 Safety-deposit boxes at Zürcher Kantonalbank in Zurich, Switzerland. |
IT WAS a headline to gladden the heart of an anti-Semite. Sunday New York Times, Page 1: "Jewish Groups Fight for Spoils of Swiss Case."
Of course the $1.45 billion paid by Swiss banks to settle Holocaust-related claims is not "spoils" but restitution for stolen assets. And of course if Jewish groups had not brought the lawsuits and raised the stink that shamed Switzerland into admitting its financial semi-collaboration with the Nazis, nobody would have. But what do the bigots care about that? All they will see — and it is a sight they will relish — is a lot of Jews quarreling over money.
This litigation began as something fine: an effort to win justice for Jews who had been victimized, with Swiss cooperation, during the Nazi years.
Switzerland was neutral during World War II, but in several ways it colluded in the Third Reich's thievery and persecution. Gold, art, and real estate looted by the Nazis were safeguarded in Swiss bank accounts. Tens of thousands of Jewish refugees were sent back to Germany. At Switzerland's request, the passports of German Jews were stamped with a "J" — to keep them from fleeing to safety in Switzerland. When the war ended, Swiss bankers slammed the door on Jewish survivors trying to reclaim deposits left by their murdered relatives.
For 50 years the Swiss stonewalled, refusing to acknowledge the stolen Jewish property. Only now, under a barrage of lawsuits, bad publicity, and the threat of sanctions, have they agreed to make restitution.
Last summer, returning from eight days of discussions in Switzerland, I wrote, "Switzerland's moral failings during the Hitler years require compensation, but it would be dreadful if the whole issue came down to a question of dollars and cents . . . . A pot of money should not be the goal." But now a pot of money is on the table, and the fight over how to divide it has turned vulgar.
The World Jewish Congress, which first focused attention on the Swiss banks' behavior, insists on a central role in parceling out the settlement. Two warring camps of lawyers representing Jewish heirs and survivors — one led by Edward Fagan, the other by Michael Hausfeld — claim that they deserve the lead role. Then there are the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the World Jewish Restitution Organization. Both have previously been involved in allocating money to Holocaust victims; both would like to be involved in disbursing the big Swiss settlement fund.
Many of these parties are now bad-mouthing the others. Fagan calls the World Jewish Congress "pigs" and accuses the Hausfeld lawyers of scheming to steal his clients. One of Hausfeld's consultants berates Fagan for profiteering off survivors and treating them like "chattel." The Claims Conference is denounced as so incompetent that applicants have died while waiting to receive financial aid. The World Jewish Congress snorts that the lawyers had nothing to do with winning the case and rejects using any of the funds for legal fees.
If this is how the parties speak for the record, imagine what they say in private.
Lawyers and organizations everywhere squabble over money. But when they are Jewish lawyers and Jewish organizations, they feed an ugly antisemitic stereotype. The demand for restitution from the Swiss was intended to reclaim a measure of dignity for survivors of the most horrific crime of the 20th century. But there is no dignity in a "fight for spoils" on the front page of The New York Times. If it is going to end like this, it would have been better to let the Swiss keep the money.
Numerous ideas are being floated for the more than $1 billion that will be left after those with provable claims against the Swiss banks are reimbursed. Some want it distributed to Holocaust survivors. Others suggest a fund for only the neediest survivors. Still others propose using the money on education or for Holocaust research.
I propose an entirely different idea, one that emerged in a conversation with Dennis Prager, a Los Angeles broadcaster renowned for his writings on ethics and Judaism: Once the cheated depositors have been paid, let the Jewish people relinquish any claim to the balance of the money. Let it be used instead to help human beings whose lives have been shattered by genocide and ethnic slaughter.
Rather than earmarking the money for Jewish causes, spend it to heal the still-suffering survivors of the Rwandan massacre. Or the deeply scarred victims of the Cambodian holocaust. Or the Bosnian women brutalized in Serbia's rape camps.
"We Jews wanted to awaken the world to what the Swiss did," Prager says. "We don't want to profit by it."
Exactly. The litigants who prevailed against the Swiss banks have it in their power to show that the Jewish nation cares far less for money than it does for truth and justice. They can halt the arguing, give the money away. It would be an act of tremendous moral beauty. And it would teach the world a powerful lesson in compassion.
(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe).
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