Chapman Lands a Model Student

Chapman University struck the right note in awarding a full scholarship to Christoph Meili, the former bank security guard who helped expose how Swiss banks were holding onto Jewish assets from the Holocaust.

Chapman President James Doti said Meili “will be a wonderful role model for our students.”

Meili is 30, a decade older than most Chapman students. He insists he’s not a hero, just someone who did what he considered right. But his recent honors have come at a cost. He has lost his job, friends and even his native land.

In January of 1997, Meili was making his rounds as a security guard at the Zurich headquarters of the Union Bank of Switzerland when he noticed old ledgers about to be shredded. A closer look showed the books to be documents decades old. Under a recently passed Swiss law, World War II-era documents that might pertain to Holocaust assets were not to be destroyed.

The security guard took three books and a 60-page document detailing property ownership and began trying to alert people to what he had, first contacting a newspaper and then a Jewish community leader. Eventually he hooked up with a Jewish newspaper in Zurich and took part in a press conference.

Meili said he was inspired in part by the movie he had recently seen, “Schindler’s List.” The film tells the story of a German businessman who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

The Swiss press, initially supportive of Meili, eventually turned on him and questioned his actions in a land where bank secrecy is an obsession. He was fired from his job. He received death threats. He was granted permanent residency status in the United States and moved to New Jersey, where he worked as a security guard.

A Chapman professor who read that Meili wanted a college education contacted Doti. Meili visited the campus and loved it. The school offered the scholarship. Meili also was offered financial assistance from an organization of Holocaust survivors and their families.

Meili is the type of student colleges should be happy to have. Other students can benefit from his presence and recognize him as someone who corrected a wrong and was willing to pay a price for his actions.