Swiss Explain Polish Bank Deal After Holocaust

Switzerland acknowledged Friday that it had struck a confidential deal with Poland in 1949 to liquidate Poles’ unclaimed wealth in Swiss banks but denied that the pact had enabled it to keep Holocaust victims’ riches for itself.

The arrangement was outlined in an exchange of letters dated June 25, 1949, but not published along with a compensation treaty concluded at the same time, the Foreign Ministry in Bern said.

The Foreign Ministry statement said the letters did not support an assertion by U.S. Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) that the 1949 accord let Switzerland divert for itself the unclaimed wealth of Polish Jews who died at Adolf Hitler’s hands.

It released copies of the letters, in which the senior Swiss negotiator accepts Warsaw’s proposal that Polish citizens’ Swiss bank accounts and life insurance policies that go unclaimed for five years be turned over to Poland’s central bank.

The letters were in conjunction with the previously publicized accord under which Poland was to pay Switzerland 52.1 million Swiss francs in compensation for property that the then-Communist Polish regime had nationalized.

The revelation of the letters was sure to turn up pressure on Switzerland to clear up once and for all the fate of Jewish wealth deposited by people who perished in Nazi death camps.

“Various sides alleged yesterday that Switzerland struck a secret accord with Poland after World War II that allowed Switzerland to seize for itself dormant assets of Polish citizens,” the ministry said. “This allegation is wrong.”

It said it was trying to clear up unresolved questions about postwar compensation agreements with Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary, especially over if, when and how much it paid foreign governments.

Kalman Sultanik, a vice president of the World Jewish Congress, said the Swiss admission proved that the Swiss “immorally transferred Jewish assets to Poland.” He demanded that the Swiss pay millions of dollars in compensation to the World Jewish Restitution Organization.