 World
Jewish Congress Called 'Morally False'
Hilberg
Denounces Jewish 'Blackmail' Against
Switzerland by Mark Weber, director,
Institute for Historical Review FOR several years now,
the World Jewish Congress and other major
Jewish organizations have waged a fierce
and much-publicized campaign to force
Switzerland to pay millions to Jewish
organizations and Holocaust survivors, to
compensate for money allegedly deposited
in Swiss banks by Jews who later perished
during the Second World War, and for gold
purchased from Germany that was allegedly
stolen from Jews. On Aug. 12, 1998, major Swiss banks
capitulated by agreeing to a "global
settlement" payment of $1.25 billion
dollars. While US politicians and the American
media have predictably supported the
Jewish campaign against the Alpine
confederation, which has included threats
of economic boycott, many thoughtful
people rightly regard this entire campaign
as a disgraceful manifestation of Jewish
power. Among those who have spoken out
against it is Holocaust historian Raul
Hilberg. "I was nearly alarmed when I heard that
the Swiss banks would pay 1.25 billion
dollars," he said in a recent interview
published in the respected Swiss weekly
Weltwoche
(Jan. 28, 1999). In the
campaign against Switzerland, Hilberg
went on, "the Jews have used a weapon
that can only be described as blackmail
(Erpressung)." At another point in the
interview he said: "I cannot accept the
thesis that the blackmail methods were
the only way to deal with this
issue." Hilberg, one of the world's most
prominent Holocaust historians, is the
author of the three-volume work
The Destruction of
the European Jews. Born in Vienna
in 1926, he has for decades been a
professor at the University of
Vermont. "I believe that the [Swiss]
banks have paid more than they actually
owe," Hilberg also told the Swiss weekly.
"The demands of the World Jewish Congress
are therefore morally false. If something
belongs to another person, it doesn't
belong to me. If I say that it belongs to
me, I have to prove it. And when, as in
the case of Holocaust money, it cannot be
proven, a compromise based on healthy
human intellect must be reached that is
rational and acceptable." "There is thus no relationship
whatsoever," he went on, "between what the
banks owe the Jews and what the World
Jewish Congress has demanded and
received." He expressed concern that the
amount of the "global settlement" suggests
that Europe's Jews in the late 1930s and
early 1940s were much more wealthy than
was actually the case. Hilberg
singled out World Jewish Congress
president Edgar M. Bronfman for
pointed criticism: "I cannot stress
enough that the man who heads the World
Jewish Congress does not speak for me.
His family has one and half billion
dollars. If he really wanted to, he
could help a few poor survivors with
money from his own vest pocket." Hilberg also spoke about the problem of
false Holocaust witness testimony,
specifically citing the widely-praised
memoir of "survivor" Benjamin
Wilkomirski as a fabrication. (See
"Holocaust Survivor Memoir Exposed as
Fraud," Sept.-Oct. 1998 IHR
Journal, pp. 15-16.) Said Hilberg: "This
is indeed a problem of Holocaust research:
people often make use of survivor
testimony. It's the primary literature.
But one must be very careful, because
testimonies are often mistaken, memories
can deceive, and some things are
suppressed." | 
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