 18.7.01 -- Three years after the global settlement, the first payments to Holocaust victims may finally happen, NY judge Ed Korman decided. A first sum of 43 million dollars will be distributed in the very next days. The Swiss banks have long paid the 1.25 billion dollars settlement sum into a blocked account, but procedural issues in the US and disagreements between beneficiaries had so far blocked the distribution of the money.
17.4.1 -- Almost three years after the final settlement between the Jewish organizations and the Swiss banks, and after having been delayed by a series of legal quarrels in the US, payments to claimants in the Holocaust Assets dispute should finally start this fall. The four agencies that will manage and distribute the $1.25 billion paid by the Swiss banks have been presented today in New York and Tel Aviv. The Claim Resolution Tribunal will handle $800 million to compensate the Holocaust victims (or their heirs) that had Swiss bank accounts (21'000 such accounts have been identified). The rest of the money will be distributed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Claims Conference in New York, and the International Migration Organization in Geneva. These funds will benefit both Jewish and non-Jewish, such as forced laborer during WW2 or refugees who were denied entry into Switzerland. Over 560 000 people have submitted a claim, and claims can still be put forward at swissbankclaims.com until the end of the Summer.
16.1.1 -- A strong controversy is unfolding in the US-based Jewish journal "Commentary" on the issue of WW2 restitution and reparation. Last September, senior editor Gabriel Schoenfeld published a sharp and well-documented piece called "A Growing Scandal" where he analyzed the "continually expanding list of Holocaust restitution projects" and the "questionable nature of some of the claims" and criticized attorneys, politicians, and Jewish organizations. "To reprove Swiss neutrality from an office in Washington five decades after the fact, without considering the alternative and what it would have entailed, is to indulge in the worst kind of armchair moralizing", he writes about Switzerland's role in WW2. Schoenfeld's article has attracted detailed reactions -- published in this month's issue -- including a strong disagreement from US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Stuart Eizenstat.
Timeline of Past Events
Upcoming Events
The official Web site for the Holocaust Victims Asset Litigation against the Swiss Banks and other Swiss entities has been launched in June 1999.
dormantaccounts.ch.
International list of current activities regarding Holocaust victims' assets, by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
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Plan of Allocation of the global settlement sum, released Sept. 11, 2000 in New York.
Transcript of the settlement of August 1998 between the representatives of Swiss banks, Jewish groups and Holocaust survivors in which the banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion.
Bergier Report on Switzerland and Refugees (Dec. 1999)
Bergier Report on Gold Transactions (May 1998)
Volcker Report on Nazi-era Bank Accounts (Dec. 1999)
First Eizenstat Report (May 1997)
Second Eizenstat Report (June 1998)
Other essential documents
Swiss newsmagazine L'Hebdo has published on October 30, 1997 a revised Swiss History Handbook titled "New Outlook on Switzerland 1939-45". The handbook ("Nouveaux regards sur la Suisse 1939-45") which contains new discoveries and a balanced lecture of history, is in French.
A basic bibliography of recent works.
Postal & E-mail Addresses, Phone Numbers
The official Holocaust Victims Asset Litigation Web site.
Links to relevant Web sites related to the current discussion on Switzerland and the Holocaust Assets.
Usenet: soc.culture.swiss
Usenet: soc.culture.jewish.holocaust
A selection of links to sites related to the history of World War II and of the Holocaust.
A selection of articles published by the Swiss press and by international newspapers and magazines.
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