THE SWISS, IT TURNS OUT, who long polished their image as upstanding burghers, were bankers and money-launders of the Nazis, confidence men who took depositors’ money, hid the records, and refused to pay back rightful owners. Incredibly, they are outraged that world opinion considers them unsavory and insists they return the booty, valued by the World Jewish Congress at $3 billion. Equally incredible, the Swiss continue to stonewall justice in the face of demands for restitution by governments, organizations, and individuals.
The Swiss, it turns out, who long polished their image as upstanding burghers, were bankers and money-launders of the Nazis, confidence men who took depositors’ money, hid the records and refused to pay back rightful owners. Incredibly, they are outraged that world opinion considers them unsavory and insists they return the booty, valued by the World Jewish Congress at $3 billion. Equally incredible, the Swiss continue to stonewall justice in the face of demands for restitution by governments, organizations and individuals.
Unfortunately, since there is no international criminal court, the Swiss bankers and their associates cannot be brought to trial for their actions. Since national governments are generally loathe to lean on, much less punish, allies (how else to explain why the United States and other Western nations let the Swiss get away with keeping much of the pilfered gold), citizens and local officials must force some measure of justice.
Acknowledging past U.S. failures to press the Swiss to return stolen funds, Under Secretary of State Stuart E. Eizenstat is brokering discussions between Swiss banks and American lawyers regarding a class action lawsuit filed in New York federal court in 1996. The suit seeks $20 billion in damages from the banks for cheating Holocaust victims and their heirs. There are more than 350,000 Holocaust survivors, 100,000 of them living in the United States.
