61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

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139 FA, E 2001 (E) 1970/217, vol. 279, Hess to EPD, 19 August 1957. 140 FA, E 2001 (E) 1970/217, vol. 279, Beyeler to EPD, 27 August 1957. 141 See Tisa Francini/Heuss/Kreis, Fluchtgut, 2001 (Publications of the ICE), chapter 5.2.2.4. 142 FA, E 2001 (E) 1970/217, vol. 279, memo by Zoelly, 29 August 1957. 143 FA, E 2001 (E) 1970/217, vol. 279. One piece of evidence was provided on 5 September 1957 by Charles Durand-Ruel who carried out an inventory of Joseph Bernheim’s private collection on 27 June 1941 and remembered the Bonnard, which hung over the door connecting the dining room and the living room. The letter from the second expert, Raingo-Pelouse, to Dauberville dated 15 October 1957 confirms this statement. He too remembered that he had given an expert opinion on the Bonnard and that he had described it as «Dessus de porte (nature morte) par Bonnard». The painting was located in the «hôtel particulier» at 17, rue Desbordes-Valmore. 144 FA, E 2001 (E) 1970/217, vol. 279, French Embassy to EPD, 4 December 1957 (original French). 145 See Groupe français, Répertoire, 1947f., vol. 2, no. 4998, OBIP 43572, p. 225. Owner: Jean Bernheim-Jeune. 146 Dominik Heitz in Basler Zeitung, 19 June 2001. 147 Peter, Auslieferung, 1946, p. 25. 148 Swiss Re Archives (Union Re Fund), meeting of Board of Directors, 23 November 1945, p. 6. 149 FA, E 7160-07 (-) 1968/54, vol. 13, minutes of the supervisory commission on the Washington Accord, 11 March 1947, p. 108. 150 Swiss Re Archives (Union Re Fund), meeting of Board of Directors, 4 September 1946, pp. 61f. 151 FA, E 2001 (E) 1968/79, vols. 2ff., minutes of the supervisory commission on the Washington Accord, 23 November 1948. 152 Munich Re Archives, A 2.19, no. 109, <strong>Schweiz</strong>erische National, Memo for Dr. Schlieren: regarding «<strong>Schweiz</strong>er National» (Herzog), 25 March 1976, p. 5. 153 For details see König, Interhandel, 2001 (Publications of the ICE). 154 See the Miedl versus Schwend case, in: Uhlig/Barthelmess/König/Pfaffenroth/Zeugin, Tarnung, 2001 (Publications of the ICE) p. 364, note 4. 492
7 Conclusion: Insights and Unanswered Questions When on 13 December 1996 the ICE was commissioned to investigate unanswered questions concerning Switzerland’s role in the Holocaust era, fifty years had elapsed since the signing of the Washington Agreement between the Allies and Switzerland. 1 In 1946, this Agreement supposedly resolved once and for all the controversial issue of Swiss relations with the Axis Powers. In 1946 it also appeared to provide an adequate resolution of the problem of the assets which had been deposited for safekeeping in Switzerland by both the victims of the Nazi persecution and its perpetrators. Although after the 1940s the subject by no means disappeared from view as a result, it scarcely figured in the public’s awareness any longer. Historians who were busily writing about the subject were aware that their books would not sell in great numbers. Despite their continued efforts, victims and their organisations were not in a position to make their voices heard to any great extent. The unresolved questions therefore largely remained pending in just the same way as the bank balances which became a focus of interest in the mid-1990s. This time, however, it was not possible to proceed as if nothing had happened. The enduring silence about a past, that beggared the imagination – this weighty burden of the post-war years – was finally broken. After more than half a century, but particularly during the previous two decades, new ground-rules had evolved. A younger generation began to ask critical questions and wanted to know about a past which was, after all, also its own. Whilst human rights began to play an ever more important role in international relations, the end of the Cold War brought a relaxation of firmly entrenched ideological fronts. And thus came about the fundamental change of attitude which has enabled old questions to take on a fresh topicality, giving rise to a broad, public debate in recent years. This has resulted in the virtually worldwide investigations which are going on even now into how the assets dating from the Holocaust era were handled, and where they came to rest. The fact that Switzerland was the starting point for these international investigations caused many Swiss people – unsurprisingly – to ask why it was that their country, in particular, became a focus of criticism, as it had not been subject to any dictatorship, nor party to violent anti-Semitism, nor involved in deportations. In actual fact, an obvious, but incomplete answer to the question «Why 493
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Final Report of the Independent Com
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Independent Commission of Experts S
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Preface This book focuses on Switze
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the monetary system and refugee pol
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sometimes difficult conditions and
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5 LAW AND LEGAL PRACTICE 391 5.1 Pu
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Abbreviations A.G.I.U.S. Assistenza
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EFV Eidgenössische Finanzverwaltun
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OECD Organization for Economic Coop
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UFA Universum-Film-Aktiengesellscha
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clever policy managed not to be dra
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economic and military power». 10 I
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Holocaust and the context of the Se
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informed will see more options, set
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with a violent threat, emergency le
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Germany although against the couran
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concerned, the findings are release
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Projects that had been suggested in
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Conscious of the importance of pers
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Considering all these developments,
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over the next few years. Only a few
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war the Soviet Union seized massive
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12 It is symptomatic in this contex
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2 The International Context and Nat
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The revolutionary upheavals at the
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1935 established a racial basis for
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The small state of Switzerland The
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Figure 1: Import and export trends,
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system. Payments from Swiss debtors
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Foreign investors desired security
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Although the political equality of
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the state and legislation was also
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Switzerland - «come what may». 28
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the Radical Party leading to a comb
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in the economy in the post-war peri
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in a far more clear-cut manner. It
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«original» Swiss values, so to sp
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take the measures deemed necessary
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also committed to an ideological co
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defence sector. The consumer price
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economic, social, cultural and spir
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28 November 1937 for a ban on Freem
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Supreme Commander - the General - a
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The phases of the war Hitler hoped
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Bircher sending Swiss doctors to th
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The victorious powers were in agree
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on 7 March 1945: «after the ‹Rus
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significantly bogged down after 194
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18 There are no recent studies on G
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73 See Imhof/Ettinger/Boller, Flüc
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126 Stucki’s speech on 12 Februar
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papers, had to go back to France. T
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Increased persecution of Jews and i
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created a legal basis for the pract
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to supervise the internees, to meet
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discourage refugee smugglers and th
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Nazi regime were forced to leave as
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times in the statistics concerning
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deal of information circulated thro
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defensive system that led to restri
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consequences - as well as from the
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epeatedly as justification. At the
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even betrayed in the face of the Ge
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situation. 83 As was customary, the
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The immense popularity of Swiss aid
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admission of illegal «French, Span
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the decisions made. As far as refug
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with the authorities in individual
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The main role played by the church
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with Switzerland and other countrie
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and resulted in improving in the fl
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occupied areas as well as taking in
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war in particular, tension arose be
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claim they were wealthy in order to
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sight of the German border police t
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of the war, the Federal Political D
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would be estranged from their famil
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country were subjected, was finally
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egard to the post-war period - favo
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the export of foreign currency and
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post-war period through «humanitar
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Federal Council’s delegate for in
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taken seriously. It was not until 1
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25 Ludwig, Flüchtlingspolitik, 195
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67 See Häsler, Boot, 1971, pp. 275
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113 Narbel, Eglises, 2001. Study un
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162 With reference to the first cam
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approaches to a critical debate abo
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But there was more to Swiss objecti
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transition to economic warfare as o
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that this important economic potent
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market became much more important a
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members of the management. In any c
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machine tools and aluminium the con
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to obtain only limited supplies, if
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of the various areas of economic ex
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«The nations which are today fight
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11 Vereinigung des Schweizerischen
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4.2 The Armaments Industry and the
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Table 2: Export permits issued for
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International tolerance of and cond
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acquired what it needed from abroad
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military expenditure in Switzerland
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32 light machine gun and the MG 34
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the disastrous situation with regar
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In summer 1940, the Swiss diplomacy
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important of these was the Dixi-Jun
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Whether the contribution of Swiss e
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4.3 Electricity The authorities of
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closer to the Swiss electricity gen
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provided by Switzerland to the Axis
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Passenger transport In recent years
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a day passed through the Gotthard T
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Table 4: A few examples of transit
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to ensure that the volume of suspic
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- first Italy, then Germany - were
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Closing remarks The aim of this sec
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4.5 Gold Transactions During the Se
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on 7 December 1942, when the Federa
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shipped to Switzerland even during
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lished two different dollar categor
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icance of these transactions on the
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their gold transactions and positiv
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customers (such as the Reichsbank)
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corporations could therefore not co
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11 Banken, Degussa, 1999. 12 SNB Ar
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Figure 5: Balance-sheet totals of S
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phenomenon. Having such a well-esta
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the Geneva bank had to be liquidate
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the Swiss institutions was the guar
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esumption of debt service and were
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position they were still prepared a
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The banks provided Germany with oth
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of Swiss ownership, others without
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from Germany. The corresponding fig
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the certification procedure had dam
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owners. In cases where the company
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1 This section is principally based
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4.7 Swiss Insurance Companies in Ge
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1934 and 1939, which decreased slig
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1936 and in Frankfurt in 1939. Rent
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- were able to withstand this «Ger
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Did this anti-Semitism spill across
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In cases where foreign exchange pol
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In Switzerland, insurance policies
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the German economy was to an ever-i
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Swiss-German border, and these firm
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leading figures in the Nazi regime
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which, once peace returned, would b
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independently. They backed this up
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egime. The same was the case for th
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options: either the «Generalgouver
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ities such as synthetic silks (Lonz
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6 Burrin, France, 1995, pp. 468f. 7
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Phases and extent of the use of for
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Table 7: Proportion of foreign work
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Fischer, the Aluminium-Walzwerke Si
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At Lonza, the Board Committee knew
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10 Quoted from Herbert, Fremdarbeit
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if the owner or the personally liab
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improving their position in the Ger
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their shareholders; according to a
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Willstätter to emigrate to Switzer
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of 193, not including «half-Jews»
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As a major manufacturer, Bally Wien
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their intention was to sell the thr
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December 1933 started negotiations
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were of the opinion that the admini
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ments and common international laws
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The Swiss authorities were prepared
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24 With reference to what follows,
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70 After the «Anschluss», Austria
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and irreplaceable; they are artefac
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Another channel for the transfer of
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In the case of Fides, five sub-cate
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«Switzerland plays a significant r
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was merely the first phase leading
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Case study: Curt Glaser - «I put t
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His art collection and art library
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well-known event is the «official
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Out of a total of around 20,000 con
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4 The following comments are based
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4.12 German Camouflage and Relocati
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documentation developed out of the
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ank collapses in the summer of 1931
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British branch out of the Netherlan
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interests of Switzerland. However,
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its former Swiss holding company mu
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spring 1944, as had already happene
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SS member Helmuth Maurer and the Zu
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economy syndicate in Switzerland, P
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Figures and Legends As a result of
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comply with the duty, established b
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25 On the «Red House» conference,
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emergency plenary powers). This «e
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provide for emergency powers for th
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In terms of international law, Swit
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those concerned, the rigorous separ
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opinion which had been commissioned
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material. This duty of equal treatm
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the systematic plundering of privat
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orne in mind in this context that i
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securities described above. 104 Her
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international law is applicable if
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Heynau’s petition against the Olm
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cation of Nazi injustice. This feel
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27 This included not only «politic
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66 Schindler, Fragen, 2001 (Publica
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106 Vischer, Handel, 2001 (Publicat
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142 After the war, the German crimi
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concerned, it was stated that «ind
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actions] assets in such countries o
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eplaced it with «Wiedergutmachung
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individual. 23 Reparations do not i
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6.2 Restitution Claims in Switzerla
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commission concluded that investiga
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prevented numerous claimants from m
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advantage for Switzerland was that
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was also justified by the argument
Page 442 and 443: vention of international law carrie
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Page 446 and 447: e «never to mention the entire aff
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Page 452 and 453: hensive survey to be carried out an
Page 454 and 455: of which 1.7 million francs came fr
Page 456 and 457: Learning processes of the 1990s In
Page 458 and 459: Table 8: Restitution proceedings ag
Page 460 and 461: Germany at that time, or were depor
Page 462 and 463: Judges at that time also had proble
Page 464 and 465: policies belonging to Jews who rema
Page 466 and 467: the International Commission of Hol
Page 468 and 469: international law and it had theref
Page 470 and 471: as many cases as possible by amicab
Page 472 and 473: under duress to be between 50 and 1
Page 474 and 475: Table 9: Restitution claims involvi
Page 476 and 477: Restitution claims after 1947 After
Page 478 and 479: ook with the title «Vénus de Cyr
Page 480 and 481: camouflaging. After the Allied occu
Page 482 and 483: elief that relations would continue
Page 484 and 485: group of companies was not a tradit
Page 486 and 487: communities in Switzerland supporte
Page 488 and 489: 44 Letter from the three leaders of
Page 490 and 491: 94 Investigations carried out by th
Page 494 and 495: Switzerland?» can be found in the
Page 496 and 497: French-speaking Switzerland called
Page 498 and 499: conformist tendencies, served only
Page 500 and 501: different type of conduct displayed
Page 502 and 503: also in more recent legal proceedin
Page 504 and 505: Discussions about the high level of
Page 506 and 507: this kind would be abrogated after
Page 508 and 509: State and private business. This ha
Page 510 and 511: tutional rights of Switzerland’s
Page 512 and 513: The task of the Commission did not
Page 514 and 515: The defensive attitude of private b
Page 516 and 517: much which would have failed to bec
Page 518 and 519: seemed to function outside establis
Page 520 and 521: spectre of a renewed post-war crisi
Page 522 and 523: «Axis» under the terms of the cle
Page 524 and 525: dissuasion in the broadest possible
Page 527 and 528: Sources and Bibliography The follow
Page 529 and 530: SVB (Schweizerische Volksbank) Fund
Page 531 and 532: Federal Department of Justice and P
Page 533 and 534: 2.3 USA National Archives and Recor
Page 535 and 536: - Zweiter Weltkrieg (ed.): Die Schw
Page 537 and 538: Unabhängige Expertenkommission Sch
Page 539 and 540: mémoire en construction, in: Allge
Page 541 and 542: Bloch, Marc: Apologie der Geschicht
Page 543 and 544:
Erster und Zweiter Weltkrieg. Demok
Page 545 and 546:
Arbeitskreises «Zweiter Weltkrieg
Page 547 and 548:
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ge
Page 549 and 550:
Haab, Robert; Simonius, August: Art
Page 551 and 552:
Volkswirtschafts-Departementes, ed.
Page 553 and 554:
des réfugiés entre 1933 et 1945.
Page 555 and 556:
Kunz, Hans Beat: Weltrevolution und
Page 557 and 558:
Lüthy, Herbert: Die Disteln von 19
Page 559 and 560:
Vonarb, Zurich 1995 (Archäologie u
Page 561 and 562:
Radbruch, Gustav: Gesetzliches Unre
Page 563 and 564:
Schumann, Wolfgang: Die wirtschafts
Page 565 and 566:
Stutz, Hans: Frontisten und Nationa
Page 567 and 568:
Waeger, Gerhart: Die Sündenböcke
Page 569 and 570:
Zuschlag, Christoph: Die Ausstellun
Page 571 and 572:
Lussy Hanspeter Marden Matthew D. M
Page 573 and 574:
Ball, Alexander, 473, 474 Ball, Ric
Page 575 and 576:
Budge, Emma, 356 Bührle, cf. Oerli
Page 577 and 578:
Dynamit Nobel AG, Bratislava, 266 E
Page 579 and 580:
Grosz, George, 51 Grüninger, Paul,
Page 581 and 582:
Jezler, Robert, 113, 156 Jöhr, Ado
Page 583 and 584:
Maggi GmbH, Singen, 295, 297, 300,
Page 585 and 586:
Papen, Franz von, 381 Parfümeriewa
Page 587 and 588:
Schenker, Alois, 139 Schering AG, B
Page 589 and 590:
Sturzenegger, cf. Bank Sturzenegger
Page 591:
Wartmann, Wilhelm, 358 Weber, Ernst
Page 594 and 595:
Volume 6 Geschäfte und Zwangsarbei
Page 596 and 597:
Volume 16 Die Schweiz und die Goldt
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