Swiss aided Holocaust

[David Morris]

http://salon.com/news/wire/2002/03/22/swiss/index.html

BERN, Switzerland (AP) -- A massive, five-year study has made clear that 
Swiss authorities in World War II knew the fate awaiting Jewish refugees 
turned back at the border and thus contributed to "the most atrocious of 
Nazi objectives -- the Holocaust," a leading historian said Friday.

"Large numbers of persons whose lives were in danger were turned away -- 
needlessly," said Jean-Francois Bergier, who led an international panel of 
historians given unprecedented access to government and company archives. 
"Others were welcomed in, yet their human dignity was not always respected."

Bergier made his remarks to reporters as he released the final installments 
of the 26-volume study. Many of the hardest-hitting findings had already 
been disclosed since 1998, but Bergier's overview singled out the most 
"egregious failures" in the small neutral Alpine country's tightrope walk on 
the edge of Nazism.

Courageous Swiss individuals and "large segments of the population" were 
able to tone down government policy toward the refugees "but they were 
unable to bend it," said Bergier in summing up the 11,494-page report.

"We are obliged to sustain the affirmation, perhaps provocative in form, but 
nonetheless in conformity with the facts: The refugee policy of our 
authorities contributed to the most atrocious of Nazi objectives -- the 
Holocaust," he said.




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