Under Pressure, Swiss Speed Study of Bank Ties to Nazis

Parliament gave final approval Wednesday to speeding ahead with a sweeping study of Swiss financial dealings with Nazi Germany and the fate of Jewish wealth stashed in Swiss banks during the Holocaust.

Both houses of parliament waived the normal three-month waiting period for laws to take force, allowing a panel of independent historians and financial and legal experts to begin a probe of Switzerland’s wartime role early next year.

The group, still to be named, will be empowered to lift tight banking secrecy rules for an accounting of Swiss commerce with Nazi Germany. Swiss purchases of Nazi gold were a crucial source of funds to finance the German war effort.

It will also review how much wealth was deposited with Swiss banks and finance companies by Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution and whether the Swiss have done enough to identify the lost assets of Holocaust victims.

The government decree approved by parliament followed accusations by foreign critics that Switzerland could still be hoarding Nazi gold or holding millions of dollars in dormant assets of people who perished during Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror.

The commission is separate from a panel set up by Swiss banks and world Jewish groups in May to search for lost Holocaust accounts and help return the assets.

Meanwhile, Jewish groups are asking the Swiss government to make “a good-faith financial gesture” to Holocaust victims, and one figure that has been mentioned is $250 million. The concept of an interim payment was endorsed Wednesday by several witnesses at a House Banking Committee hearing in Washington.

“The time has come for the competent authorities to make a good faith financial gesture . . . so that those who suffered so much may yet see in their lifetime some measure of justice done,” said Edgar M. Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress.

It was the first time that the World Jewish Congress and others openly called on the Swiss to provide financial assistance to elderly Jews while the international investigation proceeds.