1st Search for Jewish Cash Largely Ignored

Swiss banks may have more money from Holocaust victims in their vaults than a review revealed more than 30 years ago, former U.S. Central Bank chief Paul Volcker said. Volcker, leading an independent committee hunting accounts left ownerless by victims of Nazi persecution, said only 26 of 500 banks joined in a government-mandated sweep of dormant accounts in 1962. It uncovered about 10 million Swiss francs. Under pressure from Jewish groups, banks in 1995 again searched and this time found 40 million Swiss francs, about $28 million. According to U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Alfonse D’Amato, a 1946 report said the Swiss had accepted 100 metric tons of stolen Belgian gold, worth $123 million at the time, after Sweden rejected it. But a Swiss National Bank spokesman said files show that Sweden also received Nazi gold.