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The Last Deposit Swiss Banks and Holocaust Victims' Accounts
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Itamar Levin, Natasha Dornberg
Foreword by Edgar Bronfman and Israel Singer
Foreword by Avraham Burg, Speaker of the Knesset
Book Code: C6520
ISBN: 0-275-96520-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-96520-4
280 pages, notes, index
Praeger Trade
Publication: 10/30/1999
List Price: $41.95 (UK Sterling Price: £24.95)
Availability: Out of stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • The Last Deposit and Swiss Banks and Jewish Souls tell their complicated story with passion....[h]elpful in chronicling the campaign against the swiss banks.
    —Studies In Contemporary Jewry An Annual XVIII     2002
  • Levin...has become an authority on the question of dormant Jewish funds in Swiss banks through his investigations for the Israel business daily Globes....Recommended for all libraries.
    —Library Journal
  • Although the basic lines of the story told here...are now known, new information appears throughout this chronicle by Levin, Deputy Editor in Chief of Globes-Israel's Business Newspaper and one of the first to break the story.
    —Kirkus Reviews
  • Endorsement From from the foreword by Avraham Burg, Speaker of the Knesset: The dimension of the robbery is so vast, so expansive, that I believe Itamar Levin's book is just the beginning of the revelations yet to come...This will not atone the deeds already done, and certainly not the loss of life, but there could be no greater mission of human justice.
  • Endorsement From from the foreword by Israel Singer
    Secretary General, World Jewish Congress
    and Edgar Bronfman
    President, World Jewish Congress:     The fact that a series of countries, under international pressure and with the courage of a new generation, are dealing with the darker chapters of the past, proves the moral importance of the struggle.
Description: The injustices committed against millions of Europe's Jews did not end with the fall of the Third Reich. Long after the Nazis had seized the belongings of Holocaust victims, Swiss banks concealed and appropriated their assets, demanding that their survivors produce the death certificates or banking records of the depositors in order to claim their family's property--demands that were usually impossible for the petitioners to meet. Now the full account of the Holocaust deposits affair is revealed by the journalist who first broke the story in 1995. Relying on archival and contemporary sources, Itamar Levin describes the Jewish people's decades-long effort to return death camp victims' assets to their rightful heirs. Levin also uncovers the truth about the behavior of Swiss banking institutions, their complicity with the Nazis, and their formidable power over even their own "neutral" government. From the first attempt to settle the fate of German property in neutral countries at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, through the heated negotiations following publication of Levin's investigative article in 1995, to the Swiss banks' ultimate agreement to a $1.25 billion payment in 1997, the pursuit of restitution is a story of delaying tactics and legal complications of almost unimaginable dimensions. Terrified that the traditional and highly marketable wall of secrecy surrounding the Swiss banks would tumble and destroy the industry, the banks' managements were dismissive and uncooperative in determining the location and extent of the assets in question, forcing the United States, other European countries, and Jewish organizations worldwide to apply tremendous pressure for a just resolution. The details and the central characters involved in this struggle, as well as new information about Switzerland's controversial policies during World War II, are fascinating reading for anyone concerned with the Holocaust and its aftermath.
Table of Contents:
  • Foreword: No Greater Human Justice by Avraham Burg
  • Foreword: Struggle for the Restoration of Human Dignity by Israel Singer and Edgar Bronfman
  • Preface
  • "The Encompassing Fog": Europe's Jews Transferred Millions to Switzerland
  • "Switzerland Will Examine Favorably": Victims' Money Was Designated for Refugee Rehabilitation
  • "Cruelly Ironic": Switzerland Exploits Property without Heirs for Its Own Purposes
  • "Crying and Screaming": A Dozen Years of Frustration with the Swiss Banks and Government
  • "Cold as Ice": Evading the Law for Restoration of Property
  • "We Go to War": A New Generation Takes on Righting the Wrongs
  • "It's the Principle": The Beginning of a Frontal Assault on the Banks
  • "The Jews Were Betrayed": The Battle Moves to the American Front
  • "Opening to the Wall": Neutral Switzerland Served Nazi Interests
  • "The Parties Will Cooperate": The Beginning of Independent Investigation of the Deposits Affair
  • "Oppression and Blackmail": Serious Blunders Cost Switzerland a Series of Crises
  • "Easing the Suffering": First Steps towards Absolving the Signs of the Past
  • Bibliography
  • Index
LC Card Number: 98-53398
LCC Class: HG3204
Dewey Class: 940
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