Credit Suisse Group: Banks in the Second World War
Commissioned historical study of the wartime record.
Summary
The reference has not verified this book in detail; the summary states only what the title, author and subject establish.
Jung, a historian who served as Credit Suisse's institutional historian, wrote this study of Swiss banks during the Second World War. The reference has not verified the book's contents.
The subject was the object of intense international attention in the 1990s, when the Volcker Committee investigated dormant accounts belonging to Holocaust victims and the Bergier Commission, appointed by the Swiss government, examined Switzerland's wartime economic relations more broadly. Those inquiries produced findings that Swiss banks had accepted gold looted by the German Reichsbank, including gold taken from occupied central banks and from individuals; that dormant accounts belonging to victims had not been returned to heirs and that banks had in some cases obstructed claims by demanding death certificates that could not exist; and that Swiss financial services had assisted German trade during the war.
The Swiss banks settled a class action in the United States in 1998 for one and a quarter billion dollars.
A study written by a bank's own institutional historian occupies a particular position: it has access to internal records that outsiders do not, and it is produced by someone employed by the institution being examined. Readers should weigh both. The Bergier Commission's published reports are the independent source on the wider question, and the Volcker Committee's report is the source on the dormant accounts.
Readers should verify this volume's specific findings and its treatment of the contested questions.
Key takeaways 6
- Swiss banks accepted gold looted by the German Reichsbank, including gold taken from occupied central banks and from individuals.
- Dormant accounts belonging to Holocaust victims were not returned to heirs, and banks obstructed claims by demanding unobtainable documentation.
- Swiss neutrality included financial services that assisted German trade during the war.
- The independent Bergier Commission and the Volcker Committee produced the authoritative findings on these questions in the 1990s.
- Swiss banks settled a class action in the United States in 1998 for one and a quarter billion dollars.
- A history written by an institution's own historian has archival access and an evident interest, and both affect how it should be read.
Who should read it
Readers researching Swiss banking during the war, who should treat the independent commission reports as the primary authority.
Where it sits in the reference 2
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