61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

advantage for Switzerland was that the Washington Agreement did not lay
down any time limits. A play for time now began, which was affected by the
Cold War from 1947 and by the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany
(FRG) from 1949. Switzerland was fortunate in that even the US soon lost
interest in a speedy implementation of the Agreement’s provisions. When a new
agreement was eventually concluded in 1952, the Federal Republic of Germany
played the key role. Switzerland, which a year later had to pay a sum of
121.5 million francs in settlement of Allied claims for the corresponding assets
(and paid a further 50 million francs contribution by 1954 in connection with
disputes over sequestration), was able to achieve two important objectives. First,
the FRG paid 650 million francs for the clearing billion which Switzerland had
made available to the Third Reich mainly for the purchase of arms in the years
after 1941, and which had long since been written off by most of the Swiss
protagonists. Second – and much more important from the Swiss point of view
– German assets in Switzerland remained exempt from reparations claims. More
than four-fifths of all German owners of assets valued below 10,000 francs were
repaid two-thirds of the value of their assets and this – even though tax was
deducted – was felt to be a very generous solution. 48 In this way, Switzerland
had salvaged the principles of international private law throughout the war
years and provided a striking example of liability of Swiss law, and not just with
regard to West Germany. In view of society’s return to normalcy, which
unfolded in the Federal Republic of Germany against a background of rapid
economic growth, hardly anyone paid attention to the fact that Nazi perpetrators
also began to benefit from their assets again with impunity.
This generous repayment operation for German asset holders was linked to the
fact that people, while distancing themselves emotionally and politically from
the Nazi regime, did not break off personal relationships with major exponents
of the Third Reich and its war economy. In Switzerland, the argument that
surfaced immediately after the end of the war was that most of the country’s
German partners during the war years had been at least «respectable»
individuals. Even members of the SS were able to enjoy such a personal attestation
of their honour. However, even if the assertion was true in individual
cases, it represented a shift of perspective, as those involved had in fact acted not
as individuals, but as representatives of corporations or parts of the apparatus of
government that served a criminal system. Personal innocence could be
presumed only where the person in question could prove that he had refused to
comply with orders from the Nazi system. Shortly after the end of the war, it
was also clear to the Germans that their conduct would obviously be measured
by this standard. Accordingly, they presented themselves as secret opponents of
the defeated Nazi system, boasted of their personal contacts with representa-
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