61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

from the depression, or in sectors such as the food industry, where competition
was particularly fierce. 32 Swiss firms were frequently vilified by their
competitors as being foreign or Jewish. Lest it too came in for such attacks,
Lonza AG, for example, whose Board of Directors included one Jew up until
1941, decided in October 1938 to make its German subsidiary Lonza Werke
GmbH largely independent, at least on paper, so that it would be considered
German and «Aryan». 33
After the «Anschluss», the shoe manufacturer Bally, which had a factory and
eight sales points in Vienna, became a target for attacks. As a result, Iwan Bally,
member of the Federal Council of States (Ständerat) for Solothurn and chairman
of the Board of Directors of both Bally’s Vienna subsidiary and the Swiss parent
company, published the following declaration for the attention of the firm’s
customers:
«In order to counter the flow of rumors and claims, the undersigned would
like to state that the entire share capital of the Bally Wiener Schuh AG
factory is held by the parent company, C. F. Bally AG in Zurich. Until
recently the latter held 75% of the shares. Official approval has been sought
for the now effected transfer of the remaining shares. The non-Aryan
members of the Board of Directors and the management have resigned
from their posts and all the remaining members of the Board are of purely
Aryan descent. The management is now headed by Mr. Wildbolz and Mr.
Gustav Busch, both of whom are Aryan. C. F. Bally AG in Zurich is first
and foremost a family corporation. The family members, the Board of
Directors and all senior managers are purely Aryan». 34
Only a few days earlier, on 19 March 1938, Iwan Bally had informed a Board
meeting that the Austrian Jew Hugo Gänsler, who had until then held 25% of
the shares of Bally Wiener Schuh AG, had offered them on 13 March to C. F.
Bally AG, which had accepted his offer. With its reorganisation of staff and its
acquisition of the Austrian shareholder’s stocks the company had «Aryanised»
its Vienna factory only a few days after the «Anschluss». 35
The Schweizer Rück insurance (Swiss Re) company also acted quickly. On
17 March 1938 the managing director, Emil Bebler, made a special trip to
Vienna to relieve the entire management of the firm’s Austrian subsidiary, Der
Anker, of its functions. 36 Bebler asked the four men in question «to no longer
consider themselves members of the management, to accept the situation, and
to have no objections to their suspension». 37 Two directors were given notice,
while two were redeployed elsewhere in the company for a time because their
experience was needed. Subsequently, the remaining Jewish employees, 73 out
329