61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

the International Commission of Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), to
produce the exact figures on the number or the value of insurance policies
concluded with Swiss insurance companies which were never paid out to their
legitimate owners. This represents an open issue. Neither did it prove possible
to determine either the number of policies that had been sold outside of
Switzerland with a special clause stipulating the possibility of their being paid
out in Switzerland, or the number of those policies which had been sold to Jews
in those countries which were later to be occupied. The extremely daunting task
of searching through the enormous inventory of old policies is still a job to be
tackled, and the ICHEIC is doing so at present up to a certain degree. Its work
is thus limited to a compilation of the names and persons who held such
policies, and it is not concerned with an analysis of the insurance company’s
behaviour.
6.5 Restitution of Looted Securities
Until 1943, Swiss banks sold looted securities on the stock exchange for
Germany, which in return received urgently needed foreign currency. Only after
the Allies warned the neutral countries in January 1943 against dealing in
looted goods on behalf of the Axis powers did the stock exchanges and Swiss
Bankers Association implement appropriate measures. However, these were by
no means systematically implemented, so that a grey market arose, resulting in
numerous problems right after the war. In contrast to the bank and insurance
assets, securities – similar to looted art – were considered as assets that could
physically be restituted and therefore fell under the decree on looted assets
outlined in section 6.2.
Hence, any company that had imported securities into Switzerland from
Germany and its occupied territories became the focus of events. The Swiss
Bankers Association assumed an important role at this time, representing the
interests of the financial community and acting as a mouthpiece for the banks
concerned. Although it did not appear as a party in the actions brought before
the Federal Supreme Court, it did on several occasions take on the task of
defending the reputation of banks against accusations that they had acted as
receivers of stolen goods. A few months after the war ended, Adolf Jann,
managing director of the Union Bank of Switzerland, saw the issue of looted
assets as the «acid test for a friendlier and more benevolent attitude of the US
towards Switzerland». 103 Jann realised at an early stage that the key issue
confronting the Swiss Federal Supreme Court would be whether the Swiss
government or more particularly the banks had to fund compensation payments
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