Word: swiss
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When the Big Three Swiss banks finally announced the Holocaust Memorial Fund on Feb. 5, reaction in the U.S. was tepid. "It's an important step," said D'Amato, "but nowhere near enough." Singer cautiously praised the decision as "a new sign of entente cordiale," but the World Jewish Congress considers the amount far too low. D'Amato was outraged that the Swiss wanted to manage the assets. "Why do you think the Swiss came forward," he said, "because of the generosity of their heart and spirit, or because they realize there could be damaging consequences if they continue their...
...will not end easily. D'Amato, riding a highly popular issue that has helped boost his standing in the polls, is already agitating to reopen the terms of the 1946 tripartite gold treaty, arguing that the Swiss lied about the much vaster sums they actually held. And the U.S. Administration doesn't rule...
...Amato much moved by critics like Rolf Bloch, the main spokesman for Switzerland's 18,000 Jews. "We are Jews in a Swiss way," says Bloch. "We don't want to blame all the Swiss or put them under assault." A Jewish lawyer in Zurich representing 20 people seeking information on wartime accounts considers D'Amato's and Bronfman's tactics counterproductive. "So aggressive, so hostile," he says. "This banging on the head is wrong, and it has provoked reaction. Now we are seeing signs of anti-Semitism in Switzerland...
...Switzerland's Bloch reminds, there is "no Ali Baba cave under the Swiss National Bank, filled with gold and jewels." The dormant accounts will probably yield little cash, and how will anyone know how much of the $68 million in Nazi gold the Allies have left was taken from Jews rather than from national treasuries? Whatever money is eventually deemed to belong to the Jews will never be more than a tiny fraction of what was taken so viciously from them. Something akin to the truth may well be all that is left to solace them...
Number 45 Bahnhofstrasse is an imposing building in central Zurich. Its monumental columns are topped by the sculpted heads of a peasant patriot, a mother, the god Mercury and William Tell, the mythic Swiss hero. This secular temple is the main branch of the Union Bank of Switzerland. Inside, there are acres of reddish brown Tessin marble. The ornate overhead moldings frame a 20-ft. by 30-ft. skylight. A uniformed guard approaches: "Who are you? What are you doing? Identification papers, please." Is this brusque aggressiveness necessary? "I am only following orders," he says in German...