concluding that during the war, offi-
cials of the Swiss central bank knew
they were buying looted gold from
Nazi Germany, but turned a blind
eye and went ahead with "business as
usual."
Last Friday, the panel issued its
report on wartime refugee policy dur-
ing the war years.
Describing their findings as "a les-
son for all humanity," the historians
condemned the wartime practices of
Swiss officials, accusing them of pur-
suing an inhumane policy at odds
with the country's tradition of offer-
ing asylum to those facing persecu-
tion.
The nine-member panel spent 18
months preparing the 956-page
report, considered the most definitive
yet on the country's wartime treat-
ment of refugees.
Its release seems bound to trigger
renewed controversy because it chal-
lenges one of Switzerland's most cher-
ished national myths.
The Swiss have long believed that
their oasis of neutrality was preserved
by a plucky militia that kept Hitler's
forces at bay and bravely resisted any
dealings with the fascist powers even
though their nation was surrounded
by Axis armies.
The report, however, produced
overwhelming evidence that
Switzerland collaborated with the
Nazi regime — even to the point of
urging Germany to mark Jewish pass-
ports with a "J" to make it easier to
prevent Jews from entering the coun-
try.
"What is alarming in the report is
the extremely high level of anti-
Semitism among the Swiss authori-
ties," said Saul Friedlander, an Israeli
historian who served on the Bergier
Commission.
"Switzerland even adopted the
Nazi terminology of Aryans and non-
Aryans," he added.
Rolf Bloch, president of the
Federation of Jewish Communities in
Switzerland, praised the report during
an interview on Swiss Television. But
he said he fears that Swiss Jews will
suffer an anti-Semitic backlash
because of the report.
In the wake of the report, the
Swiss Cabinet apologized last Friday
to the victims, saying, "Nothing can
make good the consequences of deci-
sions taken at the time, and we pay
our respects before the pain of those
who were denied access to our terri-
tory and were abandoned to unspeak-
able suffering, deportation and
death." P1
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•
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(248) 352-0208
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