The Issue
The World Jewish Congress
(WJC) accused Switzerland of financing the Nazis and prolonging WWII by
buying "Nazi Gold", most of which, it is claimed, belonged to Jews.
Jewish organizations have applied considerable pressure, through the US
Government and the media, on Switzerland and other European countries to
pay compensation and restore Jewish property, including unclaimed money
kept in Swiss Banks.
The Swiss Position
According to the Swiss-American
Chamber of Commerce:
1. Dormant accounts, "Nazi
Gold" and looting are three separate issues. To combine them is to
confuse the issue. The Swiss agreed to publish a list of dormant accounts
and explain what is meant by "Nazi Gold", but rejected responsibility for
"looting".
2. Dormant Accounts: According
to a Swiss Federal Decree of 1962, dormant accounts were identified, and
$1.0 million was paid to relatives of Nazi victims; $3.6 million was handed
over by banks to individuals; and, $2.12 million was handed over to the
Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities and the Swiss Refugee Council for
heirless properties. Other claims were rejected due to insufficient
proof of ownership.
3. Nazi Gold: During WWII,
the German Reichbank sold the Swiss National Bank gold in exchange for
Swiss Franc 1.7 billion ($1.13 billion). This gold consisted of monetary
reserves and a smaller amount of confiscated property. It is not
clear how much of this gold is individual property, Jewish or not.
In 1946, Switzerland paid the Inter Allied Reparations Agency (IARA) SF
250 million ($167 million) in gold of all gold collected from many countries.
IARA allocated US $337 million to the banks for losses suffered.
4. The Swiss appointed an
Expert Commission to investigate the matter and a diplomatic Task Force
to monitor world reaction. The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) also
established a central information office for dormant accounts.
5. SBA and the World Jewish
Restitution Organization (WJRO), the World Jewish Congress (WJC)
and the Jewish Agency signed a joint memorandum on 2.5.96 to appoint an
"Independent Commission of Eminent Persons" with 3 members (and 2 replacements)
chaired by Paul Volcker, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
The Volcker Commission in turn mandated Arthur Andersen, KPMG, and Price
Waterhouse to audit the dormant accounts by 1998 at SBA expense.
6. The US Senate Banking
Committee, chaired by Senator Alfonso D'Amato, is also conducting an investigation.
Under-Secretary of Commerce Stuart Eizenstadt, appointed by the White House,
presented a first historical report on 7.5.97.
7. The three major Swiss
banks announced on 6.2.97 the establishment of a humanitarian fund in the
amount of SF 100 million. Other parties contributed SF 65 million
while the Swiss National Bank (SNB) contributed another SF 100 m., totalling
SF 265 million ($185 million). This "Special Fund for the Holocaust
Victims" is chaired by Rolf Block. The fund has 4 Swiss members and
3 Jews (Edgar Bronfman, Josef Burg and Avraham Hischson). Beneficiaries
of the fund shall be persons persecuted by the Nazi regime or their descendants
to the extent they are in need.
8. On 6.3.97, Arnold Koller,
President of the Swiss Confederation launched the idea of a "Swiss Foundation
for Solidarity" to provide relief for people in need. The Capital
is SF 7000 million with annual yield of SF 300 million ($200 million per
year).
Jewish Efforts
1. Edgar Bronfman, 67, (Chairman
of Seagram, an alcohol and nightclubs company with 30,000 employees and
$11 billion in annual revenue) is President of World Jewish Congress (WJC)
with organizations in 80 countries and also Chairman of World Jewish Restitution
Organization (WJRO), set up in 1992, to recover (not compensate for) Jewish
property in Europe. In the last 15 years, he has met 55 heads of state.
The WJRO executive vice-chairman is Naftali Lavie.
2. Bronfman and Israel Singer,
Secretary-General of the World Jewish Congress, met with Senator Alfonso
D'Amato in December 1995, and convinced him to investigate the case of
Jewish assets in Switzerland.
3. Bronfman met US First
Lady Hillary Clinton for lunch and convinced her to set up a meeting with
the President. Having known of D'Amato's involvement, Clinton agreed
to appoint Stuart Eizenstadt, US Under-Secretary of Commerce to investigate
the matter with Europe and NATO. Clinton requested 11 US agencies
to look into the matter.
5. Eizenstadt presented
his first report in May 1997, and convinced Europe to cooperate in restoring
Jewish properties. D'Amato threatened to organize a boycott
of Swiss banks if they did not cooperate. The mayor of New York did
the same.
World Jewish Restitution
Organization - WJRO
1. The purpose of this organization
extends beyond the recovery of Jewish gold or money in dormant accounts.
The purpose is to restitute (recover, retake possession of) Jewish property
in all of Europe.
2. WJRO has headquarters
in Jerusalem and has listed 14,083 Jewish properties in Europe on computer
for recovery.
3. The WJRO and Israel (represented
by the Minister of Finance) signed a memorandum in November 1992 stating
that: "the State of Israel considers itself to be the natural and principal
heir to Jewish public property and where there is no other heir".
4. The White House has supported
WJRO efforts. In a letter to the WJRO dated Sept. 8, 1995, Clinton
wrote:
"As the democracies of Europe
and America seek to build a new and better world for the 21st Century,
we must confront and, as best as we can, right the terrible injustice of
the past".
5. The WJRO was to distribute
money from the special Swiss Fund on the basis of need, not suffering,
and shall not wait for the settlement of dormant accounts. The WJRO
insisted on having a majority on the Fund board but the Swiss refused.
Restitution of Property
in Europe
1. The US Congress "strongly
endorses Jewish efforts to retrieve the legacy of Central and East European
Jewry". President Clinton has even advocated a probe of the Vatican.
2. Poland: Agreed
to return property in a deal in which the WJRO will support Poland’s application
to NATO.
3. Lithuania: Will continue
the process of property restitution to Jews (even non-citizens), within
the limit of the constitution
4. Norway, Sweden: Had 1400
Jews in Norway in WWII. Sweden was neutral. Claims are laid.
5. France: Has 3000 accounts
of about $175 million in addition to property. Claims are laid.
6. Belgium: Former governor
of the national bank, Jean Godeaux, is chairing a Committee to investigate
Jewish property and liason with the WJRO.
7. Romania, Hungary, Slovakia:
Recognized the rights of Jews to communal and individual Jewish property
and recognized the WJRO as the legitimate claimant.
8. Similar response in Italy,
Spain and Portugal.
9. The European Parliament
passed this Resolution:
"Calls on all countries
of Central and Eastern Europe, which have not done so, to adopt appropriate
legislation regarding the return of plundered property, so that the property
of Jewish Communities may be returned to Jewish institutions in accordance
with the principles of justice and morality".
The EP hinted they may not
accept into the European Union countries who do not comply.
Further Developments in
1998
A Deal Struck
1. A trio of US lawyers,
Melvyn Weiss, Robert Swift and Michael Hansfeld, took up the task of extracting
money from the Swiss with the threat of a boycott of US financial institutions.
The trio plainly demanded payment from the Swiss or vowed to continue "the
unprecedented interventions by the US State Department and the Chairman
of the Senate Banking Committee; a threat to block the largest-ever banking
industry; and a threat from the largest pension funds in the US to divest
their shares in all Swiss companies".
2. The value of disputed
dormant (not necessarily all Jewish) bank accounts is now calculated at
SF 100 million ($71 million), far from the billions of dollars originally
claimed by Jewish organizations. The estimate was made by detailed
audit of Swiss bank records carried out under the auspices of a committee
chaired by Paul Volcker, former head of the US Federal Reserve Board.
Earlier, the Swiss banks published the names of unclaimed foreign accounts,
worth about SF 70 million, of which 10-15% may have belonged to Jews.
3. Eizenstadt, the Jewish-American
Under-Secretary of Commerce and a former ambassador to the European Union,
was greatly distrusted by the Swiss. He was closely identified with
Rabbi Israel Singer, Secretary-General of the WJC and Edgar Bronfman, WJC
President. Eizenstadt's role was "most unusual [as] the US government
would not normally intervene in a private lawsuit." Another Jewish-American
official who played an important role was Richard Holbrook who secretly
mediated between Jewish organizations, the Swiss President and the
chairmen of Swiss banks.
4. In August 1998, it was
finally agreed that the Swiss banks would pay a lump sum settlement $1.25
billion, including the small present value of the unclaimed accounts, found
by Volcker committee to be $71 million. The original Jewish claim
was $18 billion.
5. Senator D'Amato played
a key role in the threat to apply sanctions, in order to "earn political
credit from New York's influential Jewish community". Again, "intervention
by a US senator in pending litigation was almost unheard of". It
was D'Amato who later announced the deal to the world.
6. Immediately thereafter,
there were differences between the Jewish organizations about the distribution
of the money. The Czech community accused WJRO of not consulting
them and demanded direct payment to them. The Swiss community
did the same and complained that the WJRO exaggerated the claims and harmed
the position of Jews in Switzerland. French Jews disputed their share
of the gold.
7. The Swiss government
declared it was not a party to the deal and that the question had been
settled under a 1946 international agreement.
New Claims
1. With the success of this
campaign, the WJRO started a new battle for the return of monies and other
properties from other European countries. They demanded that Austria
return 1,000 works of art, including two paintings kept by Leopold Museum
(Dead City 111, Portrait and Wally). Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima
met several times with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who called for
the establishment of Austrian-Jewish Committee and the return of "all private
property". Austria has adopted a law for the return of property.
2. In August 1998, the giant
Italian insurance company, Generali, agreed to pay the Jews $65 million
to settle claims for World War II.
3. Michael Freedman, of
the Jewish Council in Germany sued Deutsche and Dresdner Banks for an $18
billion settlement. Alliance AG, a German insurance company is expected
to yield to payment of settlement as well.
4. Eizenstadt is now leading
a campaign to "return stolen artwork and property" in Europe. On
30 November 1998, a conference was held in Washington attended by representatives
of 44 countries and 13 organizations including WJC. Eizenstadt stated
the goal was "to forge an international consensus on how governments and
other entities can cooperate to redress grave injustices that remain from
the Holocaust era". According to Eizenstadt, 17 countries have created
commissions to investigate the issue of Jewish property, including Russia
which resisted earlier US calls for restitution.
5. A special commission
in France determined that 2058 works of art were stolen by the Nazis.
6. Poland, Lithuania and
the Czech Republic have passed measures to return synagogues and other
communal property back to Jews.
7. Israel criticized the
Vatican, Britain's MI5 secret service, KGB and other European services
for refusing to allow access to their files.
8. Israel and the US are
planning a mammoth project to trace, register, and put in a database the
record of millions of victims of the Nazis. This record will be larger
and more comprehensive than any in history and will be used, among other
things, to determine property ownership.
brief notes
on what should be done
by the Palestinians
Amira Hass (see page 1) noted the irony of the two conferences held in Washington at the same time at the end of November 1998. One was a world conference to discuss ways to restore Jewish property. The other was a begger’s appeal to encourage donor countries to contribute to the Palestinian Authority. Azmi Bishara, Arab Member of the Knesset, has asked Israeli officials for an accounting of the property, money and funds in Arab religious endowments, all taken over by the Israeli government. The Israeli government’s response was that "we don't know".1 The answer is patently false. In fact, Palestinian property is well-documented - in British Mandate documents, in Jarvis’ 450,000 records of Palestinian owners prepared for UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine, and in the records of Israel Land Administration, which holds and rents every plot of Palestinian land.
Therefore, it is suggested
that:
1. Legal opinion should
be sought from Switzerland to apply an injunction on the $1.25 billion
Jewish settlement until compensation for Palestinians is made. Switzerland
must know that Palestine is a legitimate claimant.
2. A petition should be
circulated to highlight the contrast between generous compensation to Jews
and the denial of the same to Palestinians. The petition should also
call for the Palestinians to be beneficiaries to the Relief Fund set up
by the Swiss.
3. Use should be made of
the well-known UN Resolution 194 calling for the Palestinians' return and
compensation. Compensation is estimated at $510 billion for the destruction
and use of Palestinian property and the Palestinian suffering for 50 years.
Compensation here does not include land and homes; these are not for sale.
Note should be made of the recent UN resolution on 3 December 1998 "reaffirming
the entitlement of the refugees to their properties and revenue from them".
Emphasis should be made on 'restitution' of property, i.e., restoring property
to owners, not compensation.
4. Efforts should be made
to establish a "Palestine Land Authority" and create a detailed database
for Palestinian property and a legal structure to restore it.2
5. Diplomatic efforts should
be taken to put into effect the Arab League resolution of 16 September
1998, urging the UN "to send a fact-finding mission to report on the status
of Palestinian property in Israel and to appoint a Custodian of this property"
who shall determine, document, preserve and collect revenue from the use
of this property.
Salman Abu-Sitta is a
Palestinian refugee, an engineer and researcher living in Kuwait.
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