Among the latest revelations: In an alleged secret deal between Poland and Switzerland, Polish Jewish assets deposited in Swiss banks for safekeeping before World War II were used to compensate Swiss nationals in Poland whose property was nationalized by the Communist government after the war.
Switzerland is already at the center of the controversy over the fate of Jewish assets after the war. Declassified U.S. National Archives documents have raised charges that Switzerland took over Jewish art, bank deposits, property and gold.
“History is being changed and revisited almost on a daily basis,” said D’Amato, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, at the press conference Wednesday of last week.
Jewish leaders say D’Amato has been instrumental in the effort to learn what actually happened to the assets deposited in Swiss banks during the Nazi period.
Among other new allegations:
*Hungary and the Czech Republic may have had deals with Switzerland similar to that of Poland.
*Nazi gold recovered by American troops immediately after World War II at a salt mine at Merkers, Germany, appears to have included personal possessions such as silver Passover cups, candlestick holders and gold dental fillings of Holocaust victims.
*Norway appears to have auctioned off property of 800 Holocaust victims in 1946, now valued at $80 million. Jewish officials will meet with Norwegian leaders to discuss the issue this month.
Bronfman, also president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, which has spearheaded the campaign to reclaim stolen Jewish property, said the effort “isn’t just about money.”
“It’s about justice and human rights,” Bronfman said. “It’s about Jewish dignity, Jewish rights. It’s about the fact that we’re not going to get pushed around anymore.”
Officials said investigations into the wartime activities of Holland, Belgium, France and Sweden would continue.
Other newly uncovered documents reveal lists of European Jews who held accounts in New York branches of Swiss banks during the war.
The lists provide the first hard evidence outside of Swiss banking records that the missing accounts existed.