Swiss Jewish Paper Disputes Report

A Jewish newspaper in Switzerland has disputed a new report that alleges some Swiss leaders were pro-Nazi during World War II, charging that the study distorted the strength of a movement supporting the Third Reich.

The newspaper, the Israelitisches Wochenblatt, alleged that the study issued in New York by the Simon Wiesenthal Center “deliberately suppressed the strong anti-Nazi movement in Switzerland.”

The Wiesenthal Center’s report alleged that Switzerland was “thoroughly saturated” with right-wing groups claiming tens of thousands of members during the war.

The paper joined Switzerland’s other Jewish weekly in attacking the study. The Basel-based Juedische Rundschau on Thursday described the study as full of “exaggerations and falsifications.”

Friday’s report in Israelitisches Wochenblatt agreed that the Nazis did have a well-organized network of largely secret organizations, but it argued that the movement had to be put in proportion.

The paper, published in Zurich, said a report that overstates the situation could make it easier for the Swiss to reject efforts to make good on any wrongs committed during World War II.

“The Swiss Nazis were weak in numbers,” said the weekly. “In the parliament in Bern, they had exactly one seat for four years.

“If Swiss society were really so saturated with Nazis, that would have had to be reflected in parliamentary elections,” it added.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Los Angeles-based Wiesenthal Center, disputed the newspaper reports, saying the Wiesenthal report is an assessment of the right-wing groups, not a broader indictment.

“This report is not about the Swiss people of World War II or about the Swiss people of today,” Hier said. “It is about the Swiss government of World War II.”

The Zurich newspaper said the distortions will make it difficult to examine the allegations it described as being more worthy of study, such as the long-standing charge that the Swiss government had an anti-Jewish policy during World War II.

“So many details are presented painfully wrong,” said the Juedische Rundschau, which earlier this year led Swiss Jewish criticism of a report--written, like the new one, by American historian Alan Morris Schom--asserting that Switzerland put Jewish refugees in slave labor camps.

The U.S. State Department also disputed the new report, noting that Switzerland provided shelter for 50,000 Jewish refugees.