Swiss Nazi gold blame seen jeopardizing Solidarity fund plan
By Bridge News
London--Dec 2--Swiss representatives could warn
delegates at a conference on Nazi gold in London this week that the scapegoating of Switzerland could scupper its plans for a humanitarian Solidarity foundation to aid victims of genocide, war and natural disasters, the UK's Press Association reported.
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Switzerland has come under heavy fire over the last
year as details came to light of how its secretive banks held on for more than half a century to cash deposited by Jews who later died in Nazi concentration camps.
An international commission of historians set up by
the Swiss Government to prepare evidence for this week's conference reported that 76% of all gold exported abroad by Hitler's Reichsbank went to Switzerland.
But Swiss delegation leader Thomas Borer insisted
Monday that his country had nothing to be ashamed of in its wartime conduct and was prepared to defend its actions at the conference.
An article in The New York Times Monday said Swiss
officials now fear that if the public feel under attack for actions taken half a century ago, a referendum next year on the planned humanitarian fund might fail.
Speaking Monday, Borer said: "I am ready to confront
the Jewish organizations if they want a confrontation. But I and my government believe more in co-operation. If you compare the behavior of my country during World War 2, I would say that we are in a much more favorable position than most European countries, apart from perhaps Britain and the Allies.
"Politicians and journalists are talking about the
lessons to be drawn from the Holocaust. No-one is talking about how a few people 55 years ago could convince so many to help them and how many others looked away and minded their own business."
The Swiss, wary of becoming the conference's
whipping-boys, are thought to be ready to point the finger at the US for also accepting "tainted" gold after the war. Switzerland proposed that archives in all relevant countries be opened to make researchers' work easier.
A Swiss working group concluded in a report Oct 24
that the Swiss National Bank held too much gold and should sell up to 1,400 tonnes, or around 54%, of its total to fund public causes such as the proposed humanitarian Solidarity Foundation. But the plan must be approved at national referendum first.
The proposed Swiss humanitarian Solidarity foundation
is often confused with the already-established Holocaust Fund, a private fund with donations from the 3 big banks, the SNB, industry and other groups to help Holocaust victims and their heirs. It is managed by a committee of Swiss and international Jewish officials. |
