Holocaust Reparation Claims Fifty Years After: The Swiss Banks Litigation
![handle is hein.journals/nordic71 and id is 569 raw text is: Nordic Journal of International Law 71: 557-583, 2002. 557
© 2002 Kluwer Law International. Printed in the Netherlands.
Holocaust Reparation Claims Fifty Years After:
The Swiss Banks Litigation
PETER VAN DER AUWERAERT*
Legal Officer Holocaust Victim Assets Programme, International Organisation for
Migration, Geneva, Switzerland and Visiting Lecturer International Law and International
Criminal Law, Turku Law School, University of Turku, Finland
Several months ago, it struck me that there
is something in the news about the holo-
caust almost daily - a trial in France; doc-
uments shredded in Switzerland; a cache
of what is believed to be looted Nazi-gold
found in Brazil; hearings held by a Congres-
sional Committee; a report issued by the
State Department - raising new issues and
reviving old one[s].l
1. Introduction
Over the last decade, the number of campaigns seeking material redress for
victims of the Holocaust and Nazi-persecution has soared, attracting consid-
erable public and political interest.2 Under the impulse of, mostly American,
* The views expressed herein are those of the author in his personal capacity and do not
necessarily represent the views of the International Organisation for Migration. An earlier
version of this paper was presented at 'The Culture of Impunity on Trial', a one-day conference
organized by the Eric Castren Institute of International Law and Human Rights, the Finnish
Foreign Ministry and the Finnish Red Cross on 30 November 2001 in Helsinki, Finland. The
author can be contacted at: pvanderauweraert@iom.int.
1 Opening remarks made by Malvina Halberstam at a symposium entitled 'The Holocaust,
Moral and Legal Issues Unresolved Fifty Years Later', held at the Cardozo School of Law in
New York on 8 and 9 February 1998. Malvina Halberstam, 'Framing the Issues', 20 Cardozo
Law Review, 1998, 443.
2 Roland Bank, 'The New Programs for Payments to Victims of National Socialist Injus-
tice', 44 German Yearbook of International Law, 2001, at 307; Klaus Barwig, Gunter Saathoff
and Nicole Weyde (eds.), Entschadigung ftir NS-Zwangsarbeid, Nomos Verlaggesellschaft,
Baden-Baden, 1998; Hermann-Josef Brodesser et al., Wiedergutmaching und Kriegsfolgenliq-
uidation. Geschichte-Regelungen-Zahlungen, Verlag C.H. Beck, Munchen, 2000, at 183-220;
Benjamin B. Ferencz, Less Then Slaves, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2002, at](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/nordic71&div=30&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Holocaust Reparation Claims Fifty Years After: The Swiss Banks Litigation
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