jeu, Avr 27th 2023
In the nearly eight decades since World War II ended, Switzerland has been unable to shake the reputation that the neutral country could have done more to support the victims. This week the Swiss Federal Council announced that it has allocated CHF2.5 million to build a memorial to the Holocaust victims.
“The Federal Council is committed to ensuring that the victims of National Socialist persecution and the Holocaust are not forgotten,” the government said in a statement. “This is particularly important today, as hardly any survivors or contemporary witnesses remain alive, and Holocaust relativization and anti-Semitism are on the rise again.”
The announcement comes after years of calling for such a place of remembrances for the victims of the Nazi genocide. In 2021, Swiss Parliament adopted two motions to make the memorial happen. The memorial will be built in Switzerland’s capital city of Bern.
“In erecting this memorial, the Confederation, together with the city of Bern, is creating a strong symbol against genocide, anti-Semitism and racism, and for democracy, the rule of law, freedom and basic individual rights,” the government announced, adding that the memorial “is also intended to promote discussion and debate and to have an impact beyond the country’s borders.”
There are about 60 smaller, private sites throughout Switzerland to remember various Holocaust victims, according to the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities.
“There is, however, no official or national memorial for the numerous Swiss victims of persecution, for the thousands of refugees repelled at the borders or deported, but also for the many courageous helpers in this country,” the group said.
In 2001, a government-backed independent commission of experts found that Swiss officials “helped the Nazi regime achieve its goals” by turning Jews away at Swiss borders and banking with the Third Reich. Moreover, Swiss banks refused to release dormant accounts from Holocaust victims after the war ended, claiming banking secrecy laws.
Read more: Tracing Nazi gold through Switzerland
“On the other hand, there were also numerous people in Switzerland who stood up against Nazi ideology, or actively provided protection and assistance to those who were persecuted,” according to the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities.
Among those heroes named was Carl Lutz, a Swiss diplomat who saved about 62,000 Jews from deportation to concentration camps. One of the Jews Lutz saved became his wife and his stepdaughter, Agnès. She still lives in Bern and has written about Lutz’s work.
Last week, Lutz was posthumously nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal – the highest civilian honor in the United States. But during his lifetime, he was reprimanded by the Swiss authorities for his actions.
Work on the memorial will begin this summer.
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