ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 15, 1997 TAG: 9701150102
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
Switzerland's biggest bank admitted Tuesday it threw away archives in violation of a government ban on destroying records that might reveal financial transactions during the Nazi era.
Union Bank of Switzerland officials said one of their employees threw away the documents last week, apparently thinking they were unimportant.
Zurich district attorney Peter Cosandey described the documents as ``politically sensitive material'' and said authorities had opened an investigation into their contents.
The documents were inside two containers waiting to be shredded when an employee of a private security firm spotted them. The security guard, Christoph Meili, said he rescued some of the documents and handed them to Jewish community representatives in Zurich, who then alerted police.
``If God puts these documents in my hands, then I have to do something,'' Meili said.
Meili - who has been suspended from his job pending the outcome of the investigation - said he rescued only part of the documents. The rest were destroyed.
At a news conference, the Israeli-Hebrew Community of Zurich said the documents concerned loans from 1920-26, including to German firms, and property dealings from 1930-70.
There was no immediate indication of whether they contained any details relating to the Holocaust.
Last month, the government banned banks from destroying any archives as part of its investigation into allegations that Switzerland colluded with Hitler's Germany, siphoned off Jewish assets and laundered Nazi gold.
The Union Bank of Switzerland also has its own internal ban on destroying archives.
Cosandey said it was not clear whether criminal proceedings would be launched against the bank employee, who has not been identified.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB