ABSTRACT
The search for assets spread beyond Swiss banks to European insurance companies and to art museums around the world. In all, the revelations of the misdeeds of the Swiss banks unleashed an unparalleled exposure for many countries and institutions throughout the world. As accusations mounted against the Swiss banks, especially by D’Amato, the Swiss reacted harshly to charges that they knew the origin of the gold they freely accepted. With the onset of the lawsuits against the European insurance companies, Germany’s role as the perpetrator of the “greatest robbery in history,” came back into focus. Auguste Forel introduced the practice of forced sterilization of supposed mentally ill women in the French-speaking section of Switzerland, according to the Swiss historian Hans Ulrich Jost, who disclosed the existence of the program in August 1997. Jost explained that the practice might well have continued on until 1985 in Switzerland.
