c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.)

UNDATED _ We have long known that the radical evil of Hitler’s Third Reich, which sent 6 million Jews to their deaths, corrupted religion, politics, music, art, journalism, medicine, literature, education, and sports. But now, as a result of recent investigations, we must add another institution to that list of shame: the respected Swiss banking industry.

Switzerland conjures up majestic Alpine vistas, beautiful watches, useful pocket knives, and a policy of impeccable neutrality that features secret bank accounts. It now appears that during World War II, Switzerland aided the Nazis by acting as a banker to the German war effort.

For this service, Switzerland was doubly rewarded: It grew rich during the war years and was spared an invasion by Hitler’s army.

Recently declassified U.S. intelligence documents from the 1940s describe how the Nazis sent the gold (including dental fillings), jewelry, art treasures, and other valuables stolen from their Jewish victims to Swiss banks. In return, Nazis received badly needed hard currency to finance their expensive war machines.

A 1945 U.S. Treasury report declares that “during the course of the war the Swiss (bank) secrecy law worked only against the Allies and not against the Axis.” The Nazi official in charge of foreign currency exchange testified after the war that “the other neutral nations … refused to accept gold from the Reichsbank … (but) Switzerland carried on gold transactions” until the last months of World War II.

There is an even uglier chapter in this detestable story. When Hitler came to power, some Jews, correctly fearing their assets would be seized by the Nazis, sought the protection of secret Swiss bank accounts. Many keepers of these accounts were among the 6 million Holocaust victims.

Since 1945, relatives of the murdered depositors have attempted to reclaim their families’ assets, now worth millions of dollars, and possibly billions. But their attempts were fruitless unless they knew the name of the Swiss bank and the exact account number. In the terror of the Holocaust, such detailed information frequently went up the chimneys of the death camp crematoria or was never revealed to family members. So, for more than 50 years, Jewish deposits in Switzerland have gone unclaimed. Until now.

Thanks to the leadership of the U.S. government and the World Jewish Restitution Organization, a blue-ribbon commission was established this year to work with today’s Swiss bankers in an attempt to track the dormant accounts of Holocaust victims. The commission is headed by Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank.

The Swiss Bankers Association, reeling from international criticism, has promised to give Volcker and his colleagues unfettered access to formerly secret bank accounts. It is the first time outsiders have been given such access; in time, the commission will provide the world with a full and accurate understanding of Jewish deposits.

But it will not be easy. Some of the Jewish deposits were made in the names of Swiss middlemen as protective cover because in Nazi Germany it was a capital crime for Jews to transfer money to Swiss banks. And some of those banks are out of business or have been absorbed into other institutions. But a full reckoning is imperative if Switzerland wants to restore its battered reputation for fiscal honesty and moral integrity.

Not surprisingly, the Swiss themselves have been badly shaken by the recent revelations and inquiries into their nation’s behavior during the Holocaust. The charges of looted gold and dormant Jewish bank accounts have cracked the myth of Swiss neutrality.

Of course, it was always a myth. In 1938, Switzerland entered into an agreement with Nazi Germany that blocked Jewish emigration into Switzerland. Desperate to escape the Nazis, many Jews were turned back at the Swiss border, and it took the Swiss government a half-century to formally apologize for this decidedly non-neutral and reprehensible action.

Now, for the first time in memory, Switzerland finds itself the subject of intense international scrutiny _ a potential pariah in the community of nations. And, as every banker knows, pariahs can’t effectively compete in the competitive arena of international finance.

The current Swiss banking mess once again proves the Holocaust was a raging malignancy that contaminated every aspect of human life. The Holocaust destroyed more than 6 million innocent people. But the victimizers _ Swiss bankers included _ were also poisoned with a legacy of guilt and injustice that will not go away.

MJP END RUDIN