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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29.4.98 -- The president of the Swiss radical party (center-right) Franz Steinegger has asked the Federal Council to take a clear position concerning the ongoing negotiations between Switzerlands's three major banks UBS, SBC and CS, the World Jewish Congress, and the lawyers of the Holocaust survivors and heirs. Steinegger is asking the FC if they are considering to counter the implementation of an eventual agreement.
29.4.98 -- Judge Michael Mukasey of New York has decided not to allow the State of California to join the class-action lawsuit against 16 European insurance companies, arguing that this would make the issue a political one.
28.4.98 -- According to the press, the Swiss political parties estimate that by attempting to sign a "separate peace" with the Jewish organizations and the lawyers of the Holocaust victims, the Swiss banks are risking more claims with regard to insurance policies, businesses, and the SNB. The four govermental parties have declared that they are opposed to any support the Swiss Confederation might give to such a settlement of the class-action lawsuits. Commentators also wondered in today's press whether the banks are stabbing their country in the back.
28.4.98 -- As of May, ten new researchers will join the Bergier Commission which will bring the number of specialized historians to 35.
27.4.98 -- The Federal Council discussed today (without taking any decision) the case of Joseph Spring, a Jewish refugee who was turned back in November 1943 from the Swiss border to Nazi-occupied France together with two relatives who died in camps. Spring, today 71, is asking for a compensation of 100'000 francs. Last February, the Swiss government already rejected a similar demand from Charles Sonabend for turning back his parents from Switzerland in 1942.
27.4.98 -- Four Swiss citizens are amongst those that have been awarded the "Medal of the Righteous" granted by the Yad Vashem organization in Bern. This award is for those who came in aid and assitance of Jews during WW2. The four are: Jeanne Lavergnat, Fred Reymond, William Francken and his wife Laure.
27.4.98 -- Since last september, the secretary's office of the Special fund for Holocaust victims received more than 10'000 lettres requesting financial aid, most of them from individuals. However, only organizations can make such a request to the fund. "Many people in Europe thought that everything stolen during the war could be recuperated here", said Marco Sassoli, secretary to the fund, speaking to the press. To date, the fund has distributed 15 million francs.
27.4.98 -- US Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat led a trilateral meeting of representatives of Swiss banks, Jewish organizations and the lawyers for lawsuits in Washington to negotiate the terms that could lead to a settlement of class-action claims against the major Swiss banks -- Swiss Bank
Corp., Union Bank of Switzerland and CS Group. The settlement sum may be between $1 and $3 billion. Negotiations are expected to last several weeks.
26.4.98 -- In an interview with the daily newspaper Le Matin, Rolf Bloch, president of the Swiss Jewish communities and of the Special fund for Holocaust victims, said that the Swiss confederation and the National Bank should "in no instance" be partners to a global settlement. "They must clearly state that they have other means to establish the historical truth", he said, adding that "it is very important for Switzerland to shed all the light on this issue, what a global settlement would not achieve."
24.4.98 -- The Zurich Insurance company has set up an independant commission responsible for examining Holocaust victims' insurance policies. This "Council of Eminent Persons" will be made up of 4 people of different nationalities and will advise on all the requests that come in. They will have free access to all documents, the company said.
23.4.98 -- The release of the second Eizenstat Report has been delayed until mid-May. This is the fourth delay for the publication of the 100-pages report.
23.4.98 -- The New Yorker lawyer Ed Fagan, who has sued Swiss banks on behalf of Holocaust victims and their heirs, has staged a commemoration of the Holocaust together with three survivors on the Paradeplatz in Zurich. Paradeplatz is considered the symbolic heart of Swiss banking. Wearing a kippah, Fagan read a paragraph of the Old Testament.
21.4.98 -- The Swiss commercial banks, the Holocaust survivors' lawyers and the WJC will meet in Washington on Monday, April 27 in order to work on an agreement with regard to the heirless funds' issue. For the first time, concrete figures should be articulated. Amounts between 1 and 3 billion dollars have already been mentioned. The Swiss National Bank has confirmed they will not participate in this negociation.
21.4.98 -- The UK Foreign Office has published an History Note on the question of the British policy towards enemy property during and after WW2 [available in PDF format]. A database of 25'000 names of people whose assets had been confiscated by the British government during WW2 is newly available at http://www.enemyproperty.gov.uk
20.4.98 -- In an interview with Newsweek magazine, nazi-hunter Simon Wiesental asked the Jews for "fairness" and attacked the World Jewish Congress. He said: "Don't accuse every Swiss citizen. You can accuse the still living bank directors. We Jews were punished collectively for almost 2000 years. Can we use the same weapon against the Swiss and others? We can't allow ourselves that ... This WJS is not the Jewish world congress. People think that they speak in the name of all Jews. There's no
organization that can speak on behalf of all Jews".
15.4.98 -- The award ceremony for the "Medal for the Righteous Gentile" which intends to honor non-Jewish people who came in aid to members of the Jewish community during WW2, will be held in Bern on April 27. The ceremony will not take place at the Israeli Embassy, but at the Federal Palace. This is generally viewed as a sign of good relations between Isreal and Switzerland. The Swiss President Flavio Cotti and the
heads of both Chambers of the Swiss Parliament will attend.
15.4.98 -- A book of interviews of thirty Swiss Jews has been released in Lausanne, written by two journalists, Sylvie Cohen and Françoise Buffat.
9.4.98 -- Switzerland has been nailed in a OCDE report dealing with international taxation. The report requests that banking secrecy be abolished. The Swiss administration described the report as "unilateral and unbalanced".
9.4.98 -- An agreement has been reached between American States and several large European insurance companies to cooperate and finalize the Holocaust victims policies' issue. The agreement includes amongst others, Swiss insurance company Zurich, German's Allianz, France's Axa et Italy's Assicurazioni Generali.
8.4.98 -- Swiss President Flavio Cotti will make an official visit to Israel May 16 through May 19, 1998.
8.4.98 -- Paul Grüninger's family (he was the ex-chief of the Saint Gall Police, fired in 1940 for having helped Jews to enter Switzerland and remain in the country) will receive 1,3 million francs from the State of Saint Gall. The amount will be used to create a foundation. Grüninger was rehabilitated in 1996.
7.4.98 -- The member of the Swiss parliament Gianreto Plattner announced that his "Fund for justice and humanity", created one year ago, has raised 2,2 million francs. 800'000 francs have been distributed to survivors of the Holocaust, both jewish and non jewish. The American ambassador to Switzerland Madeleine Kunin praised the promoters of this private fund saying they were "an example of the Swiss tradition of humanitarian assistance".
7.4.98 -- In an interview to the Swiss daily "Le Temps", Jean-François Bergier, the president of the historians commission stated that the "accusations against the Swiss National Bank are straying from reality a little more each day". The Bank's managers have respected their mandate, in a clumsy way granted, and without realizing their were making a mistake, but this was only obvious later, Bergier added.
7.4.98 -- In response to a demand by socialist deputies, the Federal Council has confirmed that Switzerland will not organize a conference on WW2 looted assets. Switzerland will not participate either in an International Fund for Holocaust victims which was decided upon in London last December. Switzerland already has its own fund, of 274 million francs, which is more than the international fund (which is not yet in operation) has raised.
6.4.98 -- The director of the Swiss office for culture, David Streiff, has denied the allegations in the press claiming that at least 700 paintings and artworks looted by the Nazis were still in Switzerland. The information revealed in the articles yesterday are "pure fiction and have not been confirmed by the historian Buomberger", he stated.
5.4.98 -- Nearly 700 paintings and artworks looted by the nazis from their Jewish owners are apparently still in Siwtzerland, in museums, private collections and banks, according to the findings of historian Thomas Buomberger quoted in the SonntagsBlick newspaper. Buomberger is writing a book on the subject.
5.4.98 -- The second report by the Bergier Commission on nazi gold, soon to be published, will not reveal any new controversial facts. In an interview with the SonntagsZeitung newspaper, Jean-François Bergier stated that "US circles" and notably the initiators of the announced class-action suit against the SNB "will be a little disappointed". Bergier added that the documents published two days ago by the WJC are not new, that the negociations which brought about the Washington agreement in 1946 were correct, and that this treaty is not re-negociable, "otherwise we would have to renegociate all the treaties of history".
4.4.98 -- The Swiss federal prosecutor's office announced that they have suspended the enquiry with regard to the leaked information which lead to the publication in the press in January 97 of a confidential report from Swiss ambassador to the US Carlo Jagmetti -- who had to resign because of this. Whoever is responsible has not been identified.
3.4.98 -- According to two declassified documents discovered in the US National archives by the WJC, shortly after Switzerland agreed to return $58 million in Nazi gold to the Allies in 1946 (Washington Agreement), the Soviet Union secretly told the US that the Swiss had not reported having $67.5 more million in gold looted by the Nazis from the Dutch central bank and private citizens. That $67.5 million would be worth about $650 million today. The State department decided not to reopen negociations.
3.4.98 -- The Swiss National Bank has confirmed that they will oppose "by all legal means" a class-action suit against them. The BSN, which is a public institution and not a commercial bank, is contesting the competence of the US courts of law and has no heirless assets. During WW2, they had no activity with private customers at all, but only with other national banks, they claimed.
3.4.98 -- The honorary president of the Jewish community in Zurich, Sigi Feigel, stated in an interview that American demands with regard to the Jewish funds are "totally exagerated". In the US, he said, "it seems to be fashionable to consider Switzerland like a money provider". Feigel added that he "understands" those who use the word "blackmail" to define American demands. "Switzerland is the only country which has done its duty" he said. As for Edgar Bronfman, president of the WJC, he should according to Feigel either "apologise or resign".
3.4.98 -- Swiss President Flavio Cotti is "irritated" by the new american threats. In a televised interview he confirmed that the Swiss Confederation would not participate in an eventual global settlement, "taxpayers money will not be spent in this manner". He also stated that the Swiss government has no intent to renegociate the Washington agreements of 50 years ago.
3.4.98 -- US Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat said he opposes new lawsuits againts Swiss banks. In an interview with the Swiss national radio he suggested however, without naming them, that the Washington agreements should be renegociated.
2.4.98 -- According to a survey published by "Facts" magazine, 54% of the Swiss people are against an eventual boycott of American products in Switzerland, while 34% are for it.
2.4.98 -- US Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat announced his intention to set up a commission of historians to investigate the issues related to the Holocaust assets in the US. The commission could function under similar guidelines as the Bergier Commission in Switzerland. Eizenstat also set a December 31, 1999 deadline for a definite settlement of all questions related to the Holocaust and returning rightful goods to the victims.
2.4.98 -- The second Eizenstat Report on the behaviour of neutral countries during WW2 will be released on April 27.
2.4.98 -- A new class-action lawsuit is in the works in the US, this time against the Swiss National Bank. American lawyer Hausfeld intends to file it soon.
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