A new investigation revealed by the Wall Street Journal sheds light on the hitherto concealed extent of the relations between Swiss banks and the Nazi regime. If an investigation carried out in the 1990s had already led to a compensation agreement of 1.25 billion dollars for Jewish victims of the Shoah, recent discoveries suggest a much deeper involvement.
Independent researchers, supported by the US Senate, examined a considerable mass of Credit Suisse documents. Their findings reveal that the number of Nazi accounts in banks was far higher than previous estimates. The establishments not only turned a blind eye to the laundering of property stolen from Jewish communities, but also attempted to downplay their role in the Nazi war machine.
Neil Barofsky, the lead investigator temporarily dismissed and then reinstated after the intervention of Credit Suisse's parent company, says the investigation identified “dozens of people and legal entities linked to Nazi atrocities whose relationships with Credit Suisse Switzerland were previously unknown or partially documented.
This cover-up, characterized at best as negligence and at worst as active complicity in the concealment of the atrocities of the Second World War, raises new questions about the historical responsibility of Swiss financial institutions.
France
Lifestyle
