61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

actions] assets in such countries of victims of Nazi action who have since
died and left no heirs.» 11
In this regard, the Washington Agreement between Switzerland and the
Western Allies in spring 1946 elicited nothing more than a non-binding pledge
from the Swiss negotiators. At that time, the representatives of the Allies
appeared to be satisfied with an empty diplomatic phrase, as the return of the
looted gold which had been accepted by the Swiss National Bank was
uppermost in their minds. 12 However, only six months later the topic again
appeared on the agenda. The French-led group of five countries which was
charged with implementing the Final Act of the Paris Conference, called on
France to continue the efforts aimed at releasing heirless assets for the benefit
of the Nazi victims. Jewish restitution organisations followed up the matter in
subsequent years. None of these efforts was successful, however, as the attention
of the Western Allies was increasingly taken up by the Cold War. Furthermore,
the other main objective of the Washington negotiations, the transfer of the
German assets deposited in Switzerland to the reparations pool established by
the Western Allies, was not achieved despite basic agreement. In this key area
for the banks, the Swiss negotiators played for time; the more strongly the Cold
War dominated international relations, the more it was possible to revert to the
tried and true strategy of bilateral solutions. Nevertheless, the successor to the
IGCR, the International Refugee Organization (IRO), received an advance
payment of the 25 million dollars promised from the liquidation proceeds of
German assets in Switzerland; however, this occurred only after repeated urging
and after Sweden had paid in its entire portion. As regards the banks, the
replacement of the Washington Agreement as part of the London Agreement in
1952 allowed them to honour the pledge they had always made that German
assets could not be liquidated without compensating the owners.
The restitution practice of the US occupation authorities was laid down in 1945
and codified in the Military Government Law 59 of 10 November 1947 which
demanded restitution. 13 This formed the basis for the subsequent restitution
laws passed in the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition, in October 1945,
the WJC together with the Jewish Agency and the American Jewish Conference
made restitution claims for the property of deceased Jewish victims who had left
no heirs. The Jewish Restitution Successor Organization, established for this
purpose, was appointed the official legal heir in the US occupied zone and later
acted in the same capacity together with the national Jewish organisations in
the British and French occupied zones.
In the context of these post-war developments, we have a wide range of concepts
and meanings to deal with. Reparations, restitution, compensation, refund,
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