SENATE RESOLUTION No. 71

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED NOVEMBER 25, 1996

 

 

By Senator SINGER

 

 

A Senate Resolution calling on the President and the Congress of the United States to undertake all appropriate actions to encourage the Swiss government to take certain actions concerning unclaimed bank accounts of Holocaust victims.

 

Whereas, During the horrific period when the Nazis ruled Europe, many Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe saw Switzerland as the only safe haven for their assets because of Switzerland's neutrality and Switzerland's banking secrecy laws; and

Whereas, As a result of the Holocaust, many of the accounts established in Swiss banks were dormant after the end of World War II; and

Whereas, In 1962 Switzerland set up a system in which any money found in dormant accounts on which no claim had been made for five years and thought to belong to Holocaust victims was put into a special government account to be used to support charitable organizations; and

Whereas, The world has recently become aware of the probable misuse of those funds to compensate Swiss citizens for property expropriated by former communits regimes in Eastern Europe; and

Whereas, Every effort should be made to assure that surviving family members of Holocaust victims receive the money in dormant accounts that is legitimately and properly theirs; and

Whereas, In those instances in which no surviving members come forward or can be located, the monies in those accounts should be used to help Holocaust survivors throughout the world who are indigent and in need of financial assistance; and

Whereas, The President of the United States and the Congress of the United States should undertake all appropriate actions to encourage the government of Switzerland to establish a fund consisting of those unclaimed monies and to make those monies available to Holocaust survivors throughout the world who are indigent and in need of financial assistance; now, therefore,

 

    Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. This House calls upon the President of the United States and the Congress of the United States to undertake all appropriate actions to encourage the government of Switzerland to establish a fund consisting of the monies in any unclaimed accounts in Swiss banks belonging to victims of the Holocaust and to make those monies available to Holocaust survivors throughout the world who are indigent and in need of financial assistance.

 

    2. Duly authenticated copies of this resolution, signed by the President of the Senate and attested by the Secretary thereof, shall be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of both Houses, and every member elected to the Congress from this State.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This resolution calls upon the President of the United States and the Congress of the United States to undertake all appropriate actions to encourage the government of Switzerland to establish a fund consisting of the monies in any unclaimed accounts in Swiss banks belonging to victims of the Holocaust and to make those monies available to Holocaust survivors throughout the world who are indigent and in need of financial assistance.

 

 

                             

 

Calls upon President and Congress to undertake all appropriate actions to encourage Swiss government to take certain actions concerning unclaimed bank accounts of Holocaust victims.