The names of another 3,100 dormant Holocaust-era Swiss bank depositors were to be made public this week, bringing the total number of published account holders to nearly 25,000. The names are to be posted Jan. 14 on the Internet at www.crt-ii.org and www.swissbankclaims.com. Owners of the accounts or their heirs must complete the application form posted on the Web sites by July 13. The deadline for claiming the other 21,500 posted bank accounts has expired.
Gideon Taylor, executive vice president of the Conference on Material Claims Against Germany, said Swiss banks have paid $240 million to the owners of 2,800 bank accounts. In addition, about $460 million has been paid from the $1.25 billion Swiss bank settlement to various social welfare agencies and Jewish slave laborers.
The Swiss bankers will set up a New York office, in addition to the one in Zurich, to process claims against the list of 36,000 account holders. The Zurich office will shortly begin processing 2,000 of the most plausible claims against the master list of 4.1 million account holders after a check of the 36,000 failed to find a match. Burt Neuborne, the lead settlement attorney, said the process is expected to take three months and cost about $500,000, almost half of which is being spent to reconstruct the archives.
“We felt it wrong to close the process down when we had claims that looked as strong to us as these,” Neuborne said.
The New York Jewish Week brings you the stories behind the headlines, keeping you connected to Jewish life in New York. Help sustain the reporting you trust by donating today.
