61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

3.6 Extortion and Ransom Demands
Beginning with the summer of 1940, the Nazi authorities resorted to extorting
money from Jews in order to cover the Third Reich’s huge requirement for
foreign currency. On the one hand, the Nazis tried to get hold of Jewish assets
abroad, and on the other they used prisoners as objects to be negotiated in
exchange for German citizens within the context of civilian prisoner exchange.
Towards the end of the war, certain Nazis used the trade in human beings to
gain the favor of the Allies or to ensure some financial security in case they later
decided to flee the country. The ICE’s investigations focused on the occupied
Netherlands because trade in the so-called «Jew Swap» («Austauschjuden») was
particularly intense in that country. 161 These are completed by a summary of the
well-known ransom operations conducted at war’s end to purchase the freedom
of prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt concentration camps.
Between 1940 and 1945, the German authorities in the «Reich Commissariat
Netherlands» («Reichskommissariat Niederlande») extorted foreign currency and
other assets from Jews who applied for an exit permit. Negotiations being
conducted in most cases on the basis of the much sought after Swiss franc, it was
logical for both those persecuted and their persecutors to use agents who could
propose intermediaries – private individuals and banks – from neutral
Switzerland. The sums negotiated were usually around 100,000 francs and, if
the victim had no assets of his or her own abroad, they had to be raised by third
parties, in particular friends and relatives in the USA. Negotiations mostly took
months, sometimes even years, and often came to nothing because, at the
decisive moment, the money could not be raised quickly enough. The result was
that only a small number of such deals were successful and only a few Jews
managed to buy their way to Switzerland. In most cases, the financial centre
served merely as a «hub» for raising the necessary funds. The motives of the
Swiss agents are in many cases obscure. Some acted for financial gain, some in
order to help those being persecuted, while yet others acted for a combination
of both reasons.
The Dutch government in exile as well as the British and American authorities
refused such ransoms because they were a way for Germany to obtain foreign
currency. In order to prevent further deals they threatened to include suspected
agents on the «black-list».
At first the Swiss authorities were not concerned about these procedures as long
as the prevailing regulations were not violated and in particular if it did not
mean an additional number of refugees entering the country. After the Allies’
official declaration on the subject on 24 November 1942, closer attention was
paid to such activities. Swiss interests were given priority, i.e., the effort to limit
161