Come home to... FINAL ACCOUNT'S Metro Detroit's Jewish Assisted Living Community Elan Village's monthly rate includes: • • • • • • 24 hour Personal Care Assistance Three Kosher Meals Daily Housekeeping and Personal Laundry Services Social, Cultural and Educational Programs Daily On-Site Licensed Nurse and Medical Services Medication Management Dementia & Respite Care also available Call today to schedule a tour JANET ANTIN (248) 386-0303 26051 Lahser Road • Southfield, Michigan 48034 Elan Village provides Care that Changes with You Preferred Provider of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit Call Alicia R. Nelson (248) 557-0109 for appointment or: www.allthingsjewish.com a t ti CENTER A nursing home with a heart eTY 12/10 1999 32 26900 Franklin Road Southfield, MI 48034 (248) 350-8070 Lakeland is very clean and attractive. The staff are friendly and attentive, and my mother gets a lot of loving care." — JERRY PASKOVITZ, Farmington Hills • Clean and tranquil environment • Restorative nursing program • Hospice and respite care available • Convenient Southfield location • Reasonable rates • Medicare-certified For more information or to arrange a visit, call our Admissions Department. from page 30 accounts described in the panel's report far exceeds initial estimates presented by the Swiss banks: In testimony three years ago before a U.S. congressional panel, Swiss Bankers Association repre- sentatives said they could only locate 775 accounts worth about $32 million. The panel found no reason to revise the $1.25 billion settlement that Swiss banks agreed to last year to pay Holocaust-era claims. This provided some relief for Swiss bankers, who had feared that the commission's findings could jeopardize the settlement, which was meant to put an end to what has arguably been the darkest chapter in modern Swiss history. Holocaust victims or their heirs with valid claims to the dormant accounts will be the first to receive moneys from that settlement. Had the commission estimated that their claims would exceed the $1.25 billion, all bets might have been off. At the end of its three-year, $300-mil- lion inquiry into the records of 59 banks, the Volcker panel painted a mixed pic- ture. On the one hand it found "no evi- dence of systematic destruction" of records but did confirm "evidence of questionable and deceitful actions by some individual banks" in handling the accounts of Holocaust victims. The report recommended waiving Swiss banking secrecy laws to publish the names of 25,187 dormant accounts, but said information about the 29,000 other accounts was too skimpy to merit their publication. In 1997, two separate lists were published that included some 16,000 names linked to dormant accounts worth about $54.4 million. Swiss bankers, not surprisingly, were pleased that the commission found no proof that they had system- atically destroyed records. Georg Krayer, president of the Swiss Bankers Association, apologized Monday "for all the disappointments and hurt feelings" caused by the banks' "insufficient" knowledge about the sufferings of Holocaust victims before the controversy erupted four years ago. But at the same time, he said, "with the exception of a few iso- lated cases, the banks' conduct during the period in question was correct." Jewish leaders, however, had a dif- ferent view of the panel's findings. "It is a devastating report," said Elan Steinberg, executive director of the WJC "It confirms the fears of Holocaust survivors and validates their testimony of 50 years, and it is replete with examples of misconduct on the part of the banks." it SLAVE LABOR from page 30 The settlement negotiations have brought together representatives of Holocaust survivors, the German, U.S. and Eastern European govern- ments, and some 50 German compa- nies. At the last round of talks last month, the German side made what it described as its "final offer" about $4.1 billion at current exchange rates. At that time, lawyers for the survivors climbed down sig- nificantly from their earlier demand for $28 billion. Those talks ended with Gideon Taylor, executive director of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which is among the groups negotiating on behalf of the laborers, speaking optimistically that the "gaps had narrowed." Otto Lambsdorff, who represents the German government in the settle- ment negotiations, said Tuesday it is urgent that the U.S. government come to a decision on the latest German offer, which he described as the best that would come from the German side. The list that the AJCommittee released Tuesday may lead some nego- tiators to claim that the German side should increase its offer. The spokesman for German indus- try, Wolfgang Gibowski, told JTA after last month's round of talks that "there are too few companies partici- pating" in the fund for there to be an increase in the offer. On Mondiy, he said, there were 17 firms on the letterhead of the fund, called "Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future." "Another 45 want to join, but not publicly," said Gibowski. "We are still in negotiations with a lot of those firms" regarding the amount of their contribution. He said "nobody knows" how many firms actually used slave laborers. "It might be 2,000 or 3,000." Deidre Berger, associate director of the AJCommittee in Berlin, said she hoped that even if there is a settle- ment, other firms would join in. The new list compiled by histori- ans working with the AJCommittee will be released on the organization's Web site, www.ajc.org In another development, a German manufactur- er of saws, Andreas Stihl, announced Tuesday its decision to join the industry fund. The firm reportedly used about 40 foreign workers per year between 1939 and 1943. It remains unknown how many were slave laborers. LI