ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702190017
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CLARK MORPHEW KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
A wave of remorse is sweeping across Europe as more revelations about war crimes committed 50 years ago have begun to surface.
At the center of the startling story are reports that Swiss banks received millions of dollars in gold, jewelry and art during World War II from Nazi Germany, much of it still stored in bank vaults.
At a meeting called by the American Jewish Committee in Minneapolis, Avi Beker, executive director of the World Jewish Congress in Israel, reported that Norway, France, England, Austria, Argentina and the United States also have profited from the Nazi invasion of Jewish homes and businesses. Indirectly then, those countries benefited and aided the Nazis in the horrors of the Holocaust.
According to Beker, the United States knew in the 1950s that the Swiss committed crimes during the war, negating the country's longtime claims of neutrality. In fact, Beker says, Nazi Germany would not have survived without the Swiss and, therefore, the war would have been shorter.
One might wonder why Jews and the Swiss have waited 50 years to uncover these crimes and to demand restitution. The answer for the Swiss is simple: They knew they were guilty and didn't want the worldwide embarrassment that would follow a confession.
For the Jews, the answer is more complicated. Even some Jews who had stored cash and jewelry in Swiss banks didn't try to retrieve their valuables for fear their efforts would fuel anti-Semitic feelings. And officials who may have known of the confiscated gold, art and jewelry perhaps hesitated to raise concern because they were afraid of perpetuating the false stereotype of Jews as greedy people.
At least that's what Beker said recently as a small group of Jewish community leaders listened to his scenario. Whatever the reason, it's clear that Europe and the United States are now confronting their guilt and that under continuing pressure from the World Jewish Congress, they likely will be forced to make some kind of restitution.
The reports Beker cited are astonishing.
In Norway, for instance, officials cooperated with Nazis to deport Jews to the death camps and then confiscated businesses and homes. When a few Jews returned after the war to reclaim their property, they were told to be grateful they were alive. But their property was gone.
In 1996, as the revelations surfaced in Switzerland, U.S. government officials decided to investigate any possible complicity on our nation's part. They discovered that $60 million was transferred here from Swiss banks in 1946. Eventually, they found two tons of gold stashed in a subterranean vault of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in New York City.
The Argentina connection is even more intriguing with all the attention the hit movie ``Evita'' is getting. Eva and Juan Peron, according to Beker, agreed to harbor Nazi officers in Argentina after the war and were rewarded with planeloads of gold and valuables.
France has denied for 50 years that its leaders cooperated with Nazi Germany, but last year President Jacques Chirac publicly admitted that the nation was guilty of helping the Nazis deport Jews and confiscate their property, cash and valuables. It should be remembered that some French citizens, meanwhile, were harboring thousands of Jews because they knew the Vichy government would deport them.
In Austria, for 50 years, the official response to charges of cooperation with Hitler's troops blamed German ``annexation'' of the government. But Austrian involvement goes deeper, Beker says, noting that 40 percent of the commanders in the death camps were Austrian soldiers.
Now the truth is coming out, and it is a dramatic and sordid story about the immorality of government officials in Europe, North America and South America. There is something about being guilty of atrocities that never stops haunting a person or a nation. Sooner or later, guilt always catches up.
Clark Morphew is an ordained clergyman and is religion writer for the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press.
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