A dry and rather pedantic account that fails to capture the drama
of a momentous episode of 20th-century history. Although the basic
lines of the story told here - how Nazi Germany stripped European
Jews of their assets and deposited them in Swiss banks - are now
known, new information appears throughout this chronicle by Levin,
Deputy Editor in Chief of Globes - Israel's Business Newspaper and
one of the first to break the story. Sent to cover the recreational
habits of orthodox Jews in Switzerland, he was told during a chance
encounter with Yehuda Blum, former Israeli ambassador to the UN,
that the "real story" was the record of the Nazi confiscation of
Jewish assets and the complicity of Swiss banks then and over the
next 50 years. His retelling, however, is burdened with minutiae,
documents, and photographs that hamper the narrative. The heavy
prose (perhaps the fault of the translator) is not enlivened by the
finer details of Swiss banking laws. Levin does attack the myth of
"Swiss neutrality" and underscores the criminal nature of the Nazi
regime - something often overlooked in more scholarly tomes. And he
reveals the way the scandal has provoked a new wave of
anti-Semitism, betrayed for instance in a Swiss banker's atypically
blunt outburst that "the Jews murdered in Auschwitz were barefoot;
they didn't have bank accounts in Switzerland." Levin reveals that
the Jews did indeed have bank accounts, that the Nazis confiscated
them, and that the Swiss knowingly collaborated in massive theft.
Afterwards, the same Swiss banks demanded death certificates from
survivors claiming accounts left by relatives who had perished in
the Holocaust. As efficient as they were, the Nazis, alas, failed
to provide such documents, and the money remained in Switzerland.
Levin provides flashes of moral fire, but they are few and far
between. An important tale that could have been told better.
(Kirkus Reviews)
The injustices committed against millions of Europe's Jews did
not end with the fall of the Third Reich. Long after the Nazis had
seized the belongings of Holocaust victims, Swiss banks concealed
and appropriated their assets, demanding that their survivors
produce the death certificates or banking records of the depositors
in order to claim their family's property--demands that were
usually impossible for the petitioners to meet. Now the full
account of the Holocaust deposits affair is revealed by the
journalist who first broke the story in 1995. Relying on archival
and contemporary sources, Itamar Levin describes the Jewish
people's decades-long effort to return death camp victims' assets
to their rightful heirs. Levin also uncovers the truth about the
behavior of Swiss banking institutions, their complicity with the
Nazis, and their formidable power over even their own neutral
government.
From the first attempt to settle the fate of German property in
neutral countries at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, through the
heated negotiations following publication of Levin's investigative
article in 1995, to the Swiss banks' ultimate agreement to a $1.25
billion payment in 1997, the pursuit of restitution is a story of
delaying tactics and legal complications of almost unimaginable
dimensions. Terrified that the traditional and highly marketable
wall of secrecy surrounding the Swiss banks would tumble and
destroy the industry, the banks' managements were dismissive and
uncooperative in determining the location and extent of the assets
in question, forcing the United States, other European countries,
and Jewish organizations worldwide to apply tremendous pressure for
a just resolution. The details and the central characters involved
in this struggle, as well as new information about Switzerland's
controversial policies during World War II, are fascinating reading
for anyone concerned with the Holocaust and its aftermath.
General
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