61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

1 Introduction
Looking back at the Nazi era and the Second World War will always pose
problems. In our cultural memory, no final word can be said about the catastrophe
of the Holocaust. The «Drowned» (Primo Levi), Jews, Roma and Sinti
and other victims of political, religious and «racial» persecution, who
«perished» in the extermination camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor,
Chelmno, Belzec, Majdanek and Treblinka, remain as vivid in the respective
collective memory of minorities and political groupings, as in the history of
Europe and of other areas of the world.
For the general public in the post-war period, the horror over the mass crime
was related to the question of how this could have happened in one of the major
civilised European countries. However, people gave little thought to their own
conduct as far as the victims of persecution and their assets were concerned.
Even after certain aspects had become the subject of research and debate, there
was at first only limited interest in a comprehensive analysis of how assets that
were confiscated or stolen or which were left behind as a result of the Holocaust
were dealt with (which later have come to be known as «Holocaust era assets»).
In the latter part of the 20 th century, the questions as to relationships and transactions
in this field have so far given rise to historical investigations in 25
countries into what happened to the property of victims of the Nazi regime, into
the restitution of looted assets, and into the responsibility of private companies
and public authorities.
1.1 Switzerland during the Nazi Period seen as a Problem of
Today
Today, Switzerland is faced with a past which has never been incorporated into
the prevailing view of history. The resulting problems are linked to difficulties
in the country’s finding its bearings. How did this come about?
The «small neutral state» as an impartial observer?
In continuation of a long-standing national self-image, Switzerland saw itself
after 1945 as a «small neutral state», which because of its will to resist and a
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