During WWII, many European Jews deposited savings in Swiss banks for safekeeping but were unable to access the funds after the war due to lack of documentation. In the 1990s, a whistleblower revealed Swiss banks had destroyed records of dormant accounts to prevent heirs from claiming the money. This prompted investigations that found millions in unclaimed assets. A series of settlements established funds to compensate victims and heirs, though many accounts went unclaimed due to lack of evidence.

1. Role of Swiss Bank in WWII
Presented by
Gagan Kumar Pandit

2. ADOLF HITLER

3. WORLD WAR II
• Fought between the “Allies” and the “Axis”.
• Broke out in 1939.
• Lasted for 6 years.
• Considred as the most deadly war in the
history of the world.
• At the end of the war the Allies won and the
Axis collapsed.

4. CONTENTS
• History.
• Nazi Gold.
• The Whistleblower: Christoph Meili.
• The Dormant accounts.
• What happened to the money in dormant accounts?.

5. History
• For over 300 years, Swiss bankers have had a code of secrecy.
• It began with the kings of France who required strict secrecy.
• The Great Council of Geneva, in 1713, established regulations
that required bankers to keep registers of their clients but
prohibited them from sharing the information with anyone
except the client.
• In order to survive the market crash of 1929 and subsequent
depression bank secrecy was the only way the Swiss
government could maintain its beliefs and refusal to interfere
in the private affairs of its citizens.

6. • A law was enacted under Banking Act of 1934 because both
Germany and France attempted to press Swiss banks into
divulging depositor information in the name of the "good of
the state."
• During the era of Hitler a law stated that any German with
foreign capital was to be punished by death.
• Swiss banks were watched closely by the German Gestapo.

7. Nazi Gold
• During the war, the Nazis stole gold, jewelry, and other
valuables from the millions of Jews they murdered.
• The Germans needed a way to place these commodities in the
international market so that they could use the money in
financing them at wartime.
• The Swiss helped facilitate the exchange in addition to holding
Nazi accounts.
• Many speculate that some of the gold that the Swiss accepted
were the dental gold and wedding rings taken from Jews at
the camps.

8. The Dormant accounts
• Many European Jews deposited their life savings in Swiss
banks when WWII broke out during the 1930s and 1940s.
• After the war many were not allowed to recover their assets
because their documentation was gone.
• Swiss banks came into limelight because of two reasons:
Action towards Jewish
account holders.
The money that
German Nazis
plundered.

9. • Many Jews who opened these accounts perished in the
Holocaust.
• There are many survivors who remember that their parents
opened accounts, but they don't know the account numbers
nor have any paperwork concerning the accounts.
• In 1974, the Swiss announced that they found 4.68 million
Swiss francs in dormant accounts.

10. The Whistleblower: Christoph Meili.
• Christoph Meili, a former bank security guard, exposed the
bank he worked for, saying that they destroyed records of
people murdered in the Holocaust so that their money would
not be returned to their heirs.
• In 1996, U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato brought the subject of
the dormant accounts to the U.S. government's attention.
• On January 29, 1997, the city of New York considered
boycotting Swiss banks.
• Eight days later, three Swiss banks announced that they would
create a humanitarian fund of 100 million Swiss francs .

11. • As of July 23, 1997, the Swiss have produced a list of dormant
accounts that will be accessible to the public.
• Any person with a valid claim on these accounts will go
through an accounting firm and then an international panel
will decide whether or not there is reasonable evidence to
award the claims.

12. What happened to the money?
• The 1946 Allied-Swiss Washington Accord was held by the
United States, United Kingdom and France.
• Switzerland was invited to discuss issues as a result of the
Paris agreement of 1946.
• Swiss negotiators agreed to transfer approximately 250
million Swiss francs ($58.1 million) of gold into the Tripartite
Gold Commission's (TGC) monetary gold pool.

13. • In return, according to Eizenstat, the United States, United
Kingdom and French governments agreed to "waive in their
name and of their banks of issue all claims against the gold
acquired from Germany by Switzerland.“
• The problem of dormant accounts and heirless assets was not
directly addressed in the Washington Agreement.
• The head of the Swiss delegation did state, that his
Government would "examine sympathetically" possibilities for
making available for "relief and rehabilitation" proceeds of
property found in Switzerland which belonged to (Nazi)
victims . . . who have died without heirs."

14. • No action was taken until 1962 when a Swiss Federal Decree
required banks, law offices, trustees and others to go through
records to discover dormant accounts belonging to foreign or
stateless persons who were deemed victims of racist, religious
or political persecution.
• As a result, a total of nearly 9.5 million Swiss francs (an
approximate 1962 value of $2.4 million) was reported.
• About three-fourths was transferred to the rightful heirs.

15. • Of the remaining heirless assets, two-thirds were given to the
Swiss Federation of Jewish communities and one-third to the
Swiss Central Agency for Refugee Assistance.
• The investigation by the Swiss Bankers Association, began in
1995.
• Investigations turned up approximately $32 million in 775
additional dormant accounts opened prior to 1945.

16. THANK YOU