- 7/3/2025
A look at Switzerland's wartime support of Nazi Germany, including its work to replenish Nazi military supplies, its barring of Jewish refugees, and the disappearance of Jewish savings from Swiss banks.
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00:00Tonight on Frontline, it could be the final chapter of the Holocaust.
00:13They were just interested in making money.
00:16How a fortune in blood money disappeared from Swiss banks.
00:19The vastest killing machine in history, fueled by one of the most efficient banking systems in history.
00:25And how a country that claimed neutrality financed Hitler's war machine.
00:29A very willing ally.
00:32Tonight on Frontline, Nazi gold.
00:38Funding for Frontline is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
00:45And by annual financial support from viewers like you.
00:51This is Frontline.
00:59It was the early 1930s.
01:15They arrived in Switzerland by the thousands.
01:18They were Jewish.
01:26And they were afraid.
01:27They brought jewelry and gold.
01:43They hid their money in coat linings and body cavities.
01:46Because they thought that if they could save their money, they could somehow bargain to save themselves.
01:51They really thought that they still had a negotiable position if they had something to negotiate with.
01:56And that's why they wanted to get it out.
01:59Because they assumed that that could be their only ticket to safety.
02:08Swiss banks profited from their terror.
02:11Just as later, they would profit from the war itself.
02:14There are couriers that tell you stories about how they had to secret the money in parts of, in their body.
02:23They had to hide it.
02:24And they literally risked their lives to get it there.
02:28Bank secrecy laws enticed thousands of Jewish customers.
02:33The Nazis wanted their lives.
02:35Swiss banks wanted their money.
02:37Billions.
02:39The entire wealth of Europe was going into Switzerland.
02:43It was the only safe place to put money.
02:59The Nazis destroyed synagogues.
03:03And likened Jews to rats.
03:07Even when the Nazis made it a crime for a Jew to hold a bank account, the money kept coming.
03:19That was risking the life.
03:21If you was caught, you, you lost everything, but you lost in fact your life.
03:31That's absolutely clear.
03:32By the end of the war, the banks could assume that most of their Jewish customers were dead.
03:54Some Holocaust survivors have spent a lifetime trying to retrieve money from the Swiss banks.
04:08What has been taken from such vulnerable people, such a vulnerable time, and for 50 years, to me it is simply theft, right?
04:22Simply, simply theft.
04:23Most of the time I remember spending in an attic, hiding, because there were constantly calls for Jewish children to be killed.
04:53Since they were not part of the working force, they were just, you know, dead weight, to be exterminated.
05:02And so I had to be hidden all the time.
05:06Starvation was everywhere.
05:08Dead people on the sides, just decomposing bodies.
05:17I still remember the terrible odor.
05:23Determined to buy them freedom, her mother tried to bribe a Nazi official.
05:27Telling the superintendent that she was going to write him a letter, withdrawing 3,000 gold marks.
05:39Now, I don't know whether he ever did it, but I know that he denounced her and she was sent to Treblinka.
05:47From where was she going to withdraw this money?
05:49From the Swiss bank?
05:52From a Swiss bank account.
05:53Mm-hmm.
05:56Her mother died.
05:59She survived.
05:59After the war, like other survivors of the Holocaust, she tried in Switzerland to recover her parents' money.
06:14It was a country glistening with prosperity, eerily untouched by war.
06:19The rest of Europe was in ruins.
06:30This was a day the banks may have hoped would never come.
06:36Shabby survivors of the Holocaust were coming back for their money.
06:42Bankers demanded documents they must have known were impossible to provide.
06:47Death certificates.
06:49You know, which is sort of, so preposterous, and I think so insulting.
06:57Surely they knew what was going on.
07:02The bankers seriously asked you for death certificates?
07:05Yeah, definitely.
07:06For your parents who'd been killed in the camp?
07:11She, like countless others, was left empty-handed.
07:15There really was no trace of your parents?
07:19No.
07:20No, absolutely not.
07:22Smoke?
07:23Smoke?
07:23Today in New York, the Swiss banks are being sued for $20 billion by thousands of Holocaust survivors who say their money was stolen.
07:42Every day, survivors called to join the case.
07:46My mother came from the family of nine children.
07:51She was a young survivor.
07:53Everything was erased.
07:55Erased completely.
07:56Yes, our parents, our parents, our parents, our parents, our siblings, and they're going to be well.
08:01And should I love you, we would smell that smoke coming out from that chimney.
08:07People are dying.
08:08The depositors are dying.
08:09The depositors are dying.
08:11And the banks get rich because they take dead people's money.
08:16The case has pitted Jewish families against some of the most powerful financial interests in the world.
08:28All tell the Swiss account opened in the 30s mysteriously vanished by the time they went looking for it.
08:40They've all admitted to them.
08:41Some even had proof.
08:46Here are the numbers.
08:52Here are four numbers.
08:56He claims that in one account there had been 18,000 Swiss francs, but the money had simply gone.
09:05How much do you think that money would have been worth today, 18,000 Swiss francs?
09:11I don't know.
09:14A million dollars?
09:22Estelle Sapir remembers the grand hotels where her wealthy father stayed in Geneva before the war,
09:28when he went to bank the family's money.
09:34She said goodbye to him through the barbed wire of a concentration camp.
09:39I could not have kissed him.
09:41She could not kiss him.
09:43She just put the fingers out.
09:46And I could kiss his hand.
09:48And the same, she could do the same thing.
09:51And nobody, I could not approach her.
09:55He told her never to forget.
09:57She had money waiting in banks in Geneva, Zurich, and Lausanne.
10:02I said, you know, I have a good memory.
10:05I remember.
10:07So there was absolutely no doubt this is where the money was.
10:10Absolutely.
10:12After the war, the bank produced a file with her father's name on it, but said she had improper documentation.
10:19Fifty-two degrees under partly cloudy skies.
10:24It's 10 a.m.
10:25Today, billionaire Edgar Bronfman said he'd met with Swiss banks in an effort to recover the money of Holocaust victims.
10:32Mr. Bronfman is chairman of the Seagram Corporation and president of the World Jewish Congress.
10:37Two years ago, Edgar Bronfman, head of the World Jewish Congress, resolved to end the suffering of people like Sapir, who today lives on memories and little else.
10:48Bronfman is a billionaire many times over.
10:51Sapir has lost everything she ever had.
10:53Bronfman would use all his power to try to recover millions of francs in Swiss banks belonging to victims of the Holocaust.
11:05On the flight to Bern, the Swiss capital, Bronfman was determined to lay bare the secret history of Switzerland.
11:18If I can use a word that's probably not proper to use on television, we were shit disturbers.
11:23We were coming in there, roiding up their lovely little empire that they'd had for a long time, saying,
11:29I don't think everything is as nice and clean as you think it is, and we want to find out.
11:36At his side was Israel Singer, an ex-Rabbinical student nicknamed the Rabbi.
11:42Together, they'd try to recover the missing millions.
11:46The people who were fighting in World War II were clearly the evil and the good, and the Swiss decided to be neutral.
11:53In a struggle between evil and good.
11:58Singer and Bronfman say the Swiss bankers flung an offer on the table.
12:03Suddenly, they'd discovered some Jewish accounts, unclaimed since the war, worth $32 million.
12:09Take it or leave it, they said.
12:11This is supposed to be the final stop, but here's the money, you take it and behave yourself.
12:19What I realized was this is going to be a tough, tough battle.
12:24Back in the U.S., Bronfman began to flex his political muscle.
12:28This morning, the committee needs to take up an important matter, and it involves more than money, more than millions, and tens of millions, and maybe hundreds of millions, and maybe more than that.
12:40Bronfman called New York Senator Al D'Amato.
12:43It involves the systematic...
12:44D'Amato was chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee.
12:47For the Swiss bankers and their prized branches on Wall Street, it was a nightmare.
12:56D'Amato could, if he wished, deal a mortal blow to their worldwide operations by calling for the closure of their branches in America.
13:03And they took that very seriously?
13:08Yes, I think they probably did.
13:13Bronfman smelled blood.
13:16He got President Clinton to open wartime government files on Switzerland.
13:21For banks, the only good news is no news, and every nightmare of theirs became a reality.
13:27The outgoing Swiss president exploded at Bronfman, accusing him of trying to destroy Switzerland as a banking center.
13:36You did, you know, I don't want.
13:39He also managed to call me a blackmailer and an extortionist.
13:44But this is straight paranoia to think that there's a plot afoot to destroy Switzerland and its banking system.
13:50Of course there was no plot.
13:57At his ranch in Virginia, Bronfman pored over wartime intelligence files.
14:09Switzerland, it seemed to him, had always wrapped herself in myths of humanity, democracy, and shining purity.
14:19The reality, he believed, was different.
14:21Switzerland paid an enormous moral price for its neutrality.
14:27And along with that, it also made others, especially Jews, pay a very different kind of price,
14:33sometimes with their lives, certainly with their fortunes.
14:37Swiss propaganda films showed its soldiers setting off to defend Swiss neutrality,
14:42while Swiss hotels overflowed with Nazis meeting Swiss bankers
14:47and buying enormous quantities of Swiss weapons.
14:51The war would tear Europe apart, but make Switzerland rich.
15:03Swiss soldiers sealed themselves in caves in the mountains in case of Nazi invasion.
15:10Meanwhile, its arms factories, protected from air raids by Swiss neutrality,
15:15worked overtime for the Nazis.
15:16Swiss democracy melted like snow.
15:22A seven-man federal council made its decisions in secret.
15:31Its leader, Marcel Pilegola, thought only he could deal with Hitler.
15:39He lectured the Swiss on new realities,
15:42that is, that Hitler would win the war.
15:44His plan was simple.
15:50He would protect Switzerland from the Nazis by making her indispensable to Berlin.
15:55I think I can only explain his action by thinking that Germany would win the war,
16:06and that that wouldn't be a catastrophe.
16:08I think he had some understanding for an authoritarian regime.
16:14The U.S. legation in Bern concluded that only two of the seven Swiss councillors
16:30were genuinely determined to protect Swiss independence from Hitler.
16:35Thus began what the Swiss saw as a brilliant balancing act that would save Switzerland.
16:43Others saw it as simple collusion.
16:46Sure.
16:47They made a deal.
16:49I think they call that making a pact with the devil.
16:53It was the vastest killing machine in history
17:10being fueled by one of the most efficient banking systems in history
17:15and by one of the most efficient quartermasters operating through that banking system.
17:19The German mark usually wasn't accepted outside Germany.
17:26To buy weapons and raw materials, the Nazis needed hard currency
17:30and bankers with more sophistication than scruples.
17:35They needed Switzerland.
17:40They couldn't buy materials without Switzerland.
17:44They couldn't buy the necessary armaments.
17:48They couldn't buy all of the things that they needed for the infrastructure.
17:51They would have run out of money.
17:58Gold, looted from banks and treasuries in Nazi-occupied countries,
18:02was smelted in Berlin and shuttled into Switzerland.
18:07The Swiss National Bank denied Allied claims that it was stolen.
18:11But the bank knew how much gold the Germans held officially at the start of the war.
18:15And Berlin was sending them several times that amount.
18:21So if you sell more than you have, it must come somewhere.
18:26So it was stolen.
18:28That's absolutely clear.
18:31But you don't know exactly where.
18:34You don't know exactly how much.
18:37But you know something is not good.
18:39There was a darker secret, too.
18:48The cost of Hitler's dreams was so immense
18:51that in the concentration camps,
18:54guards didn't even wait for people to die
18:56before stripping them of anything of value.
19:00Jewelry, hair, even gold fillings.
19:04And my father, before he, they took us in to the shower rooms,
19:12they yanked out his, I call it yanked out,
19:16they pulled out his crowns from his mouth.
19:22Gold crowns?
19:23Gold crowns.
19:24And some, yeah, most of them were gold crowns.
19:27And if it hurted, he couldn't, you know,
19:35they didn't use nothing.
19:37They just had a pair of pliers in their life.
19:41If you tie down a horse,
19:44and this is the way they pulled it out.
19:48The fillings were sent to the Nazi bank in Berlin
19:51to be smelted into bars.
19:56I can't even describe you the way they were treating us.
19:59They weren't treating us like people.
20:02They were treating us like animals.
20:04We're so desperate for this gold.
20:05Desperate.
20:06Oh, gold, they were, right away,
20:09they were just looking in your mouth.
20:13The trains that brought the Jews into the camps
20:19took the plunder out in special boxes.
20:24The Swiss banks were waiting.
20:29That's a normal banking proceeding.
20:32We are not here to ask,
20:36where from you have the money?
20:37That's impossible.
20:39U.S. intelligence files suggest
20:43gold from the concentration camps
20:45smelted into ingots
20:47was sent to Switzerland
20:48and sold for cash.
20:52Absolutely, we have now documentary evidence of that.
20:56Shocking.
21:00Of course, this is shocking.
21:03And we can just say,
21:05we did not know it.
21:07Nobody knew it at that time.
21:09Last year, the Swiss government
21:10selected Thomas Borer
21:12to defend its honor and its history.
21:15We had one goal during the Second World War,
21:18survive as a nation
21:21and protect our citizens.
21:23And to achieve this goal,
21:25we had to deal with the devil.
21:27If you deal with the devil,
21:28you have to compromise,
21:29you may make mistakes.
21:31We were in a horrible situation
21:33like a lot of other countries.
21:34Now I don't say that no mistakes were committed,
21:37that no crimes were committed.
21:39But overall,
21:40if you judge the whole government policy
21:43and the people of Switzerland,
21:45you can say,
21:46they stick to certain principles
21:49well established,
21:50and these principles have also a moral ground.
21:53As the Nazis swept through Europe,
22:00for desperate Jews fleeing the SS,
22:03Switzerland seemed their only chance of survival.
22:07Because, you know,
22:08when you have no hope,
22:09you hold to the only theoretically possible hope.
22:13And some got through.
22:17So if some got through,
22:19you will get through.
22:20And what else?
22:22You know,
22:22there was no hope.
22:23It beckoned refugees like a light in the darkness.
22:30And I was coming from a dark occupied Europe.
22:43We can be like birds are going to light.
22:48Because I did the same thing.
22:51Seemed warm and welcoming.
22:54Yes.
22:58In 1939,
23:00a sign on a mountain road read,
23:03Switzerland is the haven of the dispossessed.
23:05We acknowledge the great enrichment
23:08brought to us by homeless refugees
23:10since time immemorial.
23:13By now,
23:14it was a myth.
23:17They gave order
23:18to reject women,
23:21men and children.
23:23Anti-Semitism in Switzerland
23:25was rampant,
23:27was as bad as it was anyway in Europe.
23:31They were put in the hands of the Germans
23:33and deported
23:35to concentration camps
23:37and to Auschwitz.
23:40On the border,
23:41posters warned desperate Jews
23:43fleeing the SS
23:44that if they entered Switzerland,
23:46they could be shot.
23:50Taking in Jews,
23:51the government thought,
23:53would only provoke the Nazis.
23:56That might make
23:57Hitler furious
23:59and he would decide
24:01I have to
24:02attack
24:04those people
24:05who seem to be
24:06friendly with the Jews.
24:14Even before the war,
24:16the files of the Nazi foreign ministry
24:18record that
24:19serious consideration
24:20is being given in Switzerland
24:22to blocking the flow of Jews
24:24out of Germany.
24:25To make it easier
24:29to turn them back
24:30at the border,
24:31the Swiss
24:31asked the Nazis
24:33to stamp a J
24:34in their passports.
24:35The police
24:38and
24:38they had to
24:39have a photo
24:40in which
24:41the left ear
24:42was visible.
24:44So as for the
24:45crime
24:45and then
24:47they had to
24:47give the
24:48fingers
24:49Then and today, I consider that a shameful action, as far as a neutral country is concerned.
25:12In the lakeside town of Saint-Geney-Golf on the Swiss border with France, waves of refugees were turned back.
25:20They even committed suicide at the borders, in front of the Swiss police, which were very, they didn't care.
25:34A young Jewish couple made a suicide pact on a bench, in sight of peaceful Switzerland.
25:40They decided to die together, and the man cut the throat of his wife and did the same on himself.
25:54His wife died, but he survived, and the grave is still there.
26:02Even those who paid Swiss guides to smuggle them in got stopped.
26:12In small hotels on the border, they gave up hope.
26:15Jumped from the windows there of those buildings where they were waiting for the night of, when they understood that there would be no way of getting through, and some of them were killed by the guides.
26:28I mean, this is maybe the darkest of all those dark events, is that the guides sometimes took those refugees, killed them on the way, took their whatever they carried with them, cash or jewelry, to survive in Switzerland, and threw the bodies into the lakes.
26:49Sometimes Swiss border guards would chain Jews together and march them back into France.
27:02Their destination was usually a death camp.
27:05Even children fell victim to the SS.
27:15Some escaped and arrived without their parents at the Swiss border.
27:20Because they were constantly caused for Jewish children to be exterminated.
27:27At first, children were allowed in, but later, some were turned back.
27:32They didn't want to remain with 20,000, 30,000 Jewish children.
27:40The Holocaust Memorial in Israel records the case of a boy aged six, rejected by Swiss border guards, killed at Auschwitz.
27:51They were, they knew exactly, that between the refugees, sent back, were children.
28:00And it was authorized.
28:02Yeah, they were, they gave order.
28:08To reject to women, men, and children.
28:10It's written.
28:18In 1942, a Swiss police statement claimed,
28:22it is not true refugees face certain punishment if sent back.
28:26But some Swiss officers seemed to know exactly what was going to happen to the Jews.
28:37The officers, they asked us, you are Jewish?
28:41And we answered, sure, we are Jewish.
28:45So if you are Jewish, you will have the same fate that have all other Jews.
28:50What happened to them when they were sent back?
28:56That I think we knew.
28:59I said so.
29:00We knew that they were annihilated.
29:03You knew that the Jews who were turned back were annihilated by the Germans?
29:07No.
29:08Ordinary Swiss families, aware of what lay in store for the Jews, had tried to save them.
29:19A Swiss newspaper reported,
29:21no one has the slightest doubt that refugees face certain death.
29:27And that information was getting through to the Federal Council?
29:30Yes.
29:31They had no doubt the Holocaust is underway?
29:33Yes, one didn't use this word, yes.
29:37But then we used annihilation.
29:41Annihilation.
29:41Yes.
29:43Of the Jews.
29:49Unaware of Swiss policy, the Jews kept coming.
29:55Afraid of deportation to Auschwitz,
29:57Simon Sonneband, a wealthy watch importer from Belgium,
30:00paid a smuggler to take him and his family through France into Switzerland.
30:06After a dangerous journey,
30:08the Swiss border looked like a first glimpse of paradise.
30:13It looked very beautiful.
30:15Probably it was beautiful because I felt we were safe.
30:20It never entered in our mind that it could be anything but safety.
30:24But the next day, staying with friends,
30:28they were arrested and put on a train back to the border to await deportation.
30:34They asked the soldier why.
30:37And he said,
30:38well, we can't take any more refugees.
30:41We haven't got enough food for ourselves.
30:43They are short of bananas.
30:45And if they take more refugees,
30:47where will they get more food from?
30:49And that was his explanation as to why he was sending us to our death.
30:57His father was jailed.
31:00A convent was willing to accept him, his mother and sister,
31:03until it was time to send them back across the border.
31:07The nuns not only were willing,
31:10but they locked us in, in a large room.
31:13We were not allowed to go either in the courtyard or to the toilet.
31:17They were all the time accompanying us.
31:19I said, we were literally prisoners.
31:23Sister Anne-Marie was one of the nuns there at the time.
31:28There were tears, there were separations.
31:33Many were separated from their families.
31:35So it was very sad.
31:37And then we tried to do something good.
31:40I was surprised because it was the first time I've gone across nuns or sisters.
31:48And they showed no compassion of any sort.
31:54The police came to take the family away.
31:56When we were told to come out,
32:01that means my mother and my sister and I,
32:03we were told that my father had just been brought from the prison
32:06where he was kept while we were in the convent,
32:10and we came in the courtyard,
32:13she started crying and screaming
32:15that they couldn't take us away because
32:18she knew that it was if we were sent back to the Germans
32:26that we would be deported to Auschwitz
32:28and it would be our death.
32:32She cried and screamed and fainted.
32:38But Sister Anne-Marie says she heard of no Jews being expelled.
32:42They were driven to the border with occupied France by taxi
32:57and made to pay the fare themselves.
33:00It was six or seven francs, Swiss francs.
33:05Across the border, the SS was waiting.
33:09His mother and father were ordered onto a train to the east,
33:12the children allowed to stay in France.
33:15The Swiss, effectively,
33:19were partners in the murder of my family.
33:29As they said goodbye,
33:31his father told him that if he survived the war,
33:34there was a fortune awaiting him in a Swiss bank.
33:36A few days later,
33:40he heard his parents had died at Auschwitz.
33:44And, um,
33:46I had to pretend,
33:50because I didn't want my sister to know,
33:52that I knew.
33:53I had to pretend
33:54that I didn't know.
33:56After the war,
34:00Sonneben discovered his father's Swiss accounts had vanished,
34:04even one mentioned in black and white
34:06in the Berne Gazette for 1942.
34:11After the family was deported,
34:13a court had awarded a business partner $200,
34:17or 472 francs,
34:19out of the account
34:19at the Cantonal Bank in Berne.
34:23So it's possible that the account,
34:26the account of Mr. Sonneben,
34:27has been closed with this transaction.
34:30So that means that there was an account in the first place.
34:34There certainly was an account,
34:35there can't be any doubt about that.
34:36And so approximately 472 francs
34:40was withdrawn from that account.
34:43And you're saying that
34:45the only money
34:46that there could be in that account
34:47was 472 francs,
34:50which is about $200.
34:52Yes, that's correct.
34:53Doesn't seem very much, though, does it?
34:54Not very much, no.
34:56It's, uh,
34:57it's quite right.
34:58The bank invited Sonneben
34:59to have an outside accountant
35:01search for the missing money.
35:03But the accounting firm,
35:04Arthur Anderson,
35:05came up black.
35:06In their report,
35:09Arthur Anderson states
35:11that there's no account left
35:13in the name of Sonneben.
35:15If you've lost the details,
35:16then no accountant
35:17is going to be able to find it.
35:19Yes.
35:20So you're acknowledging
35:21that there was once an account,
35:23but you're saying
35:25there aren't any details of that account.
35:26That's right, yes.
35:30Swiss banks don't always welcome
35:32inquiries about missing accounts.
35:34Switzerland keeps other records
35:39almost obsessively.
35:42Its state archive
35:43even keeps a piece of wire
35:44a Jewish refugee used
35:46to cut his veins
35:47rather than be deported.
35:49It keeps the bill
35:50for cleaning up the blood
35:51in his cell.
35:53A Frau Schmidt did it
35:55for three francs.
35:56Yet of thousands of missing
36:00Jewish bank accounts
36:01like that of Simon Sonneben,
36:04there remains
36:04not the slightest trace.
36:07But how would you feel
36:08if this was your account?
36:11You know that there was an account.
36:12I mean, you're not denying
36:13that there was an account.
36:15And it's gone.
36:16And not only has it gone,
36:17but there isn't even
36:18any trace that it ever existed.
36:20If that was your money,
36:21wouldn't you feel
36:21a little upset?
36:23Yes, of course.
36:24Of course.
36:26But you can't change it
36:27because,
36:28as I told you,
36:29according to Swiss law,
36:31we can't preserve
36:32all the documents
36:34that have,
36:35that has been established
36:3740 or 50 years ago.
36:40You can't or you won't?
36:42No, we can't.
36:42It is true
36:46that our refugee policy
36:48is a darker part
36:50of our Second World War history.
36:53Indeed, we turned away
36:5430,000 Jews
36:55and they died probably
36:56in the Holocaust.
36:58On the other hand,
36:59it also shows
37:00that light and darkness
37:01are close together.
37:03We saved 27,000 Jews.
37:05We saved 30,000 Swiss Jews.
37:07But I agree,
37:08Switzerland could have done
37:09more at that time.
37:11On the other hand,
37:13Nazi Germany threatened us
37:14very often
37:15that we are too friendly
37:16to the Jews
37:17and we're going to pay
37:18for it down the road.
37:25During the war,
37:27Switzerland seemed
37:28oddly remote
37:29from the violence
37:30its banks were helping
37:31to finance.
37:36Bern, the Swiss capital,
37:38was full of Nazi bankers
37:39and buyers.
37:41trainloads of paintings
37:48looted by the Nazis
37:50were being quietly auctioned
37:51at Swiss art galleries.
37:58Big German corporations
37:59like IG Farben
38:01that worked countless
38:02slave laborers
38:03to their deaths
38:04depended on Swiss front companies
38:06for their links
38:07with the world.
38:07Swiss dealers were buying
38:12stolen banknotes
38:13and share certificates
38:14being sent by the Nazis
38:16to their embassy in Bern.
38:19In almost every possible way,
38:21Switzerland had become
38:22vital to the Reich.
38:24criminals cannot function
38:27without cover.
38:28Thieves cannot function
38:30without fences.
38:32And although their objective
38:34was to protect themselves,
38:35their participation
38:36in that criminality
38:38was clear.
38:43Swiss banks arranged
38:45financial transactions
38:46for the Nazis
38:46all over the world.
38:48And the neutrality
38:50no longer was neutral
38:51but became
38:52a form of participation.
38:57Nazi weapon factories
38:58were relentlessly
38:59bombed by the Allies.
39:01But plants
39:02in neutral Switzerland
39:03were bomb-proof.
39:05They produced
39:06untold quantities
39:07of Nazi weapons
39:08without the slightest
39:09fear of attack.
39:10There's a document
39:13which we've read
39:14which I find
39:15curious
39:16sent by the
39:18Joint Chiefs of Staff
39:19to the Secretary of State
39:20in 1940
39:21I think it was 43
39:23in the spring of 43
39:24and it said that
39:26our bombing of Germany
39:27was rather ineffective
39:28because the Swiss
39:29kept shipping in
39:30the stuff
39:30to replace it.
39:34The head of the
39:35Nazi State Bank
39:36freely admitted
39:37that the Reich
39:38couldn't survive
39:39without the services
39:40of Switzerland
39:41particularly
39:41not the conversion
39:43of gold
39:43into hard currency
39:44for more than
39:45two months.
39:51Banks in other
39:52neutral countries
39:53weren't nearly
39:54as sophisticated.
39:55They were producing
39:56those gears
39:57that kept
39:58that machine rolling
39:58and had there
39:59not been
40:00that machine rolling
40:01the war would have
40:02been considerably shorter
40:03the number of deaths
40:05would have been
40:05considerably smaller
40:06and not just
40:07Jewish deaths
40:07but American
40:08and British soldiers
40:09would have died
40:10in smaller numbers
40:11the amount
40:12of vast murder
40:14committed
40:14without any
40:16rationality
40:16would have been
40:17far less.
40:20There's just no
40:20question about it.
40:23This is a totally
40:24absurd accusation.
40:26There is no statistic
40:27there is nothing
40:28who proves that
40:30and that's the reason
40:32why historians
40:33Swiss historians
40:34say it's absurd
40:35if you look at
40:36the historical facts.
40:38We have German
40:39officials themselves
40:40saying literally
40:41that we would not
40:42have been able
40:42to continue
40:43for more than
40:44two months
40:44without the conversion
40:46of gold
40:47into hard currency
40:48by the Swiss.
40:49This is if you
40:50if you can never
40:51base
40:51historical
40:53thesis
40:55on one
40:56fact
40:57or one
40:58document
40:58or one
40:59saying
40:59you need
41:00a lot
41:01of proof.
41:01There were
41:07still those
41:08who thought
41:08Hitler was
41:09too afraid
41:10of the Swiss
41:10army to
41:11invade.
41:12Indeed
41:13Switzerland
41:14had built
41:14fortifications
41:15high in the
41:16mountains
41:16and mined
41:17the Alpine
41:17passes.
41:21But the
41:22directors of
41:22the Swiss
41:22National Bank
41:23boasted at a
41:24private meeting
41:25we have escaped
41:26the war
41:27because of the
41:28services we
41:29have been able
41:29to offer
41:29Germany.
41:31Reinhard Spizzi
41:35once in
41:36German Army
41:36Intelligence
41:37says the
41:38Nazis would
41:39never have
41:39killed its
41:40golden goose.
41:41Because it
41:42is so
41:44clear
41:44that
41:46we needed
41:46Switzerland
41:47as a
41:49place for
41:51money
41:51a place
41:52for production
41:53a place
41:54for certain
41:55special
41:56armament
41:57but invasion
41:58and occupation
41:59that was
42:01out of
42:01question
42:02I think.
42:08In Spizzi's
42:09view the
42:10Swiss were
42:10less afraid
42:11of Nazi
42:11invasion
42:12than they
42:12pretended.
42:14The Swiss
42:14said to the
42:15allies
42:16they must
42:17behave like
42:17they behaved
42:18because of
42:18the danger
42:19of entering
42:20the Germans
42:20but they
42:21meant another
42:22thing.
42:23They meant
42:23they would
42:24lose the
42:24business
42:25with Germany.
42:25you know
42:26I think
42:27that was
42:27an excuse.
42:36Squeezed
42:37between
42:37Germany
42:37and fascist
42:38Italy
42:39Switzerland
42:39was forced
42:40to compromise.
42:44She allowed
42:45the Nazis
42:45to send
42:45trains
42:46every ten
42:46minutes
42:47through
42:47Switzerland
42:48to Italy.
42:54Its men
42:55at war
42:55the Reich
42:56went looking
42:57for slave
42:57labor to
42:58keep its
42:58factories
42:59running.
43:05Italian
43:05partisans
43:06fought back
43:07but the
43:08Nazis rounded
43:08up thousands
43:09of Italians
43:09and sent
43:10them north.
43:11they would
43:15work as
43:15Germany's
43:16slaves.
43:21It was
43:22a journey
43:22from which
43:22many would
43:23never return.
43:27These
43:27people were
43:28put in
43:29these trains
43:29and the
43:30trains were
43:30locked up
43:31with seals.
43:34There were
43:34big wagons
43:35actually
43:36wagons
43:37where cattle
43:38goes
43:38you know
43:38not really
43:39passenger wagons
43:40and these
43:41trains
43:42with the
43:43people
43:43went
43:44through
43:44Switzerland.
43:46A number
43:46of Swiss
43:47railway workers
43:48have told us
43:48they were
43:49ordered to
43:49keep the
43:49slave labor
43:50trains
43:51absolutely
43:51secret.
43:52Ab und zu
43:53hat man
43:53den
43:54Schwerpenhilfe
43:54rief
43:55gehört
43:55aber
43:56das ist
43:57auch so
43:57wie man
43:57gesehen hat.
43:58Die
43:59sind
43:59natürlich
43:59auch
43:59von
44:00Ausgangsbahnhof
44:01Giasso
44:02sind
44:02vorgemeldet
44:04worden
44:04und man
44:05hat
44:05dann
44:06die
44:06mit
44:08einer
44:08gewissen
44:08Sorgfalt
44:09müssen
44:09behandeln
44:10dass sie
44:11schlanker
44:11weg
44:11wieder
44:13zu
44:13der
44:13Schweiz
44:13aus
44:14gekommen
44:14sind.
44:15We found
44:16no trace
44:16of the
44:17trains
44:17in
44:17Swiss
44:17railway
44:18records.
44:22Italian
44:23Jews
44:23were invariably
44:24sent to the
44:25death camps
44:25on trains
44:26across the
44:26Brenner Pass
44:27into Nazi
44:28controlled
44:28Austria.
44:30But in
44:30late 1943
44:31the Brenner
44:32was closed.
44:33that same
44:38winter
44:38we're told
44:39long
44:40trains
44:40with
44:40sealed
44:41cattle
44:41cars
44:41began
44:42to
44:42roll
44:42into
44:42Zurich
44:43main
44:43station
44:43in
44:44the
44:44dead
44:44of
44:44night.
44:45I
44:46think
44:47the
44:47whole
44:47thing
44:47was
44:48rather
44:48undercover
44:51I
44:52think
44:52maybe
44:53other
44:54than
44:54Jewish
44:55people
44:55not
44:55many
44:55people
44:56knew
44:56about
44:57these
44:57transports.
44:58They
44:59may
45:00have
45:00been
45:00Germany's
45:01slave
45:01laborers
45:02but
45:03several
45:03witnesses
45:04we found
45:04insist
45:05there
45:05were
45:05Jews
45:05on the
45:06trains
45:06on their
45:07way
45:07to
45:07the
45:08camps.
45:11Even
45:1150 years
45:12later
45:12they're
45:13afraid
45:13to
45:14discuss
45:14what
45:14they
45:15see
45:15as
45:15a
45:15dangerous
45:16secret
45:16all
45:17fear
45:18repercussions
45:18only one
45:20dared
45:20to speak
45:21on the
45:21record.
45:23There
45:23was
45:23a
45:24Red
45:24Cross
45:24official
45:25the
45:26lady
45:26who
45:29told
45:29us
45:30the
45:31trains
45:32would
45:32come
45:32in
45:33at
45:33night
45:33that
45:35we
45:35were
45:36supposed
45:36to
45:36bring
45:37flashlights
45:38that
45:40we
45:40would
45:40be
45:41in
45:41teams
45:42of
45:42four.
45:45Members
45:46of the
45:46Zurich
45:46Jewish
45:47community
45:47it's
45:47claimed
45:48were
45:48asked
45:48to
45:49take
45:49soup
45:49to
45:49Platform
45:50One
45:50at
45:51midnight.
45:51Very
45:52slowly
45:53this
45:55his
45:56cars
45:57came
45:57and
45:59stopped
46:00and
46:03a
46:04man
46:04came
46:05out
46:05on
46:06our
46:07station
46:07and
46:08one
46:09of the
46:09recollections
46:10I
46:11had
46:11is
46:11although
46:12it
46:12was
46:12very
46:12dark
46:13when
46:13this
46:13car
46:14opened
46:15the
46:16man
46:17who
46:17or
46:17the
46:18face
46:18who
46:18peeked
46:19out
46:19was
46:19very
46:19white
46:20it
46:22was
46:22very
46:22tense
46:23and
46:23I
46:24also
46:24remember
46:24I
46:25thought
46:25what
46:25would
46:26happen
46:26if
46:26all
46:27of a
46:27sudden
46:28all
46:28these
46:28people
46:29pushed
46:29this
46:29man
46:30aside
46:30and
46:31came
46:31tumbling
46:31out
46:32of
46:32the
46:32car
46:32and
46:33I
46:34was
46:34worried
46:34in a
46:35way
46:35I
46:35wished
46:36they
46:36would
46:36be
46:36free
46:37but
46:37in
46:37a
46:37way
46:37I
46:37didn't
46:38want
46:38them
46:38to
46:38come
46:39out
46:39this
46:40woman
46:41then
46:41age
46:4114
46:42claims
46:43she
46:43passed
46:44soup
46:44forward
46:44to
46:45the
46:45man
46:45in
46:45the
46:45cattle
46:46car
46:46we
46:47knew
46:47that
46:47they
46:48were
46:48going
46:48to
46:48Germany
46:49we
46:49knew
46:49there
46:50were
46:50Jews
46:50we
46:50knew
46:51about
46:52the
46:53concentration
46:54camps
46:55if
47:01true
47:01her
47:02story
47:02for
47:02the
47:03first
47:03time
47:03would
47:04connect
47:04Switzerland
47:05directly
47:05with
47:06the
47:06Holocaust
47:06this
47:09type
47:10of
47:10thing
47:10always
47:10troubled
47:11me
47:11and
47:13even
47:16today
47:16when
47:17I
47:17have
47:17to
47:17review
47:19it
47:20it's
47:20very
47:21troublesome
47:21at
47:23that
47:23time
47:24we
47:24didn't
47:24feel
47:24responsible
47:25but
47:25later
47:25on
47:26I
47:26think
47:26I
47:26felt
47:27responsible
47:27we
47:33found
47:33no
47:33record
47:34at
47:34Swiss
47:34railways
47:35of
47:35trains
47:35with
47:36prisoners
47:36going
47:37through
47:37Zurich
47:37that
47:37winter
47:38the
47:39Red
47:40Cross
47:40also
47:41says
47:41it
47:41can
47:41find
47:42no
47:42record
47:42of
47:43aiding
47:43prisoners
47:44on
47:44trains
47:44going
47:45through
47:45Switzerland
47:45but
47:48there
47:48were
47:48trains
47:49the
47:50question
47:50is
47:51who
47:51was
47:52on
47:52them
47:52and
47:53where
47:53were
47:53they
47:53going
47:54I
47:55have
47:55checked
47:55with
47:55historians
47:56there
47:57is
47:57again
47:57no
47:58documentation
48:00no
48:01proof
48:01to
48:02this
48:02allegation
48:03and
48:04also
48:05in
48:05Switzerland
48:05we do
48:06not
48:06have
48:06any
48:07witnesses
48:07and
48:08I
48:08think
48:08it
48:08would
48:08be
48:08very
48:09difficult
48:09to
48:09hide
48:10this
48:10kind
48:10of
48:11transportation
48:13in a
48:14free
48:14country
48:15and
48:15Switzerland
48:15was a
48:16free
48:16country
48:16even at
48:17that
48:17time
48:17Switzerland
48:28emerged
48:28from the
48:29war
48:29one of
48:29the
48:30richest
48:30countries
48:30in the
48:31world
48:31bank
48:34deposits
48:35had gone
48:35up nearly
48:36three times
48:37and
48:37it
48:38now
48:38held
48:38huge
48:38gold
48:39reserves
48:39it
48:42had
48:42played
48:42a
48:42delicate
48:43dangerous
48:43game
48:44but
48:45it
48:45had
48:45come
48:46through
48:46rich
48:46and
48:47free
48:48but
48:49now
48:49when
48:49you
48:49look
48:50back
48:50possibly
48:51it
48:52was
48:52wise
48:53so
48:54not
48:55very
48:55beautiful
48:56to do
48:57what
48:57was
48:57done
48:57well
48:58it
48:58worked
48:58turned
49:00Switzerland
49:01into a
49:01very
49:01prosperous
49:02country
49:02yeah
49:03after
49:06the war
49:06the allies
49:07demanded
49:07a share
49:08of the
49:08looted
49:08gold
49:09but
49:10at
49:10bitter
49:10negotiations
49:11in
49:11Washington
49:11the
49:12Swiss
49:12offered
49:13far
49:13less
49:13than
49:14the
49:14allies
49:14wanted
49:15but
49:16allied
49:17interest
49:17in
49:17punishing
49:18the
49:18Swiss
49:18was
49:18soon
49:19eclipsed
49:19by
49:19the
49:20new
49:20reality
49:20the
49:21cold
49:22war
49:22the
49:25west
49:25needed
49:26a strong
49:26Germany
49:27and a
49:27strong
49:28Switzerland
49:28and
49:29issues
49:29of
49:30looted
49:30gold
49:30were
49:31soon
49:31forgotten
49:31forgotten
49:38too
49:38was
49:38the
49:39fate
49:39of
49:39the
49:39Swiss
49:39bank
49:40deposits
49:40of
49:40Jews
49:41who
49:42died
49:42in
49:42concentration
49:43camps
49:43the
49:44money
49:44disappeared
49:45once
49:46the
49:46word
49:47came out
49:48that
49:48all
49:48the
49:48Jews
49:48were
49:48dead
49:49let's
49:51know
49:51our
49:51old
49:51conclusions
49:52by
49:55the
49:55end
49:55of
49:55the
49:55war
49:55Swiss
49:56bankers
49:57and
49:57lawyers
49:57certainly
49:58knew
49:58that
49:59their
49:59clients
49:59were
50:00not
50:00going
50:00to
50:00return
50:01soberly
50:05dressed
50:05men
50:05lawyers
50:06and
50:06accountants
50:07engaged
50:07by
50:08Jews
50:08before
50:08the
50:09war
50:09to
50:09look
50:09after
50:09their
50:10accounts
50:10showed
50:11up
50:12at
50:12Swiss
50:12banks
50:12to
50:13withdraw
50:13their
50:13dead
50:14clients
50:14money
50:15if
50:17he
50:18knows
50:18his
50:19client
50:19is
50:19dead
50:20he
50:21will
50:21not
50:21be
50:22so
50:22silly
50:23to
50:23let
50:24some
50:24money
50:24in
50:25the
50:25bank
50:25he
50:26will
50:27withdraw
50:27some
50:28money
50:28and
50:29probably
50:30if he's
50:31clever
50:32he'll put
50:32it in
50:32another
50:33bank
50:33under his
50:35name
50:35he'll
50:37steal
50:37he'll
50:38steal
50:38it
50:38he'll
50:40steal
50:40it
50:41steal
50:42it
50:42because
50:42he has
50:42authorization
50:43but that's a
50:45very fine
50:46point
50:46it may be
50:47legally
50:47but morally
50:48theft
50:49isn't it
50:50yeah
50:50but
50:51you have
50:52a lot
50:52of
50:52these
50:53cases
50:53without
50:54any
50:54choice
50:54we have
50:55to
50:55give
50:55the
50:56money
50:56privately
50:59the banks
51:00blame the
51:01lawyers and
51:01accountants
51:02they in turn
51:03blame the
51:04banks
51:04pressed by
51:07the Swiss
51:08government
51:08the bankers
51:09would admit
51:09to holding
51:10very few
51:11assets of
51:11Holocaust
51:11victims
51:12but in
51:14the 50s
51:15Walter
51:16Stuckey
51:17the chief
51:17Swiss
51:18negotiator
51:18in
51:18Washington
51:19broke
51:20ranks
51:20with the
51:20bankers
51:21he said
51:23two bankers
51:24had confessed
51:25to him
51:25that the
51:25banks
51:26were holding
51:26hundreds
51:27of millions
51:27belonging
51:28to French
51:29Jews
51:29alone
51:29in 1959
51:34the president
51:35of the
51:36Swiss
51:36federal
51:36court
51:37Harold
51:37Huber
51:38wrote
51:38much
51:39the
51:39same
51:39a
51:40banking
51:41expert
51:41has
51:41informed
51:42me
51:42that
51:43hundreds
51:43of
51:44millions
51:44owned
51:45by the
51:45missing
51:45persons
51:46are
51:46still
51:47in
51:47the
51:47banks
51:47today
51:49lawyers
51:50insist
51:50that
51:50the
51:50only
51:51way
51:51individuals
51:51will
51:52ever
51:52get
51:52what's
51:53theirs
51:53is
51:53by
51:53suing
51:54the
51:54banks
51:54the
51:5520
51:55billion
51:56dollar
51:56suit
51:56is
51:57making
51:57its
51:57way
51:57through
51:57the
51:58courts
51:58I
52:00know
52:00I'm
52:00going
52:00to
52:00get
52:01justice
52:01for
52:01these
52:01people
52:02I
52:02know
52:02the
52:02banks
52:03are
52:03going
52:03to
52:03pay
52:03it's
52:04not
52:04a
52:04question
52:05of
52:05if
52:07it's
52:07a
52:07question
52:08of
52:08when
52:08and
52:08how
52:09much
52:09by
52:13raising
52:14the
52:14ghosts
52:14of
52:15Switzerland's
52:15past
52:16Edgar
52:16Bronfman
52:17gave
52:17people
52:18the
52:18courage
52:18to
52:19confront
52:19the
52:19Swiss
52:19banks
52:20and
52:24to
52:24you
52:24this
52:24is
52:24not
52:24about
52:25money
52:25ultimately
52:25no
52:26this
52:26is
52:26about
52:26justice
52:27this
52:28is
52:28about
52:28justice
52:28this
52:29is
52:29about
52:29restitution
52:30in terms
52:31of
52:31moral
52:32first
52:32and also
52:33financial
52:33because
52:34you cannot
52:35be allowed
52:35to profit
52:35from
52:36murder
52:37under
52:39astonishing
52:39pressure
52:40Switzerland
52:41finally
52:41backed
52:42down
52:42there
52:45would be
52:45a bankers
52:45fund
52:46for
52:46Holocaust
52:47survivors
52:47and a
52:48government
52:49fund
52:49for the
52:50victims
52:50of
52:50catastrophes
52:51and
52:51human
52:51rights
52:52violations
52:52but
52:55half
52:55half
52:55the
52:55money
52:56has
52:56to
52:56be
52:56spent
52:56in
52:57Switzerland
52:57and
52:59it
52:59all
52:59has
52:59to
52:59be
52:59approved
53:00by
53:00a
53:00referendum
53:01next
53:02year
53:02the
53:04whole
53:05glare
53:05of
53:06world
53:06publicity
53:07is
53:07now
53:07on
53:08Switzerland
53:08and
53:08on
53:09its
53:09effort
53:10to
53:10reestablish
53:11itself
53:11as a
53:12moral
53:12decent
53:12country
53:13I
53:14can't
53:14think
53:14of
53:14anything
53:15that
53:15could
53:16be
53:16worse
53:16for
53:17them
53:17than
53:18to
53:18go
53:19back
53:19on
53:19what
53:19they
53:20have
53:20promised
53:20to
53:20do
53:20we
53:23are
53:23not
53:23a
53:24special
53:24country
53:25a
53:26lot
53:26of
53:26Swiss
53:26still
53:27believe
53:27that
53:27we
53:28have
53:28we
53:28are
53:28very
53:29different
53:29but
53:30a
53:32lot
53:32of
53:32Swiss
53:32have
53:32to
53:32learn
53:33that
53:33we
53:33were
53:33already
53:34in
53:34past
53:34very
53:36much
53:37like
53:37other
53:37countries
53:38we
53:38had
53:39in
53:39Switzerland
53:39good
53:40people
53:40and
53:40bad
53:41people
53:41and
53:42we
53:42behaved
53:43not
53:44more
53:44bold
53:45than
53:45other
53:45nations
53:46so
53:48the
53:48myth
53:49is
53:49shattered
53:49I
53:50think
53:50often
53:52every
53:53myth
53:53has
53:54a lot
53:55of
53:55fiction
53:55and
53:56in
53:56the
53:57myth
53:57about
53:58Switzerland
53:58there
53:58was
53:59also
53:59fiction
53:59involved
54:00and
54:01now
54:01we
54:01see
54:02a
54:02real
54:02picture
54:03about
54:04Switzerland
54:04dig
54:17dig deeper
54:18at
54:18Frontline's
54:18website
54:19for more
54:20details
54:20on the
54:21question
54:21of
54:21Nazi
54:21death
54:22trains
54:22going
54:22through
54:23Zurich
54:23explore
54:24a range
54:25of
54:25Swiss
54:25response
54:26to the
54:26Nazi
54:26gold
54:27controversy
54:27or
54:29learn
54:29about
54:30seeking
54:30lost
54:30assets
54:31and
54:31bank
54:31accounts
54:32and
54:33join
54:33the
54:33discussion
54:34what
54:34are
54:34your
54:35views
54:35about
54:35the
54:35actions
54:36of
54:36the
54:36Swiss
54:36and
54:37much
54:38more
54:38at
54:39Frontline
54:39online
54:40at
54:40www.pbs.org
54:43and let us know
54:45what you thought
54:45about tonight's
54:46program
54:47by fax
54:48by email
54:49or by the
54:50US mail
54:50and let us know
55:04and let us know
56:19Frontline is produced for the Documentary Consortium by WGBH Boston, which is solely responsible for its content.
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