Word: swiss
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
...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...
...that is what comes of keeping grievances green, what does one make of the constantly returning memory of the Holocaust, of the refrain "Never forget! Never again!"? Specifically, what does one make now of the Jewish initiative to reopen the Swiss banks' World War II books in order to recover Jewish money deposited there, in the snug, smug, neutral Alps, as Hitler's apocalypse descended...
...bore and a kind of chronic blackmail, a moral collection racket. In an entirely different way, there are also Israelis who object to Holocaust remembering, because they think it a sign of weakness or at least of unproductive obsession. Some Jews who favor pressing the case against Swiss banks recall a bitter joke: in czarist Russia, two Jews are lined up against the wall to be shot; the captain of the firing squad asks if there is a last request. One Jew replies, "I believe I am entitled to a last cigarette"; the second whispers anxiously, "Max, don't make...
...case of the Swiss and the Holocaust plays interesting variations on the theme of remembering and forgetting. The Swiss for decades have nestled complacently in the myth of their wartime virtue. They were neutral in their fastness. Their mountains and their citizen army kept the Germans off and preserved their tidy civilization...