Files Saved From Shredder May Relate to Jews, Swiss Bank Admits

The nation’s largest bank conceded Monday that documents that a bank guard saved from a paper shredder may concern property that Jews were pressured to sell in Nazi-ruled Germany.

The Union Bank of Switzerland previously had maintained that the files were unrelated to dormant World War II-era accounts, which are being examined for links to victims of the Holocaust.

The bank’s statement Monday said some of the 65 files recovered by guard Christoph Meili concern property sales in the 1930s and ‘40s, possibly by Jews.

Meili found the files in January during a check of the shredder room at the bank’s Zurich headquarters.

A Swiss law approved a month earlier required banks to preserve records that might be needed by an international panel reviewing Switzerland’s dealings with the Nazis and treatment of assets belonging to victims of the Holocaust.

Meili handed over the files to a Jewish organization. He subsequently was fired and is under investigation for breaking Switzerland’s banking secrecy rules.

Meili and his family fled to the United States. Last week, Congress passed a bill giving them permanent residency status, and President Clinton is expected to sign it.