ABSTRACT
Over 100 of Switzerland’s most prominent personalities signed manifesto in their words “free of any pressure of any kind from any Jewish organization, but discredited by the behavior of our country’s banks and Federal Council.” A year to the day the Swiss Banker’s Association unilaterally announced the results of its survey into the Swiss banks’ dormant accounts, an act that enraged Bronfman, the Swiss banks had finally agreed to put money on the table that did not belong to the claimants or victims of the Holocaust, but was their own. Yet, the political realities in Switzerland were clear. In polls taken in the German and French-speaking regions of Switzerland by the Swiss daily Blick, 44 percent or respondents replied there was no basis to Jewish demands for immediate compensation. The delegates gathered to discuss the disbursement mechanism under which the Swiss Humanitarian Fund would operate.
