidarity, a project of the Swiss government
whose goal is, from a National Bank-funded capital of 7 GSFr, to
distributed 300 MSFr per year to persecuted and suffering
population in the world (no direct link to the Jewish gold affair).
There is a WWW server which contains the dormant account list and
also instructions how to file a query:
http://www.dormantaccounts.ch
The current list includes all foreign owners, whether they were
victims of the German Holocaust or not, of Swiss bank accounts which
have remained dormant since May 9, 1945.
A separate list of Swiss owners of Swiss bank accounts which have
remained dormant since May 9, 1945, will be published later this year.
As you will see, it is essential to distinguish between the gold bought by
the National bank, and the money deposited freely by afterwards-dead
people with private Swiss banks.
FACTS: Switzerland (the National bank) did buy a lot of gold from
the Axis and from the Allies during the war.
The Eizenstat report says that ``It [Switzerland] conducted
trade with the Allied countries as well as with the Axis
powers. The Swiss National Bank kept gold accounts for and
received gold not only from Nazi Germany, but from the
United States, Canada, and Great Britain as well.
Switzerland served as a key base for U.S. intelligence-
gathering.''
INTERPRETATION:
Due to the fear of not having enough gold to maintain the Swiss
Franc, and to prevent any invasion from both the Axis and the
Allies, Switzerland did buy a lot of gold from both
belligerents. It is known that a lot of the gold sold to
Switzerland by the USA was indeed still on USA's territory and
thus much less valuable for Switzerland than gold from
Germany. However, some people pretend that without this
commerce of gold, WWII would have been shortened, at least in
Europe, by two years (new book from Jean ZIEGLER). One thing
can be said: as the gold was PAID by Switzerland, this
money will never be refunded completely, especially since there
is no proof that the Swiss government or the SNB governing board
were aware of the fact that the gold was not from Germany but
stolen from other countries (which anyway is ``authorized'' by
common war practices) nor that some of it came from the KZ
(Jewish gold from victim's teeth, etc.). Switzerland has paid to the
Allies for Europe reconstruction in the amount of 28 million SFr in
1952 (whether the settlement was ``right'' and definitive is a very
good question, but it has not been asked yet. Moreoever most of what
is known today was known at that time).
FACTS: A lot of people (not only Jews) had money in Swiss private bank
accounts. When they died during the War, often in Germany's KZ,
the proofs disappeared and the money was left dormant for
many, many years. In the late 60's, when Swiss private banks
started to computerize their accounts, a lot of those dormant
accounts (sometimes confidential numbered ones, known only by
a few persons at the bank, maybe dead at that time) were
probably discovered. It would have been nice to do something then.
A few years ago, some Jewish associations contacted the Swiss banks
and there have been, since then, very slow progress being made.
Recently, a few civil actions (usually wrongly targeted) have
been taken from the USA and publicized: this seems to at least
have triggered a little action from the Swiss private banks, but
also brought much confusion to the debate.
NB: The most vocal spokesman in the United States is Senator
Alphonse D'Amato who is Catholic of Italian descent, not Jewish.
INTERPRETATION:
There have been for many years a tendency to minimize the
amount of those dormant accounts; however, even if this is
probably true (less than 100 M SFr are the current
evaluation by the Swiss banks; approximatively 30 M SFr
found currently; at UBS 3.5 M out of 10 M have already been
given back), we could have avoided the current mixup
stolen gold / dormant accounts if steps had been taken
before. On the contrary, we waited too long and now false
or incomplete information is being propagated by the
mass-media (e.g. documents are now publicly available in
ex-URSS and GB, after the 50 years period, but those
documents are quoted incorrectly, mixing currencies, sometimes
by a factor of 4-5; mixing facts). Probably the only way to
get out is twofold: first, make the entire truth known, and secondly,
all the unknown money should be put into a fund, kept there
for some time (like the East Trust (die Treuhand) in Germany),
and then given to a charitable organization like ICRC or
the UNICEF.
FACTS: Switzerland has was very reluctant to give German gold to the
Allies at the end of the War. Switzerland (private banking
institutes) was very reluctant to give any information
or list of bank accounts.
INTERPRETATION:
One of the reasons is that: [Eizenstat report] ``Clearly,
Switzerland's delay was intended to keep German assets
under its control as a guarantee for settlement of
Swiss claims against the Nazi regime.''. The private
banking institutes still charge SFR 500 _each_
for an account research. Maybe this amount corresponds to
the actual costs, but this is not really a very good
public relation policy. Note that since July with the
publishing of the account list (a violation to the
Swiss banking secrecy habits), this is no longer true.
The Eizenstat Report says that ``Among the neutral countries,
Switzerland has taken the lead.'' [in, at last, resolving this
issue]. We can only regret that this issue has not been resolved
earlier and with a broader audience (not just a few officials): maybe we
could have prevented what happens recently, for the benefit of the
Nazis's victims and ours.
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