I hear you to a degree, but what exactly is happening with that situation? I mean it's tricky isn't it? but what exactly is happening? It seems like the banks are just saying they don't have to hand over any assets? You're over there, I'm curious?
Reality is it might never get sorted, because it's a horrid bureaucratic mess. I'm just guessing here, but they would want proof that the money was from said family before releasing it etc.
Well, the thing is, the big disclosure was quite a few years ago. Since then it's left public attention a bit. Back then they appointed a committee of historians to work out what happened during the war and everyone was outraged and ashamed when they heard the results. The banks agreed to cooperate because they were suffering immensely from the whole thing, image-wise.
Some very dubios american lawyers that filed the class action got stinking rich. Lots of jewish families are still waiting for what they claimed. To be fair, it's a mess to sort out, cause many accounts didn't have any names or other information that might help you track down people, it was just secret numbers. So if they were lucky, someone in the family still knew a number like that...the rest is very badly documented, afaik.
The banks said their mea culpas...now handing out the money, that's a different thing, but as you said, it's not that easy to sort out...
Banks do have a lot of influence here, same as insurances and others...but then again, show me a country with politics without lobbying...The secrecy thing, it's getting more and more eroded, and rightly so, but they're clinging on to it (same as luxembourg and some others, btw...). now afaik all that's left is that they don't disclose data about people who're evading taxes, and there too only in some cases (they distinguish between 2 types of tax evasion and only pass on information to foreign governments on one type, even though that's pretty silly).
First off, you need to get more educated on the history and current practices of your adopted country.
oh please do educate me and let me partake in your wisdom. I wonder where you got your knowledge from. I got mine from living here for 27 years and studying the countries laws and political system...
My comments about the Swiss and their interesting Banking practices have as much to do with current practices as they do with what happened 60+ years ago.
come on, that jewish gold teeth comment was just a cheap shot and a joke. not that I mind that much, but have the decency to admit that, at least...
omfg. Alleged forefathers? Again, the forefathers are guilty.
1.alleged forefathers: the ones you say are my forefathers.
2. you throw around accusations very easily...banks are important here, but again, how many people do you think actually had anything to do with that? Many others saved lots of jews, helping them cross the border. Many others yet again thought the only chance of surviving was to cooperate with the germans to a certain degree (if you look it up on a map you'll notice how switzerland is stuck between italy, germany, austria and france, putting it in a bit of a delicate position. Not that this justifies everything, but don't you think it's rather cheap and comfortable to pass harsh judgment from afar, and 60+ years later?)
The current crop of Swiss citizens continue the crimes of their forefathers by not demanding that their government order each and every Bank in Switzerland to open up all their records and give back the goods
.
You're disqualifying yourself, cause that's what they did...now, if you're expecting them to spend all their lives as activists for this cause, I think you're expecations are a bit unfair...
I need to smack myself upside the head to make sure I just read that correctly, and that I'm not dreaming. omfg. I would have used Slavery as my 'go to' American crime, but whatever. The atomic bombs, omfg.
it does go rather well with the original subject of this thread, don't you think? I know it's a popular myth in the USA that it was the right thing to do, end the war, save millions of other lives, blablabla, but boy, it takes a lot of stomach to eradicate so many civilians like that....
feel free to smack your head all you like, though, maybe it helps...of course, there'd be plenty other crimes to name, Americans, French, British, everyone, with 3000+ years of written history to look back on its hard to find anyone who never fucked up....that's not the point, the point is that it's very questionable to judge people by what their grandparents might have been a part of...
Based on the number of people that claim that their grandparents were innocent during WWII, you'd think that it was all just a dream, lol. Priceless. I believe you, though. Really. *wink wink*
ROFLMAO. so you think every swiss has some jews teeth hidden in their safe? Of course, and spaniards have a bullfight arena in their backyard and the french live off frogs' legs and camembert....More importantly though, maybe you should work on your reading skills, since earlier on I elaborated on how I'm spanish. my parents came here in the seventies. And unfortunately my families weren't wealthy enough to have a bank account in switzerland before that. Not that I care who you think was innocent or not, lol...
And to think that all this time I thought it was my severe acne, big ears, and the white tape holding the middle of the my glasses together that made me look stupid. Go figure!
naw, that might make you look butt-ugly, but what makes you look stupid is what comes out of your (figurative) mouth...
