MERRILL LYNCH TRUST BANK SHAKY page 61 OF MICHIGAN of peace. They know the West Merrill Lynch Trust Bank of Michigan offers a unique array of trust and estate planning services and more ways to make your financial plan work for you. Our Trust Officers will work with you and your professional advisors to develop trust, estate planning and tax minimization strategies. The depth and range of our trust planning capabilities continues to grow. To help service your needs, we have recently hired several professionals with extensive trust backgrounds. These include: Mark Mitchell Chief Executive Officer/President Bruce E. Fralick Senior Vice President/Chief Trust Officer Mari Anne Guidobono Vice President/Trust New Business Development Lori A. Goschinski Assistant Vice President/Trust Officer Merrill Lynch Trust's Philanthropic Financial Services also provide opportunities for meeting charitable giving and other financial objectives. To take advantage of our services, call the •Trust. Bank directly at the following number, or contact a Financial Consultant at one of the following local Merrill Lynch offices: 1-800-727-MLTB (6582) Merrill Lynch Trust Bank of Michigan 1577 North Woodward Avenue, Suite 130 Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304 Ann Arbor 313-996-1111 Auburn Hills 810-475-1000 Bloomfield Hills 810-647-3300 Dearborn 313-594-9200 Detroit 313-446-1111 Farmington Hills 810-737-4680 Flint 810-768-7600 Laurel Park 313-953-6450 The difference is Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch A tradition of trust. ,1ta • Af No4 ( Ip Pad ackii Cufqom elothitr Custom Made Suits From '525 Custom Made Shirts • Benchmade Suits • Custom Made Suits • • Custom Alterations • Accessories • Detroit's Premiere Custom Clothier Since 1949 Appointments in Your Office or Our Showroom Gary Wettenstein and Sheila Blum (810) 646-0535 Over 30 Years Combined Experience 271 MERRILL • BIRMINGHAM Bank market is the second most important after the U.S., espe- cially for Israel's marginalized producers. Also, they have had a very good relationship with Palestinian businesspeople. Re- member, they supported Peres in the election. Q: Wasn't that in part be- cause they had to be seen to be supporting the man they thought would win? A: From an economic indica- tors perspective, I think Peres was the first leader in the world to lose an election with a rosy eco- nomic situation: growth was up, GDP was up, unemployment was very low and direct foreign investment had increased — be- cause of the peace process. Look at the figures today. Everything is down. Netanyahu's privatization may increase the number of lo- cal investors, but if the current political situation continues, I don't think Israel will have in- ternational investors. ❑ Swiss Duplicity? Switzerland may have done more than harbor Nazi plunder during the war, documents suggest. DANIEL KURTZMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS I t may well be the last chapter of the Holocaust. Half a century after Nazi Germany plundered billions of dollars worth of gold from Jews and from occupied countries in its march across Europe, Switzerland has been forced into a financial and moral accounting of its own actions during the war. A storm of international criti- cism has engulfed Swiss society in recent weeks as newly declas- sified documents show that the neutral Swiss turned a substan- tial profit — and helped finance the German war effort — by act- ing as the Nazis' bankers during World War II. AllegatiOns have mounted that the Swiss National Bank know- ingly purchased and laundered millions of dollars in looted Nazi assets during the war years, in- cluding jewels stolen from Jews on their way to death camps. Switzerland is known to have made its banks available for the safekeeping of tons of so-called Nazi gold — some of it believed to have been melted down from wedding bands and from the fill- ings of Holocaust victims. The Swiss agreed after the war to turn over $60 million worth of gold to the United States, Britain and France for eventual return to the countries from which it was pilfered. But according to a recent British gov- ernment report based on newly revealed documents, that figure accounted for only one-tenth of the Nazi gold stash. The remaining gold — esti- mated now to be worth some $6 billion — may still be sitting in Swiss vaults, the report said. The recent revelations — and the flurry of media reports fo- cusing on them — have placed Switzerland at th, center of an international inquiry into the fate of Nazi gold. The questions Switzerland faces, however, run far deeper than the whereabouts of the pre- cious metal. For 50 years, Switzerland has sidestepped inquiries about its relationship with Nazi Germany, citing bank secrecy laws and its neutral posture. But now, under increasing pressure from Jewish organiza- tions as well as from U.S. and British officials, Switzerland has been forced into an uncomfort- able and belated reckoning with its past. The unearthing of historical documents have fed mounting speculation that Switzerland may have, in effect, bought its neutrality during the war by de- veloping an expedient relation- ship with the Nazis. That relationship, in turn, caused con- siderable "damage" to the Allied war effort, as stated in a U.S. in- telligence report from 1945 on the "objectionable activities of Swiss banks." Elan Steinberg, executive di- rector of the World Jewish Con- gress, said, "It is safe to say that without the financial and eco- nomic assistance rendered to Nazi Germany by use of Switzer- land as a clearinghouse, the war could not have continued as long as it had." Some have leveled more sting- ing indictments against Switzer- land. "Because of actions the Swiss government took, Jews died," said one U.S. official who asked not to be identified. The revelations are based on documents uncovered from the U.S. National Archives and for- eign archives in recent months by the WJC and the Senate Banking Committee. Re- searchers uncovered the 50-year- old documents as part of a parallel investigation into assets deposited in Swiss banks by Jew- ish Holocaust victims. The exhaustive search of the intelligence documents, some of