Swiss help Jews find lost savings

The names are on the web for six months

By Claire Doole in Geneva

The Swiss Bankers' Association has published the names of 21,000 holders of Swiss bank accounts who could possibly be Holocaust victims.

The names will remain on a special website - www.dormantaccounts.ch - for a period of six months, during which time those who think they might be beneficiaries may file claims.

If their claims are proved, they will be paid compensation from a fund set up following a $1.25bn settlement with Swiss banks.

The banks have admitted that they prevented Holocaust survivors from withdrawing money deposited during the Nazi era.

Painful chapter

Publication of these names brings to an end a painful chapter in Swiss history.

So far 10,000 people have claimed compensation from Swiss banks

Two of its biggest banks were accused by Jewish groups of preventing Holocaust survivors and their families from claiming their assets.

Most of the $1.25bn they made available for compensation claims has been allocated for paying holders of dormant accounts.

Over the past four years a commission has been drawing up lists of those accounts thought to belong to the victims of Nazi persecution.

So far some 10,000 people listed have made claims for compensation at a special Zurich tribunal.

Now a further 21,000 have the right to claim funds.

'Too generous'

But it is a slow and controversial process.

Only 800 claims have so far been proved and little of the money has been paid out.

The Swiss are angry that the claims tribunal reports directly to a New York judge and say that the Swiss banks' settlement is far too generous.

But the problem is no one will ever know how much money was kept in these dormant accounts, nor how many of them belonged to Holocaust victims.

The Swiss acknowledge they are paying the price for a compromised wartime past.