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Word: swiss (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
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Meili, a devout Protestant who believes that God led him to the documents, made off with two large ledger books and pages from a third. He gave them to a Swiss Jewish organization, which then handed them over to the police. Immediately suspended from his job by the private security firm that employed him, Meili is now being investigated for violating bank-secrecy laws. Bank president Robert Studer insists that no Holocaust-related documents were destroyed but admits that the shredding was "clearly a mistake, and we have to take responsibility for it." Studer, whom a Swiss court found...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: SWITZERLAND: A PAINFUL HISTORY | 2/24/1997 | See Source »

Even if the banks and government now see the need to respond to Jewish demands, there is a lot of resentment on the part of ordinary Swiss citizens who feel unfairly accused of collaborating with the Nazis. Says army veteran Daniel Besson, 77, of Vuarrens: "I bitterly regret the five winters I spent under arms during the war, with all the privations that involved, in order to guard that mountain of Jewish gold [in the Swiss banks]. If they want to revive the anti-Semitic sentiments of before the war, they couldn't go about it any better...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: SWITZERLAND: A PAINFUL HISTORY | 2/24/1997 | See Source »

...fear of such anti-Semitic backlash makes some Swiss Jews wish the Americans would back off a bit. "Many Swiss resent that they are made to feel guilty," says Rolf Bloch, 66, president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities. "If they are attacked in a collective way, they will react. One reaction is anti-Semitism. In Switzerland today, there is not as much anti-Semitism as in the '30s. But it's flaring up again...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: SWITZERLAND: A PAINFUL HISTORY | 2/24/1997 | See Source »

...Jews are not our enemies," says Borer. "Americans are not our enemies. Our history is not our enemy. But the way we deal or not with our own history--that could be the enemy." It will be a difficult exercise, for the Swiss seldom probe their past. "I have spent 10 years in this government," notes Foreign Minister Cotti, "and until last year no one, I mean no one, spoke of the fundamental necessity of re-examining Swiss history. Now I realize this must be done because a country that has not really faced its past cannot decide its future...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: SWITZERLAND: A PAINFUL HISTORY | 2/24/1997 | See Source »

...hardest part of facing history is accepting guilt--not as individuals but as a nation. "Switzerland never said, 'We're sorry,'" says a Swiss banker. "We didn't do the worst things, but we did things we are not proud of--awful things. No one today has any guilt relating to that time. But we must acknowledge that the Swiss made mistakes, say we're sorry, then make the proper gestures...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: SWITZERLAND: A PAINFUL HISTORY | 2/24/1997 | See Source »

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