Many in the Jewish world are praising last week’s announcement of a settlement by Swiss banks as a triumph of justice.
But is it?
On the one hand, it is gratifying to see Swiss banks finally relinquishing assets that rightfully belong to Holocaust survivors and their heirs.
The step is long, long overdue and may have been taken out of fear of sanctions by a number of U.S. cities and states. Nonetheless, it is a crucial step in righting a tremendous wrong.
On the other hand, the settlement affects a relatively small number of people — those who possessed the necessary documentation to prove they or their families had assets in Swiss banks.
Many, many survivors have no such proof.
Children at the time of the war, they understandably had no knowledge of their parents’ financial dealings. In some cases, proof of those dealings was lost or plundered during the war.
The lack of documentation has led many survivors on lengthy and frustrating quests, not only to recover assets held in banks but to recover unpaid insurance claims from European companies.
In some cases, policies were canceled for non-payment of premiums — unpaid, of course, because their owners were interned in concentration camps. That was a tragic irony.
Unfortunately, the irony continues. A Swiss humanitarian fund, separate from the bank settlement, has been set up to aid needy survivors in the United States.
But why should the fund benefit only needy survivors? Regardless of their financial status, one could argue that all survivors are needy.
They may never be free of nightmares and fear. They can never reclaim their lost childhoods. They will never get back their murdered families. And those needs are all-encompassing.