Switzerland will commemorate victims of Nazi terror with an official state memorial for the first time, even as questions about its role during World War II continue to haunt the country.
(Bloomberg) — Switzerland will commemorate victims of Nazi terror with an official state memorial for the first time, even as questions about its role during World War II continue to haunt the country.
A memorial will be built in a central location in the capital Bern, the Swiss government said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that it will contribute 2.5 million francs ($2.8 million) from federal funds to its construction. The statement didn’t specify the design of the memorial or its planned inauguration date.
The government “considers it of great importance to keep alive the memory of the consequences of National Socialism, namely the Holocaust and the fate of the six million Jews and all other victims of the National Socialist regime,” according to the statement, which highlighted the initiative’s particular importance as “Holocaust relativisation and antisemitism are on the rise again.”
The acceptance of Nazi gold during World War II together with the refusal to allow some Jews to seek refuge in the country has weighed on Switzerland’s reputation for years.
The Swiss tradition of banking secrecy exacerbated the problem: As recently as last week, embattled lender Credit Suisse Group AG was accused by US lawmakers of impeding an investigation into its historical assistance to Nazis that had revealed a number of previously undisclosed accounts.
It wasn’t until 1997 that a Claims Resolution Tribunal was set up to help Holocaust victims and their relatives reclaim assets stored in Switzerland. When it closed in 2012, it saw Credit Suisse and UBS Group AG pay out a total of $720 million to about 18,000 account holders and their heirs. Still, even after that Swiss banks reported thousands more dormant accounts from the World War II era.
The initiative for an official Swiss memorial for Nazi victims came from parliament, where since 2021, two MPs have been pushing the issue. The plan eventually passed both chambers with large majorities.
“It’s necessary that this terrible time remains in collective memory, and that a memorial is created for this purpose,” Social Democrat lawmaker Daniel Jositsch, one of the initiators, said in parliament. “The memorial should also commemorate those men, women and children who were wrongly denied rescue by the Swiss authorities.”
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