This is an essential timeline of the events related to the international dispute on the handling and recovering of the Holocaust assets, with a special focus on Switzerland. It is constantly updated.
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30.3.98 -- The intermediary report from the Bergier Commission on nazi gold
transactions is late being published. Due out April 6, it will be delayed as the translations into French, Italian and English are not ready and will take another few weeks. The report of 280 pages has been available in German since March 20 but will only be released along with the translated versions.
29.3.98 -- In an interview, the Swiss ambassador in Washington, Alfred Defago requested that boycott threats towards Swiss banks be lifted after last week's agreement with regard to a settlement to the Holocaust victims.
28.3.98 -- The creation of a fund by the three major Swiss banks could jeopordize the success of the "Swiss Solidarity" foundation, which is to be approved by the Swiss citizens through a popular vote. Several Swiss parlementaries have declared to the press that it will be difficult to get the public to vote favorably for the foundation because of the high sums involved in the new fund.
26.3.98 -- Credit Suisse, UBS and SBC have formally accepted to negociate a broad agreement which will settle once and for all the class-action lawsuits filed against them in New York on behalf of Holocaust survivors or victims' heirs. A new fund should be implemented by the banks, but the amount has not been revealed. Negociations should begin soon. The moratorium on sanctioning banks has been extended. Only claims on banks themselves were on the table. Israel Singer, secretary general of the WJC, has called for other institutions to agree to the fund, such as private and cantonal banks, insurance companies, the National Swiss Bank and even the government, in order to turn the negociation into a global settlement of the Holocaust assets controversy.
26.3.98 -- According to Le Temps newspaper, an American boycott could cost Swiss banks an estimated loss of $60 billion in fund management.
25.3.98 -- According to the Swiss press, on the eve of the New York conference regarding sanctions against the Swiss, a global agreement is about to be reached imminently, involving the Swiss, the plaintiffs and the WJC. According to Le Temps of Geneva, Ed Fagan, the lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, is convinced of reaching an agreement by the end of the month. An unamed source in Swiss banking and a diplomat both believe however that it will take another three weeks. A supporter for a quick settlement is Rainer Gut, president of Credit Suisse, whereas insurance companies are not in favor of such a rapid outcome, fearing new assaults later on. Another potential problem in reaching an agreement comes from the fact that the Jewish organizations involved are not all of the same mind.
24.3.98 -- Crédit Suisse has offered Estelle Sapir of Brooklyn, $50'000 as a settlement paiment. She is one of the key figures in the class action lawsuit filed by lawyer Ed Fagan against the Swiss banks.
24.3.98 -- The idea, initiated by Swiss senators, that Switzerland should take retorsion measures to counter US boycott threats has not met with any backing from the Swiss economic or government sectors. A government official declared such measures as unproductive.
22.3.98 -- Sanctions against Swiss banks by US cities and states seem almost inevitable, according to the Jerusalem Post which quotes "Jewis officials" in New York. The paper also states that several US States could be affected by potential retortion measures from the Swiss who have created several hundred thousand jobs in the US. The paper adds that some of the Southern states in the US are already courting Swiss industrialists by offering "a more welcoming" environment to conduct business. A meeting of the financial officials from US States and cities will be held on March 26 in NYC.
19.3.98 -- Swiss Senator Dick Marty has proposed "concrete retorsion measures" in the event of a US boycott on Swiss banks by American cities and states. Backed by 37 of the 46 members of the State Council (Senate), he is thinking amongst others at the US telecommunication companies (such as Airtouch Communications which has just applied for a license to exploit a cellular-phone network) and at the military industry, which is bidding for important Swiss contracts. "Apparently, the US are more sensible to these kinds of arguments than to diplomatic discussions, and they should be aware that we will not sit back quietly", Marty declared on Swiss Television.
18.3.98 --For the first time, Gypsies have received payment out of the Special fund for Holocaust victims. Three of them who were persecuted by the Nazis received Sfr 2000 each in Singen, in Southern Germany.
16.3.98 -- Christoph Meili and his wife Giuseppina have returned to Switherland for the first time since April 1997, when they left for the US. Accompanied by his lawyer, Ed Fagan, Meili is trying to prove that the documents he saved from the shredder of the UBS in January 97 were important and pertained to buildings confiscated by the nazis and previously owned by Jews, he stated on a local Zurich TV station. He means to go to Berlin to search through archives.
15.3.98 -- Swiss taskforce's head Thomas Borer told the Philadelphia Enquirer newspaper that there may be "economic retaliation" if sanctions against Swiss banks were to be realized.
13.3.98 -- N.Y.C. Comptroller Alan Hevesi has declined to go along with a call by California treasurer Matt Fong who set yesterday a March 31 deadline for the Swiss to agree to a global settlement of Holocaust claims. "I believe it is important for our credibility that we maintain our commitment to the process and delay any decision until we have heard full reports from all sides," Hevesi wrote in a letter to Fong.
12.3.98 -- The Treasurer of the State of California, Matt Fong has asked Swiss banks to accept a global settlement with regard to restituting the Holocaust assets before March 31st, otherwise the State will initiate a boycott against the banks.
12.3.98 -- The commission chaired by historian J.F. Bergier will publish its second report on April 6. This report completes the one published in December, establishing a chronology of the gold transactions between Switzerland and nazi Germany during WW2.
11.3.98 -- An unpublished report by the WJC quoted by press agencies states that the material damages suffered by the Jews during WW2 amounts to a total value today of $ 230-320 billion. Approximately $120 billion being the estimated amount for stolen money, gold, estates and insurance contracts while the balance is an estimated figure for kidnappings, deaths, forced labor and loss of earnings.
10.3.98 -- The Federal Council hopes that the threats and sanctions levied against Swiss banks in the US will definitely by dropped by the end of March. The federal councillor Ruth Dreifuss made this statement while Thomas Borer, head of the taskforce was in the US for a good-will mission.
9.3.98 -- The Federal Council has decided to renew for another year, at least until the Spring of 1999, contracts with the two US public relations agencies representing Swiss interests abroad and promoting the country's image in the US: Ruder, Finn and Barbour, Griffith & Rogers.
9.3.98 -- Swiss government and banking officials denied a statement by WJC's president Edgar Bronfman that they were ready to pay $3 billion as a so-called global settlement of all claims relating to Switzerland's handling of dormant Jewish bank accounts from the WW2 era. Bronfman responded to their denials with impatience, telling in an interview with the "Jewish Bulletin of Northern California" that "If the Swiss are going to keep digging their heels in, then I'll have to ask all the US shareholders to suspend their dealings with the Swiss. It's coming to a point where it has to resolve itself or it has to be total war. I can't be sitting on my thumbs forever." He added that within a week "they'll be forthcoming with an announcement aimed at a settlement of the whole issue". In the same interview Bronfman also accused Switzerland for having been the only nation to ask for payment in return for giving out gas masks to Israel during the recent alerts. "They just won't learn, will they?", he asked the interviewer. In reality, Switzerland provided 300'000 vaccination kits (valued at 3 million francs) and 25'000 gas mask for free and 25'000 additional gas masks were sold at cost value. The Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs immediately distanced his office from Bronfman's allegations and reconfirmed Switzerland's generosity. The influencial Swiss daily newspaper NZZ wrote that Bronfman accusations are a breach of the loyalty clause on which the Volcker Commission's work is based and suggested to Swiss and Israeli members to suspend their collaboration on the commission until Bronfman presents an apology.
6.3.98 -- Pennsylvania Treasurer Barbara Hafer, who sits on a committee of US public finance officials deciding this month whether to endorse a boycott of Swiss banking institutions, said she was becoming optimistic about a possible deal to compensate Holocaust victims.
6.3.98 -- The Jewish organisations of France would like to participate in the discussions with regard to Switzerland's role during WW2. Three representatives of French Jewish organizations brought this up during a meeting with Flavio Cotti in Bern, who reacted positively to their proposal. Until now, discussions were held almost exclusively with jewish organisations based in Israel or the US. The French jewish community - 700'000 people - is the largest in Western Europe.
6.3.98 -- The controversial sculpture "Shoah" (see below, March 4) has been installed on the Paradeplatz in Zurich. The place is considered a symbol of Swiss banking. It will remain there for three months.
5.3.98 -- A top Swiss banker in the US told the Swiss newsmagazine Facts that in his opinion the country's financial institutions no longer faced the threat of a boycott by US state and local governments.
4.3.98 -- WJC's president Edgar Bronfman told Reuters that the Swiss authorities are close to accepting an agreement for a global amount to settle the controversy around the Holocaust assets. Bronfman said he's "very confident" that the agreement will be reached within the next month, saying that the amount at stake would be "less than ten, more than one" billion dollars. Both the Swiss Holocaust taskforce and the Swiss Bankers' Association said they were unaware of any discussion on such a settlement.
4.3.98 -- The head of the Swiss Holocaust taskforce Thomas Borer has written a letter to Marvin Hier, the director of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, saying that the report published in January by the Center equating the Swiss refugee camps during WW2 with slave camps is only an anti-Swiss campaign and does not help to settle the issues surrounding that period. To compare Swiss camps and nazi lagers is an offense to the Swiss people and to the victims of the Holocaust, Borer added. He enclosed several declarations and witness accounts from jewish refugess in Switzerland who denied the charges in the report.
4.3.98 -- A sculpture intitled "Shoah" made by Swiss artist Schang Hutter and which was dropped off in front of the Federal Palace in Bern on February 28 has been removed during the night by activists of the right-wing Liberty Party. The sculpture represents a man locked in a metal cube weighing a ton.
3.3.98 -- The Banking commission of the New Jersey State parliament has approved a suggested law which would boycott Swiss banks considered to have profited in some way of the Holocaust. The law forbids the State to invest in Swiss banks and obliges it to remove previously invested capital. The proposed law has yet to be approved by the parliament. A proposal to include a boycott of all Swiss companies was discarded as several multinational Swiss companies are active in New Jersey.
3.3.98 -- Witnesses that forward information to the Bergier commission (aka. historians commission) will not be granted any special legal protection. This decision coming from the Council of the States (the Swiss Senate) definitely cancelles the project which had been approved previously by the National Council.
2.3.98 -- The special fund in favor of Holocaust victims has published the figures for its first year of activity. It has helped out nearly 20'000 people in Hungary, Albania and in the Baltic states.
2.3.98 -- In an interview with the ATS press agency, former Swiss security guard Christoph Meili refuted allegations that he was his lawyer Ed Fagan's "puppet". "We work as a team", he said.
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