Swiss name Holocaust victims' accounts

ZURICH, Switzerland (Reuters) -- Swiss banks have released the names of 21,000 accounts believed to have belonged to Holocaust victims.

The list is the third to be released as banks try to counter allegations by victims and Jewish groups that they wrongfully withheld funds of people exterminated by the Nazis.

The banks deny the stonewalling charges, but Switzerland's two biggest banks, UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group, agreed in 1998 to pay a $1.25 billion settlement to end an increasingly bitter stand-off.

The clash had spawned class-action lawsuits in the United States and threatened to spark U.S. boycotts of Swiss banks and other businesses.

A Swiss Bankers Association spokesman said independent auditors had come up with the 21,000 names, which are published on the Internet, after combing Swiss bank records for three years.

Their list had originally contained nearly 54,000 accounts deemed probably or possibly linked to Nazi victims, but this has since been reduced to 36,000, the spokesman said.

Unlawful recipients

Swiss banking regulators have limited publication to the accounts most likely to produce a match, but the remaining 15,000 are registered on a central database.

The spokesman said only accounts showing a clear match between the account holder and a listed Holocaust victim or those that had shown no activity since World War II ended in 1945 would be included.

Only 2,600 accounts on the list are still open. The rest have been closed in the meantime by people whose identity remains unknown, he said.

"The banks say we have no evidence to suggest that these accounts were closed other than in the course of normal business."

But Jewish activists question whether such accounts were paid out to Nazis or other unlawful recipients.

The spokesman said both sides had worked out a compromise to ensure access to the 4.1 million wartime accounts examined by the independent auditors during their search.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Swiss president appeals to Clinton to stop proposed sanctions
July 23, 1998
U.S. financial community set to sanction Swiss over Nazi gold
July 2, 1998
Study: Swiss bank stashed gold taken from Nazi camp victims
May 25, 1998
Holocaust survivor will get settlement from Swiss bank
May 4, 1998
Report: Neutral nations' trade kept Nazi war machine going
June 2, 1998
Swiss banks publicize more dormant Nazi-era accounts
Oct. 29, 1997
U.S., Britain, open fund to help Holocaust survivors
December 2, 1997

Dormant Accounts Web site of the Swiss Bankers Association

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.