ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996 TAG: 9610250080
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: GENEVA
SOURCE: Associated Press
Hundreds of documents in archives here detail the Swiss government's use of unclaimed assets from Holocaust victims as leverage to settle unrelated postwar claims against other European nations, a Swiss historian said Thursday.
The comments by Peter Hug, who searched 6,500 boxes of letters, diplomatic notes and other documents at the Swiss government's request, shed light on the fate of money deposited by European Jews in Swiss accounts.
Many Jews, attracted by Switzerland's banking secrecy laws and its neutrality, kept their money in Swiss accounts during World War II. Many perished in Nazi camps.
Over the years, many Holocaust survivors and heirs of those who died have pressed the Swiss government to return the deposits, but have lacked bank account numbers and other evidence and have largely been ignored.
``For me, what is morally very, very questionable is that for 50 years Switzerland did nothing to try to find the people this money actually belonged to,'' the University of Bern historian said.
After World War II, Hug said, Swiss businesses and individuals were seeking compensation from eastern European countries whose new communist governments had confiscated what had been Swiss-owned property.
The Swiss government used the dormant deposits to entice Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia to pay the compensation, Hug said.
After searching through unclaimed Swiss bank accounts and insurance policies, Swiss authorities promised Poland some $1.6million of unclaimed Polish money. Of that, it paid less than $400,000.
During one payment, in 1975, Switzerland refused, despite Polish requests, to include the names of the original owners of the deposits.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., alleged that Switzerland made a deal with Poland in 1949 under which Swiss citizens and corporations whose property was nationalized by the communists could be paid back with deposits of heirless Polish Jews.
Swiss Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti said Wednesday that D'Amato's claims were ``so far totally without foundation.'' But he promised a thorough investigation.
This week's allegations follow accusations over the past month that Switzerland laundered gold looted by the Nazis from the national banks of countries they occupied.
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