SWITZWERLAND: LEADING SWISS BANKERS MEET AMID CONTINUING PRESSURE OVER THE FATE OF MONEY BELONGING TO VICTIMS OF THE NAZI HOLOCAUST

Record ID: 566073

  • Title: SWITZWERLAND: LEADING SWISS BANKERS MEET AMID CONTINUING PRESSURE OVER THE FATE OF MONEY BELONGING TO VICTIMS OF THE NAZI HOLOCAUST
  • Date: 18th October 1996
  • Summary: ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 18, 1996) 1. GV EXT AIRPORT CONFERENCE CENTRE 0.17 2. SLV ARRIVAL OF VARIOUS COMMITTEE MEMBERS LED BY CHAIRMAN PAUL VOLCKER 0.47 3. SCU HANS BAER (JEWISH SWISS BANKER) SAYING THE TREATY (BETWEEN POLAND AND SWITZERLAND) EXISTS BUT WHAT IS IN THE TREATY I DON'T KNOW. NO SUCH TREATIES EXIST BETWEEN SWITZERLAND AND THE CZECH REP AND HUNGARY (ENGLISH) 1.31 4. SLV NEWS CONFERENCE 1.33 5. SV VOLCKER ENTERS ROOM AND SITS 1.52 6. SCU VOLCKER SAYS: (READS AND COMMENTS FROM NEWSPAPER ARTICLE) HEADING. SWISS BANK RECORDS FOUND FOR HOLOCAUST VICTIMS FROM WHAT I KNOW OF PARTICULAR RECORDS AT ISSUE HERE,THERE IS NO INDICATION AT ALL THEY INVOLVE HOLOCAUST .. VICTIMS. SOME OF THEM MAY SOME OF THEM MAY NOTTHEY ARE RECORDS OF SWISS ACCOUNTS FROM A SWISS OFFICE IN NEW YORK IN 1945. THEY ARE NOT DIRECTLY RELATED. IT SAYS THE RECORDS OF HUNDREDS OF RECORDS OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS. NOBODY IS ABLE TO SAY THAT AT THIS STAGE. WE WILL INVESTIGATE THESE MATTERS BUT I KNOW OF NO BASIS FOR THAT STATEMENT. I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS A REPORTER'S VERSION OR WHAT WAS ACTUALLY SAID. IT QUOTES A WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS VICE PRESIDENT. I CANNOT CONTROL EVERYTHING THAT'S SAID (ENGLISH) 3.11 7. SLV PRESS 3.15 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 2nd November 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
  • City:
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Reuters ID: LVA6MN1RWWNO6KFO1SSX2M2GQO41
  • Story Text: INTRO: Leading Swiss bankers met on Friday (October 18) amid continuing pressure over the fate of money belonging to victims of the Nazi holocaust.

    The international commission set up jointly by the Swiss Bankers' Association and the World Jewish Congress met in the wake of charges from U.S. senator Alfonse D'Amato that the Swiss authorities were too biased to investigate the subject themselves.

    D'Amato, whose Senate banking committee is investigating worldwide allegations that Swiss banks profited from the Holocaust, said he was not sure the commission had the power to obtain full access to all necessary bank documents and archives.

    On Wednesday, D'Amato alleged that Swiss banks diverted money plundered from murdered Jews to compensate Swiss citizens for property nationalised by communist regimes.

    At an emotional hearing in New York, he said researchers had found documents showing the Swiss struck just such a secret deal in 1949 with Poland, Hungary and Czechoslavakia.

    But Commission chairman and former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker said there was no indication that the records D'Amato cited related to the accounts of holocaust victims.

    The Swiss foreign ministry acknowledged on Friday that it had done a confidential deal with Poland in 1949 to liquidate Polish citizens' unclaimed wealth, but denied charges that this had let it keep property of Jewish Holocaust victims.


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