Swiss Leader Draws Fire on Issue of Holocaust Assets

GENEVA — Swiss President Jean-Pascal Delamuraz’s remarks triggered new controversy Tuesday on the issue of assets left in Swiss banks by Holocaust victims.

In a newspaper interview, Delamuraz said that demands for a multimillion-dollar fund to compensate Jews who lost assets during the Holocaust amount to blackmail.

His comments drew fire from the World Jewish Congress, which said the Swiss leader showed “shocking insensitivity” with his comments.

The Jewish group, which has demanded that Switzerland establish a compensation fund for Holocaust survivors and their heirs who might be entitled to money left in Swiss banks, said Delamuraz’s comments presented “an assault and challenge to the very soul of Switzerland.”

“The sum of $250 million that has been mentioned . . . amounts to being blackmailed and held to ransom,” Delamuraz said.

He said the government will wait until its newly appointed historical commission reports on whether Switzerland did in fact profit from Jews killed by Nazis.

“If we agreed now to a compensation fund, this would be taken as an admission of guilt,” Delamuraz was quoted by the Tribune de Geneve newspaper as saying.

Prior to the Holocaust, many European Jews put their money in Swiss banks, believing their funds would be safe in the country, which stayed neutral in World War II. Families of Jews who were killed by the Nazis have claimed that they were subsequently unable to track any assets because of banking secrecy--which, ironically, helped prevent the Germans from finding out about Jewish funds.