If the Swiss banking authorities, who last week published a register of 2,000 "dormant' second World War accounts, were hoping this list would end the scandal of the unclaimed Holocaust assets in their vaults, they were mistaken, writes David Horovitz in Jerusalem.
Far from clearing up questions about victims' money, the list is raising even more questions about the Swiss banks' behaviour. The publication of 1,872 names from the records of 67 Swiss banks, with assets totalling $44 million, amounts to an admission of past deceit. Just months ago, the banks were claiming the accounts untraced numbered short of a thousand. Now, they admit that many more dormant accounts have been traced, and are promising a further list in October.
Publication of the names of account-holders has aroused interest worldwide. An Internet site was accessed by about 100,000 people.
But in many cases, a perusal of the names has prompted disappointment. Worse still, several names on the list are believed to be those of Nazis, underlining the growing evidence of Switzerland's financial relationship with the Third Reich. A cursory check by an Israeli Nazi-hunter turned up what are probably the names of several prominent Nazi figures, including Hitler's personal photographer, an official involved in planning the Final Solution and the wife of a Nazi official executed at the post-war Nuremberg trials.