Swiss insurance companies sold the Nazis detailed information about the movements of the Allied cargo ships they insured, The Jewish Week has learned.
Newly declassified State Department documents obtained by The Jewish Week, along with other information gathered by Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.), indicate that the Nazis “paid the value of the policy and then sank the ships” after the companies revealed their movements.
D’Amato, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee investigating Swiss actions during World War II, said he found the Swiss collaboration with the Nazis “reprehensible.”
The newly uncovered material, he said, demonstrated that “Swiss complicity with the Nazis went much further than the Swiss banks,” which also are under investigation.
A D’Amato aide said the information revealed that Swiss reinsurance companies — those that buy policies from the original seller — informed the Nazis of the amount for which Allied cargo ships were insured.
D’Amato told The Jewish Week also that the declassified documents showed that Swiss insurance companies “conspired to keep the payments on policies from their rightful heirs.”
The Swiss government was officially neutral during World War II.
The documents were declassified at the request of D’Amato and the World Jewish Restitution Organization, established in 1992 to receive restitution on behalf of the Jewish people.
Asked about the new findings, the political officer at the Swiss United Nations Mission here, Etienne Thevoz, referred The Jewish Week to the Swiss Embassy in Washington and its legal adviser, Christoph Bubb. He did not return calls.
In a letter to Secretary of State Warren Christopher on Tuesday, D’Amato called for the reopening of the 1945 negotiations between the Allies and the Swiss aimed at regaining possession of Jewish assets looted by the Nazis.
“The Swiss proved to be evasive, uncooperative and outrightly stubborn when it came to giving anything back,” D’Amato wrote.
“In essence, according to our own documents, they went out of their way to deceive U.S. negotiators as to how much they retained in Nazi assets, looted and otherwise.”
The documents were gathered by staffers from the Senate Banking Committee and the World Jewish Restitution Organization. D’Amato said the records showed that “Swiss banks clearly collaborated with the Nazis, taking in vast amounts of gold, securities and other movable property in safety deposit boxes that ultimately were taken from the victims of Nazi aggression.”
The British Foreign Office suggested earlier this month that the Swiss returned only about 10 percent of the gold stolen by the Nazis and deposited in Swiss banks. Based upon today’s value, the Swiss are still holding what is estimated at $5.5 billion.
The World Jewish Restitution Organization has also unearthed 5 1/2 tons of gold the Nazis took from Jews. It is estimated to be worth $71.5 million, which has been stored at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York and the Bank of England in London.