This Week
t"
k s
V .
A VAVit‘
,
§
*Fro worked as slave
an era are one step closer
rers
e measure of compensation for
to receivit
their ordeal.
After months of tortuous negotiations, an
agreement has been reached to estal?lish a $5.2
billion fund for these victims of the liolocaust,
according to several lawyer's and Jewish officials
involved in the talks.
The money will come from Germany, a group
of Gt.-rn-ian companies, and U.S. companies
whose German subsidiaries used slave labor dur-
ing the war, said Gideon Taylor, executive vice
president of the Confe.tence on Jewish Material
Claims Against Germany, which was among the
groups negotiating on behalf of the laborers.
An issue still to be decided -- which may prove
as contentious as negotiations themselves — is
p4no..s to survivors.
some
%-marvewww4FoR07-. K., v ivors
—
,
kiattpouAtfip sur
who;were enslaved
died
Neutrality
.
Jews fleeing Nazis were sent by
the Swiss to certain death.
report of an international panel of historians.
Many of those turned away at the border were
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
given directly to the Nazis, making Switzerland an
accomplice in the Holocaust, the panel said.
Bern, Switzerland
Switzerland "declined to help people in mortal
n 1942, a 19-year-old Jew identified as "Leo
danger," the panel known as the Bergier
H." attempted to enter Switzerland three
Commission added in its harshly critical assessment
times to escape the Nazis. Each time, Swiss
of Switzerland's wartime policy toward
borders guards denied him haven
Jewish
refugees.
in Switzerland. During one of his tries,
Concen tration
The
panel issued its harsh findings
they robbed and beat him.
camp detainees
even
as
it acknowledged that Switzerland
In October 1943, a 15-year-old Jewish
and p risoners
accepted more than 51,000 refugees dur-
girl seeking refuge was sexually molested
of war recruited
ing World War II, including 21,000 Jews
by drunken Swiss soldiers. Swiss police in
for exp losive
By comparison, the United States
Geneva later determined she did not
ordnance disposal.
admitted 21,000 Jewish refugees during
deserve asylum and was given over to
the war. Canada admitted about 9,000.
Nazi officials at the border with France.
Formally called the Independent Commission of
She was sent to Auschwitz.
Experts, the panel headed by historian Jean-Francois
She and Leo were but two of the 24,500 Jews —
Bergier was created by Switzerland in December
including thousands of children — who were denied
1996 to study the nation's wartime past.
refuge in Switzerland between January 1940 and the
In May 1998, the commission issued a report
war's end in 1945, according to a long-awaited
FREDY ROM
12/17
1999
28