Spread Holocaust Assets Search, Swiss Tells New York’s Pataki

A top Swiss banker appealed Friday to New York Gov. George Pataki to spread the search for missing Holocaust assets to America, Europe and the Middle East.

George Krayer, president of the Basel-based Swiss Bankers Association, welcomed the creation of a New York State agency to help heirs trace the wealth of Nazi victims.

But in a letter to Pataki released Friday, Krayer said Swiss banks already had taken unprecedented steps to return the money. Though he did not elaborate on any evidence he had seen, he said heirs need help in other countries more than they do in Switzerland.

“I have read reports that substantial amounts of assets that belonged to Holocaust victims exist in France, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States,” Krayer said.

Also Friday, Swiss authorities in the capital of Bern received lists from Jewish organizations in New York and Budapest, Hungary, containing the names of nearly 30,000 needy Holocaust survivors.

The lists, coming after long delays and wrangling, are needed for payments to start later this month from a $190 million fund set up by Swiss banks and industry.

The money is meant mainly to help needy survivors of the Holocaust in eastern Europe, who endured decades of communism after World War II.

Swiss authorities criticized the Jewish organizations earlier this week because of tardiness in presenting the lists.

Other countries and the Vatican have come under occasional criticism about their dealings with Nazis or treatment of Jews during the war.