For the next three days representatives of 44 countries will have the opportunity to explore a just and orderly return of confiscated assets to their rightful owners.
Mr. Miles Lerman
The issue of Nazi-era assets is very complex. It will require a thorough research of archival data of the countries involved. Some of these archival repositories are still inaccessible. This is a major obstacle to the discovery process, which we must overcome. The agreement which the World Jewish Congress has negotiated with Swiss banks is a step in the right direction. This conference has decided to deal with ongoing Holocaust education extensively. Some countries have begun various educational programs and we applaud them for there efforts. However, we must aim to create a global network of Holocaust education that would be both general and country specific. Those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis; for those who lost entire families; for those who survived the Holocaust only to then fall under the iron fist of Communism.
Why has it taken so long in fulfilling the biblical command that stolen property
must be returned to its owners? We have come here to speak about conscience,
morality and memory.
Washington Conference On Holocaust-Era Assets
The Department of State and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum hosted the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets at the Department of State November 30 through December 3, 1998. More than 40 governments as well as numerous international non-governmental organizations with a stake in these issues were invited to send delegations to the conference, which built on the work of the December 1997 London Nazi Gold conference.
“President Truman has directed General Eisenhower to clean up
alleged shocking conditions in the treatment of displaced Jews in
Germany outside the Russian Zone and in Austria.” The report declared
that “displaced Jews were held behind barbed wire in camps guarded by
our men, camps in which frequently, conditions were unsanitary and the
food poor and insufficient. With our military more concerned with other
matters, some of the displaced Jews were sick and without adequate
medicine,” the report stated, “and many had to wear prison garb, or to
their chagrin, German SS uniforms. All were wondering,” it was added,
“if they had been liberated after all, and were despairing of help while
worrying about the fate of relatives.” [The New York Times, dated
September 30th, 1945]
Proceedings of the Conference
Remarks
05/20/99: Stuart Eizenstat (Briefing on Holocaust-Era Assets Conference and release of proceedings of the conference)
12/03/98: Judge Abner Mikva (Chairman’s Concluding Statement)
12/03/98: Stuart E. Eizenstat (Concluding Statement)
12/03/98: Stuart E. Eizenstat (In Support of Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art)
12/02/98: Stuart E. Eizenstat ( The Need for Others to Join the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims)
12/02/98: Stuart E. Eizenstat (U.S. Support for the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims)
12/01/98: Secretary Albright (Opening ceremony address)
11/24/98:Stuart Eizenstat (Briefing on the conference)
Fact Sheets and Other Materials
12/03/98: Declarations of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research
12/03/98: Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art
10/26/98: Terms of Reference
And you would expect these refugees, uprooted human beings,
to organize immensely complex legal mechanisms capable of obtaining
from banks, museums and governments the restitution of what had been
theirs? They were treated everywhere as poor cousins, at best. They were
not even asked to play a role in the early negotiations with Germany in
1953.
Fact Sheets and Other Materials
12/03/98: Declarations of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research
12/03/98: Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art
10/26/98: Terms of Reference
We remembered the six million Jews who were murdered for
one reason only because they were born Jewish. We paid tribute to the
millions of others who perished at the hands of the Nazis.
Reports
State Department Holocaust-era Assets Home Page
04/99: Proceedings of the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets
06/98: (Supplement to May 1997 preliminary study)
U.S. and Allied Wartime and Postwar Relations and Negotiations With Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey on Looted Gold and German External Assets and U.S. Concerns About the Fate of the Wartime Ustasha Treasury
05/97: (Preliminary study)
U.S. and Allied Efforts To Recover and Restore Gold and Other Assets Stolen or Hidden by Germany During World War II
The Holocaust began when Nazi mobs burned and desecrated synagogues
throughout Germany and Austria, looted Jewish stores, and humiliated
and incarcerated their owners while neighbors and friends remained
silent and looked the other way. The Holocaust began when Germany’s social and legal
institutions supported a political regime that openly professed total
disregard for the sanctity of human life.
Remarks
05/20/99: Stuart Eizenstat (Briefing on Holocaust-Era Assets Conference and release of proceedings of the conference)
12/03/98: Judge Abner Mikva, Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets (Chairman’s Concluding Statement)
12/03/98: Stuart E. Eizenstat, Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets (Concluding Statement)
12/03/98: Stuart E. Eizenstat, Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets (In Support of Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art)
12/01/98: Secretary Albright, Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets (Opening ceremony address)
11/24/98: Stuart Eizenstat, briefing (Holocaust-Era Assets Conference)
11/04/98: J.D. Bindenagel, American Jewish Committee (Nazi-confiscated art)
09/25/98: Under Secretary Stuart Eizenstat, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (International cooperation on Holocaust education, remembrance, and research)
09/14/98: Under Secretary Stuart Eizenstat, remarks to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, New York City
03/23/98: Under Secretary Stuart Eizenstat, address to the United Jewish Appeal National Young Leadership Conference, Washington, D.C.
12/04/97: Under Secretary Stuart Eizenstat, closing plenary statement at the London Conference on Nazi Gold, London, England
11/15/97: Secretary Albright before Members of the Swiss Parliament, Bern, Switzerland
12/11/96: Under Secretary of Commerce Stuart Eizenstat before the House Banking and Financial Services Committee, Washington, D.C.
Press Statements
10/21/98: U.S. Support for the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims
09/04/98: Seminar on Holocaust Insurance Issues in Prague
01/13/98: German Government Agreement on Holocaust Compensation
02/05/97: Swiss Banks To Create Fund
10/04/96: Investigation of Nazi Gold in Swiss Banks
Fact Sheets and Other Materials
12/03/98: Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art
09/09/98: Dissolution of the Tripartite Gold Commission
03/18/97:Tripartite Gold Commission
Dormant Accounts in Switzerland
Prepared by the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, May 7, 1997
If you wish to make a claim on a dormant account you believe to be held by a bank in Switzerland, please contact the following:
Swiss Banking Ombudsman
Schweizergasse 21
Postfach 8021
Zurich, Switzerland
Telephone 011 41 213-1460; Fax: 011 41 1 210-3720
Applicants must write a short letter asking for the dormant account questionnaire. Please indicate in which language you prefer the questionnaire to be written. Additional information on how to pursue a claim on a dormant account in Switzerland is available from the Swiss Embassy at (202)745-7900 (phone) or (202)387 2564 (fax).
