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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1.12.00 -- According to a report released today and which is part of the examination of Switzerland's wartime actions, Swiss officials systematically expelled Gypsies or turned them away at the border during WW2. In a reaction to the report, released by an indepentent historians' commission, Swiss officials said that Gypsies had been "victims of an injust policy".
22.11.00 -- U.S. District Judge Edward Korman approved today the plan to distribute $1.25 billion from the 1998 "global settlement" between Swiss banks and victims of Nazi persecution, triggering the process for claims to be considered from over 500'000 Holocaust survivors and the holders of nazi-era bank accounts. Under the plan, owners of bank accounts or their heirs will receive a total of $800 million. Other claimants, including slave laborers, refugees, and people whose assets were looted, will receive amounts varying from $500 to $2,500. The Full Plan of Allocation as well as summaries and other documents are available at the Swiss Victim Asset Litigation website.
10.10.00 -- 30'000 or 3'000? New historical research is challenging the conclusions of the Bergier report on the Swiss policy towards refugees during WW2. The Bergier report stated that between 25'000 and 30'000 refugees had been refused access to Switzerland and sent back to nazi-controlled regions. The new research, published today by the Swiss press, estimates the real number at 3'000.
3.10.00 -- A new class action lawsuit has been filed against the Swiss National Bank by two California lawyers, Thomas Easton and Jonathan Levy, on behalf of, they claim, 12 million civilian victims of the Nazis from the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The two attorneys accuse the bank of exchanging hundreds of millions of dollars in looted gold and other assets from the Nazis between 1941 and 1945 -- providing Germany with the hard currency needed to buy supplies to keep fighting the war.
18.9.00 -- 36 Swiss companies have announced to judge Korman their intention to financially participate in the Global Settlement and thus avoid future lawsuits. These are companies that, through their German subsidiaries, have (or likely have) employed forced labor workers during WW2. Among them are Nestlé, Novartis, Ciba, Roche, Georg Fischer, Villiger, ABB, Alusuisse and Lonza.
15.9.00 -- The Swiss National Bank has been sued by the victims of the Croatian Ustasha regime during WW2, according to reports in the Swiss press. The SNB, the Vatican Bank and other banks have taken custody of money, silver and other valuables, according to the plaintiffs.
11.9.00 -- $800 million of the $1.25 billion paid by Swiss banks in the framework of the Global Settlement with Jewish organizations will go to Holocaust survivors and victims' heirs who claimed to have had funds and accounts in Swiss banks. This is the key point of a Plan of Allocation released today in New York by Judah Gribetz, the "Special Master" named by judge Ed Korman. The list with the names of account holders (about 20'000) found by the Volcker Commission will soon be released, and claims will be processed by an independent body in Zurich, under the supervision of the Brooklyn court. The rest of the total sum will be awarded to forced labourer and other nazi survivors (Gribetz believes that about 200 000 people could have legitimate claims under this categories) or refugees that have either been mistreated in Switzerland, or sent back at the border (17 000 people). $100 million will be reserved to people claiming to have been the rightful owners of looted art and other valuables, while $10 million will be used to create a foundation. Reviews and comments can be sent until November 6, 2000. After a hearing scheduled for November 20 in New York, a final Plan of Allocation should be adopted and judge Korman could give green light to the first payments. The Full Plan of Allocation as well as summaries and other documents are available at the Swiss Victim Asset Litigation website.
11.9.00 -- To celebrate the end of the controversy on the Holocaust assets, the World Jewish Congress has held a big party in New York, attended by about 1000 people, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. Representatives of the Swiss government have not been invited.
11.9.00 -- The Swiss Federal Archives have announced that they have transmitted to judge Ed Korman a list of 51 000 names of refugees who had been given refuge in Switzerland during WW2. Names of refugees who had been sent back at the border have also been given to the judge.
8.9.00 -- According to the New York Times, Holocaust-victims lawyer Ed Fagan neglected personal-injury clients while labouring on the Holocaust case against Swiss banks, abandoning their claims or not returning their phone calls for years. One former client recently won a malpractice judgment against Mr. Fagan and ethics officials in New Jersey filed a misconduct complaint against him last month on behalf of another client, the NYT says. In the Swiss banks suit, Mr Fagan seeks $4 million in compensation for his work.
9.8.00 -- In his new book, "The Holocaust Industry", published in London, US historian Norman Finkelstein harshly accuses Jewish organizations, lawyers, and politicians to use the memory of the Holocaust victims for their own interest. In recent years, he says, the Holocaust industry has turned into a system of "racket and extorsion". He estimates that the number of Holocaust survivors has been exaggerated in order to make pressure on the Swiss banks (he believes there are no more than 25'000 real survivors, not one million as officially reported). Finkelstein, who is jewish and teaches at a New York university, is the son of survivors from the Warsaw ghetto.
4.8.00 -- UBS and CS have officially accepted the last version (including the controversial "second amendment") of the global agreement. However, the two banks have expressed criticism of judge Ed Korman, who imposed new, last-minute conditions which may lead to other Swiss banks not being included in the agreement.
26.7.00 -- Today New York judge Ed Korman gave the final approval to the 1998 global agreement between the Jewish organizations, the US plantiffs and the Swiss banks. In the meantime, UBS and CS have already paid out over a half of the total sum of $1.25 billion. This sum is still blocked in a bank account in New York, waiting for an agreement on how to distribute the money. In his statement however, judge Korman introduced two new elements, requesting that Swiss companies that employed forced labor in their German subsidiaries before or during WW2, as well as Swiss private and regional banks, report to him within 30 days, under the threat that they will be excluded from the global settlement if they don't comply. This would leave them exposed to new legal pursuits. In the same document, Korman has also harshly criticized the Swiss Bank Commission.
17.7.00 -- Germany signed a historic deal to pay $4.8 billion to nearly a million Nazi slaves and forced laborers -- mostly central and eastern Europeans -- in what is likely to be the last mayor payout for the crimes of the Nazis.
9.6.00 -- In memory of Paul Grueninger, former chief of St. Gallen's police and rescuer of many refugees' lives during the Nazi period, the Paul Grueninger Foundation has announced it will award a prize of 50,000 Swiss Francs "for remarkable humanity and courage". Applications can be submitted until August 31st, 2000.
23.5.00 -- The Swiss Government expressed regrets and offered sympathy to an elderly Jewish brother and sister whose parents were killed by the Naziy after Switzerland expelled the family during WW2. The Government has agreed to pay the siblings, Charles and Sabine Sonabend, $118'000 in a first-of-its-kind settlement of their lawsuit against the country.
17.5.00 -- The Swiss government has published its project for the Suisse Solidaire foundation, which was first announced March 5, 1997. The foundation will have a general solidarity purpose, supporting projects and organizations aimed at fighting poverty and violence and at educating future generations. The project is now going through a consultative round.
9.5.00 -- The Swiss special fund for Holocaust victims has allocated so far 284 out of its 295 million Francs, the direction of the fund has communicated. The largest portion of the money (195 millions) has been attributed to Holocaust survivors of Eastern Europe, Israel, and the US. The remaining amount should be distributed by the end of the year. All in all, 310 000 people will have been beneficiaries of the Fund.
8.5.00 -- The British Bankers’ Association has published today on the Restore UK website a list of 13 000 names of people who may have funds in bank accounts that remain unclaimed since being frozen by the UK Government during the second world war period.
10.4.00 -- Hoping to bring looted works of art and their owners together after more than 50 years, the German government will launch today a Web site at lostart.de, listing works of art stolen during the Nazi era.
5.4.00 -- 19 000 names of insurance policy owners dating from the nazi era are being published by the Eagleburger commission on the Web, at www.icheic.org, a multilingual site. This list is intended to allow policy owners or their heirs, to claim what is rightfully theirs. Policies come from the archives the following insurance companies: Allianz, Axa, Generali, Winterthur, and Zurich.
30.3.00 -- Swiss banks will publish a new list (the third following the two published in recent years) of 26'000 bank accounts which have a "likely" connection to Holocaust victims. By authorizing the banks to do so, the Federal Banking Commission has followed the advice expressed in December by the Volcker Committee. Moreover, banks will create a central database with information on 48'000 accounts having a possible relation to Holocaust victims. This database will be at the disposal of the entities in charge of examining claims in the future.
23.3.00 -- An agreement has been reached in Berlin on how to splitup a 10 billion DM ($4.9 billion) fund among former WW2 slave laborers and other victims of the Nazis. Half of the fund will be provided by the German government, half by some 700 German companies. A foundation will be set up to administer the fund and plans to begin payments at the end of the year. 8.15 billion DM will be allocated to former slave laborers -- most of them Jews -- while 700 million will be allocated to research, educational and other project.
14.3.00 -- The Swiss christian-democratic party (center-right) no longer believes in a the project for the Swiss Solidarity Foundation as mapped out by the Federal Council in March of 1997. The party is presenting a motion defending the idea that one third of the excedentary gold from the Natonal Bank (1300 tons of gold which are supposed to be sold) be offered to the International Committee of the Red Cross for their work abroad and the remaining should be split between social security and educational projects. The other parties have criticized the idea.
14.3.00 -- The Holocaust survivors will have to bear patience one more time before benefitting from the global settlement. The plan to distribute $1.25 billion is still not finalized. This plan, for which special delegate Judah Gribetz received hundreds of propositions, was inititally planned to be ready by the end of 1999, then delayed until March 15. However, this deadline will not be met. Judge Korman still needs additional information. The interested parties would have had until May 15 to give their opinion on the distribution proposal, before the judge would render his
final decision on June 15. This calender will probably not hold either.
5.3.00 -- According to US political scientist Norman Finkelstein, in an interview published by the Swiss paper SonntagsZeitung, Switzerland has been a victim of jewish organizations with the regard to the Holocaust Assets issue. He claims that the jewish organizations exploited the Holocaust victims for their own benefit. Finkelstein's parents were interned in Nazi camps. He teaches in New York and has announced he will publish a book in July denouncing what he calls "the holocaust industry", where he critizes and blames jewish organizations for using the memory of the Holocaust to economic ends. "Before the global settlement is paid out, all the survivors will be dead", he stated.
23.2.00 -- The Volcker Commission (aka "Independent Committee of Eminent Persons") has held its last meeting in Zurich, and has made a recommendation to the Swiss Federal Banking Commission to publish the list of "over 26 000 bank accounts" that it identified and which are likely to be connected to WW2.
21.1.00 -- The Swiss Federal Court has refused to acknowledge that Switzerland has a legal responsibility for its governement's position with regard to Joseph Spring, the Holocaust survivor, who was refused entry into Switzerland in 1943 and was then captured by the nazis and interned in Auschwitz, where members of his family died. The court has however condemned the Confederation to pay 100 000 francs to Spring to pay for his legal fees, the same amount the plaintiff had requested for moral compensation. "Justice would have been better served had I won", Spring declared leaving the court room. Documents and press articles are available on the Website of the Wochenzeitung weekly.
29.12.99 -- Sabine Sonabend, the sister of Charles Sonabend, has asked the Swiss government for an indemnisation in the same terms as his brother's rejected claim. In October 1997 Sonabend requested 100 000 francs for damages for the Swiss government's responsibility in turning back refugees in 1942, amongst which were his parents who died in Auschwitz. The government refused, saying that the request is covered in the global settlement, but Sonabend and his sister argue that the government cannot claim to be covered by an agreement in which it has no part (the Swiss banks signed it, not the government) in order to skip its moral responsibility.
27.12.99 -- The plan to allocate and distribute the global settlment sum will not be known before March 2000. The new deadline has been decided by Judge Ed Korman to let the "special master" Judah Gribetz enough time to take into account the Volcker and Bergier reports, the comments and opinions expressed during public hearings in New York and Jerusalem, and the German agreement on forced labor (see 14 December). A new hearing will take place in New York on June 15, 2000 and the distribution of the funds "will begin as soon as possible after that date", the judge said.
14.12.99 -- After months of negotiations, an agreement was reached between the lawyers for the estimated 2.3 million surviving victims of Third Reich's forced labour programme and the German industry and government. The agreement will have 255 companies and the German government pay DM 10 billion ($5.2 billion) into a compensation fund.
14.12.99 -- From his New York office judge Ed Korman followed a "fairness hearing" organized in Israel where Holocaust victims have been given the opportunity to voice their opinion about the Global agreement signed last year. In a few days Judah Gribetz, the "special master" named by judge Korman, will present his project to allocate and distribute the global settlement sum.
13.12.99 -- Just one week after its publication the Bergier report is already in back-order. The Swiss federal administration has already sold all the 2000 copies it printed, and is going for a second edition. The report is also available online.
12.12.99 -- Both US Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat and WJC's secretary general Israel Singer, as well as the Israeli foreign affairs ministry have praised Switzerland after the publication of the Bergier report. In Switzerland, right-wing politicians have criticized the report fearing that it could open the way to new financial requests. According to the SonntagsZeitung, a Sunday weekly, the nationalist leader Christoph Blocher had threatened to publish his own "rectification" of the report.
10.12.99 -- The Bergier Commission, an international panel of historians, published today its much-awaited 350-pages study on Switzerland's wartime treatment of refugees, stating that the country blocked refugees from entering its borders at the height of the Holocaust, turning back thousands of Jews and others who were later killed by the nazis, and identifying one of the reasons why the persecution of the Jews was not given the attention it deserved in Switzerland with "cultural, social and political" antisemitism and with an entrenched fear of foreigners. The report identifies two pivotal moments: 
1938, when Switzerland "participated in the marking of the passports of German Jews with the J-stamp" (picture at right), and 1942, for in August of that year Switzerland shut its borders to refugees motivated to flee "only for racial reasons". "Switzerland declined to help people in mortal danger", the report readily states. And it adds that by reinforcing border controls, "the Swiss authorities contributed -- intentionally or not -- to the Nazi's regime reaching its goals". Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss (who's jewish) reiterated the government's apologies to victims, acknowledging that Switzerland's asylum policy at the time was "marred by errors, omissions and compromises". The panel did credit Switzerland with saving 21'000 Jews during World War II, but adds that "a more humane policy might have saved thousands of refugees from being killed". The report debunks one major accusation against the Swiss: according to available documents, no deportation trains headed for death camps traveled through Switzerland from France or Italy. The historians refused to try to compare Swiss policy with that of other countries, because there were too many differences. However, they noted that the US and many nations that might have done more to help refugees failed to do so. [how to get the report]
9.12.99 -- According to media reports, a Swiss prosecutor is investigating whether UBS continued to shred Holocaust-era documents after a 1997 law banned such destructions. The law was passed after guard Christoph Meili rescued records and turned them over to a Jewish group. The Volcker report said that auditors found the bank had destroyed documents three more times after 1987. UBS said the documents fell outside the law in question.
8.12.99 -- According to the Swiss daily Le Temps, a bitter controversy has erupted in the Swiss political scene about the intention of the president of the Swiss Confederation Ruth Dreifuss to pronounce a speech on Friday December 10, following the publication of the Bergier report, expressing the apologies of Switzerland for its behaviour during WW2. Some members of the govermnent (of which Dreifuss is the only jewish member) are content with the apologies already voiced in 1995 by then-president Kaspar Villiger for the role the Swiss played in relation to the "J" stamp that Germans put on jewish passports starting in 1938. A vast portion of the political crowd also fears that right-wing nationalist parties may be tempted to exploit the event to escalate political tension just days before the re-election of the government, scheduled for December 15.
8.12.99 -- The WJC and the lawyers in the forced labor controversy have rejected the German offer of an indemnification of DM 8 billion (over $4.25 billion) which was formulated by a group of German corporations supported by the government. WJC's director Steinberg said the sum was "not sufficient". Plaintiffs are asking between DM 10 and 15 billion.
7.12.99 -- The American Jewish Committee releases a list of 254 German companies that used forced labor and slave labor during the nazi era. The list is arguably the most extensive that has ever been published of companies still in existence that that requisitioned forced and slave labor during WW2 and "companies today with names and locations so similar that the assumption can be made that they are the same firms", the AJC says in an introductory text.
6.12.99 -- The Volcker Commission (aka "Independent Committee of Eminent Persons") has released its 351-pages final report on Swiss nazi-era bank accounts. It advises the Swiss banks to publish 25.187 new names of holders of bank account that have a "probable or possible relationship" with victims of the nazis. These include accounts that have remained open in the banks, have identifiable amounts and have been matched as possibly belonging to Holocaust victims. The three-years investigation found a total of 53 886 accounts. The search has been done by hundreds of accountants from major firms who scoured 59 Swiss banks looking for accounts that were opened between 1933 and 1945. The panel, which is composed by both Jewish and Swiss members and chaired by Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has not been able to reach a clear-cut conclusion about how much these accounts are worth. An estimate, calculated at 10 times what they were worth in 1945, is between $200 and $440 million. The Committee's recommendations are addressed to the Swiss Bank Commission, a regulatory body, which is also invited to gather and archive in a centralized and protected location all the relevant banking documents of that era.
29.11.99 -- Judge Ed Korman held a "fairness hearing" where oppositors to the global settlement could express their views. 136 objections and 74 other commentaries have been listed, while 450 000 persons have accepted the agreement and 310 opted out, thus maintaining the right to sue the banks independently.
26.11.99 -- The lawyers that have worked on the Holocaust assets case have billed $13.5 million in fees (plus expenses) for a total of 22 665 working hours. Some of the invoices are controversial, such as one, revealed by WJC's director Elan Steinberg, where $2365 are charged for the time spent reading "Nazi Gold", the book by Tom Bower.
25.11.99 -- Two weeks before the release of the Bergier report on the refugee policy of Switzerland during WW2, the media has started publishing excerpts, arguing that the report will present Switzerland in a bad light. One sentence in the report (which has already been given to the Swiss government) appears to be very controversial, even if it has not been confirmed yet: "By creating additional obstacles, the Swiss authorities contributed -- intentionally or not -- to the Nazi's regime reaching its goals", which sounds like an accusation of complicity with Hitler.
23.11.99 -- UBS and Credit Suisse have paid out the second portion of the global settlement sum of $1.25 billion. $333 million have been transfered into a blocked bank account in New York. The next payments will follow in November 2000 and November 2001.
20.11.99 -- Alex Krauer and Rainer Gut, the presidents of UBS and Credit Suisse, have written a letter to the Boards of about 20 major swiss industrial corporations pressing them to contribute to the settlement sum agreed last year with the Jewish organizations. The NZZ newspaper, which revealed the letter, said that the companies' attitude is "opportunistic".
13.11.99 -- According to the Swiss press, there is a controversy between the Volcker commission and the Swiss Bankers Association. The SBA is asking Paul Volcker -- whose report on heirless bank accounts should be published in a few months -- to release only the list of the accounts that can effectively be attributed to Holocaust victims (about 3000 according to the SBA), and not the list of accounts that cannot be attributed (roughly 60'000). Jewish organizations on their end are insisting that all the heirless bank accounts listed by Volcker's auditors be considered as belonging to Holocaust victims.
5.11.99 -- The Jewish community of Hungary is claiming $202 million from Swiss banks, which represents one-sixth of the global settlement sum of $1.25 billion agreed upon by the Swiss banks and the WJC last year. US Judge Ed Korman has to decide on November 29th whether to give his final approval of the settlement. 380'000 Holocaust victims have already agreed to it, while 291 have opted out, according to the US lawyer Morris Ratner, a surprisingly low figure. Ratner has also commented that some of them may have rejected the agreement because they haven't fully understood its legal language, and that a better information may encourage them to accept it.
4.11.99 -- According to the Swiss magazine Facts, the Special Fund for Holocaust Victims has distributed to date 137 out of its 273 million fund.
4.11.99 -- The report by the Bergier Commission of historians on policies followed by the Swiss government with regard to refugees during WW2 should be released December 10. The final report will be published in 2001.
2.11.99 -- The WJC has approved the agreement between Bank Austria-Creditanstalt and a group of Holocaust victims. The bank will pay 40 million dollars, plus an additional 5 million for humanitarian projects. On another front, the US has asked Germany to increase its damage settlement offer to forced labor-workers under the nazi regime. The German industry and government had offered a settlement amount of 3.3 billion dollars.
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