Bergier report

Bergier report is the final report of the Commission of Experts Switzerland Independent - World War II called, which the historical and legal processing of the during the Second World War in Switzerland came assets summarized by an international commission of historians. It is named after Jean-François Bergier , President of the Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War, which was established on December 13, 1996 by the Swiss Federal Assembly for a period of five years. The final report was published in March 2002.

story

The commission, which consisted of four Swiss and four foreign members (from Israel, Great Britain, Poland and the USA), presented several interim reports between 1998 and 2001 and a final report on March 22, 2002. The subject of the investigation was all the assets of victims of the National Socialist regime , but also of perpetrators and collaborators, that had come to Switzerland . In addition, the Swiss refugee policy in connection with the economic relations of Switzerland with the Allies and Axis powers as well as the cooperation of Swiss commercial and industrial enterprises with the National Socialist economy was examined. The investigation also referred to the period after 1945 and included the restitution of illegally acquired assets ( Washington Agreement 1946, registration deadline for dormant accounts 1962).

Commissioned by the Federal Assembly and the Federal Council

The Federal Council resolution on the establishment of the independent expert commission of December 19, 1996 describes the scope of the investigation in Article 1 as follows:

The general purpose of the investigation is to establish historical truth and to clarify the extent and fate of the assets that came to Switzerland as a result of National Socialist rule. In the context of the subject determined by the Federal Decree of December 13, 1996, the role of Switzerland, in particular the Swiss financial center, is to be examined, as well as how Switzerland deals with this section of its history.

For the research work of the ICE and the editing of the reports, 22 million francs were made available from general federal funds.

Authors

The Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War , or Bergier Commission for short, is responsible for the report . Most of the report was written by a large number of historians consulted.

Content of the Bergier report

The Bergier report consists of over 30 individual publications (interim reports, supplements), 25 studies (volumes) and the final report, a total of around 12,000 pages.

The interim reports published in advance from 1997 to 2000 are contained in volumes 1 to 25.

• Volume 1: Refugee property - looted property. The transfer of cultural assets in and via Switzerland 1933–1945 and the question of restitution
• Volume 2: Interhandel: The Swiss Holding of IG Farben and its Metamorphoses - An Affair about Property and Interests (1910–1999)
• Volume 3: Clearing : Switzerland's payment transactions with the Axis powers
• Volume 4: Rail transit through Switzerland (1939–1945)
• Volume 5: The Swiss Electricity Industry and the "Third Reich"
• Volume 6: Business and Forced Labor: Swiss Industrial Companies in the “Third Reich”
• Volume 7: Swiss chemical companies in the "Third Reich"
• Volume 8: Refugee and Foreign Economic Policy in the Context of Public Political Communication 1938–1950
• Volume 9: Camouflage, Transfer, Transit: Switzerland as a hub for covert German operations (1938–1952)
• Volume 10: Swiss Foreign Economic Policy 1930–1948: Structures - Negotiations - Functions
• Volume 11: Swiss armaments industry and war material trade during the Nazi era: corporate strategies - market development - political surveillance
• Volume 12: Swiss insurance companies under the control of the “Third Reich”
• Volume 13: The Swiss financial center and the Swiss banks in the time of National Socialism . Relations between the Big Banks and Germany (1931–1946)
• Volume 14: Swiss securities transactions with the “Third Reich”: trade, robbery and restitution
• Volume 15: Dormant assets in Swiss banks: custody accounts, accounts and safes of victims of the National Socialist regime and restitution problems in the post-war period
• Volume 16: Switzerland and the gold transactions in World War II
• Volume 17: Switzerland and the refugees at the time of National Socialism
• Volume 18: Switzerland, National Socialism and the Law. Volume 1: Public Law
• Volume 19: Switzerland, National Socialism and the Law. Volume 2: Private Law
• Volume 20: "Aryanizations" in Austria and their relation to Switzerland
• Volume 21: Schweizerische Bodenkreditanstalt: "Extraordinary times bring extraordinary business"
• Volume 22: Networks, Projects and Businesses: Aspects of Swiss-Italian Financial Relations 1936–1943
• Volume 23: Roma, Sinti and Yeniche : Swiss Gypsy Policy at the Time of National Socialism
• Volume 24: Switzerland and the German ransom extortion in the occupied Netherlands. Deprivation of property, ransom, exchange 1940–1945
• Volume 25: Aspects of Franco-Swiss Financial Relations (1936–1946).

Primary literature

• Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War: Switzerland, National Socialism and the Second World War . Verlag Pendo, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-85842-601-6 Final report (PDF) ; Summary (PDF)
• Esther Tisa Francini, Anja Heuss , Georg Kreis : Fluchtgut - looted property. The transfer of cultural assets in and via Switzerland 1933–1945 and the question of restitution (publications of the ICE, Volume 1, 2nd edition). summary
• Mario König : Interhandel: The Swiss Holding of IG Farben and its Metamorphoses - An Affair about Property and Interests (1910–1999) (Publications of the ICE, Volume 2). summary
• Stefan Frech: Clearing: Switzerland's payment transactions with the Axis powers (publications of the ICE, Volume 3). summary
• Gilles Forster: The railway transit through Switzerland (1939-1945) (Transit ferroviaire à travers la Suisse (1939-1945)) (Publications of the ICE, Volume 4). summary
• Jean-Daniel Kleisl: The Swiss electricity industry and the "Third Reich" ("Electricité suisse et Troisième Reich") (publications of the ICE, Volume 5). summary
• Christian Ruch, Myriam Rais-Liechti, Roland Peter: Business and Forced Labor: Swiss Industrial Companies in the “Third Reich” (publications of the ICE, Volume 6). summary
• Lukas Straumann, Daniel Wildmann: Swiss chemical companies in the “Third Reich” (publications of the ICE, Volume 7). summary
• Kurt Imhof , Patrick Ettinger, Boris Boller: Refugee and foreign economic policy in the context of public political communication 1938–1950 (publications of the ICE, Volume 8). summary
• Christiane Uhlig, Petra Barthelmess, Mario König , Peter Pfaffenroth, Bettina Witness: Camouflage, Transfer, Transit: Switzerland as a hub for covert German operations (1938–1952) (publications of the ICE, Volume 9). summary
• Martin Meier, Stefan Frech, Thomas Gees, Blaise Kropf: Swiss Foreign Economic Policy 1930–1948: Structures - Negotiations - Functions (publications of the ICE, Volume 10). summary
• Peter Hug: Swiss arms industry and war material trade during the time of National Socialism. Corporate strategies - market development - political surveillance (publications of the ICE, volume 11). Zurich, Chronos Verlag, 2002. ISBN 3-0340-0611-X . summary
• Stefan Karlen, Lucas Chocomeli, Kristin D'haemer, Stefan Laube, Daniel Schmid: Swiss insurance companies under the control of the “Third Reich” (ICE publications, Volume 12). summary
• Marc Perrenoud, Rodrigo López, Florian Adank, Jan Baumann, Alain Cortat, Suzanne Peters: The Swiss financial center and the Swiss banks in the time of National Socialism. The relations of the big banks with Germany (1931-1946) ("La place financière et les banques suisses à l'époque du national-socialisme. Les relations des grandes banques avec l'Allemagne (1931-1946)") (publications of the ICE, Volume 13). summary
• Hanspeter Lussy, Barbara Bonhage, Christian Horn: Swiss securities transactions with the “Third Reich”: trade, robbery and restitution (publications of the ICE, Volume 14). summary
• Barbara Bonhage, Hanspeter Lussy, Marc Perrenoud: Dormant assets at Swiss banks: custody accounts, accounts and safes of victims of the National Socialist regime and restitution problems in the post-war period (publications of the ICE, Volume 15). summary
• Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War: Switzerland and the gold transactions in the Second World War (revised and amended version of the 1998 interim report) (publications of the ICE, volume 16). summary
• Thomas Huonker, Regula Ludi: Roma, Sinti and Yeniche. Switzerland's gypsy policy during the Nazi era. (Publications of the ICE, Volume 23). Full text
• Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War: Switzerland and the refugees at the time of National Socialism (Revised and amended version of the 1999 interim report) (Publications of the ICE, Volume 17). summary

Secondary literature

• Thomas Maissen : Refused memory. Dormant Fortunes and the Swiss World War II Debate 1989-2004 . Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-03823-046-4 .
• Stefan Schürer: The constitution under the sign of historical justice. Swiss coming to terms with the past between reparation and politics with history . Chronos, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-0340-0951-5 .
• Janick Marina Schaufelbuehl, Mario König (ed.): Switzerland - USA in the Cold War. The disputes over dormant assets in the 1990s. Chronos, Zurich 2009. ISBN 978-3-905315-47-9 .
• Stephen P. Halbrook: Swiss resistance against Nazi Germany, experienced and documented by contemporary witnesses. A supplement to the Bergier report . Merker im Effingerhof, Lenzburg 2010 ISBN 978-3-85648-101-8 .
• Peter Schmid: Belated thinking. Switzerland encounters its history. Thursday booklets about politics, culture, society, 1. Old Synagogue (Essen) 1998, 2. ex. Edition 2000 ISBN 3924384029 . Pp. 7-17.

See also

• Switzerland in the Second World War
• Proceedings for Jewish assets at Swiss banks

Web links

• Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War
• Dossier Switzerland - Second World War on parlament.ch
• WSWS: How Switzerland persecuted Romas and Sintis. Bergier report reveals new details

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Parliamentary Initiative Newsless Assets ( Memento of the original from November 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.