Switzerland
Switzerland has a federal constitution under which the twenty cantons
and six half-cantons retain considerable autonomy. The president of the
confederation is elected every year from among the seven members of the
Conseil Fédéral (Switzerland's government). The governmental
coalition consists of the Christlichdemokratische Volkspartei der Schweiz/Parti
démocrate chrétien suisse (CVP/PDC, Christian Democratic Party),
the Sozial Demokratische Partei der Schweiz/Parti socialiste suisse (SDP/PSS,
Social Democratic Party), the Frei-sinnig-Demokratische Partei der Schweiz/Parti
radical-démocratique suisse (FDP/PRD, Radical Democratic Party) and
the Schweizerische Volkspartei/Parti suisse de l'union démocratique
du centre (SVP/UDC, Swiss People's Party).
Smaller political parties, such as the far-right Schweizer Demokraten/Démocrates
suisses (SD/DS, Swiss Democrats, formerly Nationale Aktion) have capitalized
on and nourished the growing xenophobic climate, particularly in the German
part of Switzerland, where they try to attract the right-wing vote. The
SVP/UDC, of which Christoph Blocher is the spokesman, has played a prominent
role in a campaign continuously based on reducing immigration and the number
of foreigners (19.6 per cent of the population).
The economy further deteriorated in 1996, in an atmosphere of crisis and
despondency marked by a steep rise in unemployment, which slightly exceeded
5 per cent. Gross domestic product remained stable for the first time since
the 1950s.
During 1996 there were a number of developments concerning the search for
assets left in Swiss banks by Jewish victims of the Holocaust, which generated
a great deal of publicity, particularly in Switzerland, the United Kingdom,
the United States and Israel. In February the Swiss Bankers' Association
(SBA) reported on its search for accounts set up before 1945 of which no
one had claimed ownership for at least ten years. The SBA said it had located
only about $32 million in unclaimed accounts, but this figure was disputed
by Jewish groups, who suggested up to $7 billion might be held by the banks.
As a result a Swiss parliamentary committee was set up, which decided in
March that no legislation was required but that the issue needed further
investigation.
In April, the United States Senate Banking Committee announced that it would
instigate an inquiry into Swiss banks' holdings of assets of Holocaust victims.
Hans J. Baer, a director of the SBA, told the committee that his association
and the World Jewish Congress (WJC) would form a commission to look into
the matter. An agreement was signed in May between the WJC, World Jewish
Restitution Organisation and the SBA, which paved the way for a commission
to arrange for an independent audit of Swiss banks to determine Jewish assets
from this period.
In October, the International Committee of Eminent Persons (headed by Paul
Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman) set out the terms of reference
for its inquiry. The auditors appointed were to be asked to discover whether
the banks illegally disguised the accounts in previous probes to avoid handing
over proceeds to their rightful owners. Swiss banks agreed to lift the veil
of bank secrecy temporarily because of the unprecedented international criticism
they had faced over the issue.
The Swiss banking ombudsman reported in August that he had received around
2,200 inquiries about dormant accounts since the beginning of the year.
In November he said he had only found $8,750 in dormant bank accounts linked
to Nazi Holocaust victims, but his reliance on banks to investigate their
own accounts was criticized by the WJC as being inadequate.
In September the United Kingdom foreign office reported that Switzerland
had turned over to the Allies only a small part of the Nazi gold it bought
during the Second World War. The report, based on UK archival material,
was the first governmental review of Switzerland's economic ties with the
Nazis. Initially the United Kingdom claimed that Switzerland had gold worth
$500 million, but in January 1997 the foreign office admitted that the report
had confused US dollars with Swiss francs and the figure should have been
SFr. 500 million, around four times less than originally reported.
The lower house of the Swiss parliament approved legislation in November
for a commission of inquiry into the nation's financial dealings with Nazi
Germany. The legislation proposed that the commission of independent financial
and legal experts should be given the power to temporarily lift banking
secrecy during its five-year inquiry. In November, parliament's upper house
added a clause to protect the identities of people named in the study, but
the amendment was withdrawn in December, paving the way for the federal
decree to be passed by both houses.
In December the government announced that it was going to ask parliament
to set up a fund for Jewish and charitable groups from unclaimed Swiss bank
accounts.
Switzerland's Jews were the last in Western Europe to acquire complete
emancipation; the 1848 Swiss constitution was amended in 1866, giving Jews
civic and legal equality, and again in 1874, granting them freedom of religious
expression, except in Argau/Argovie canton, where they had to wait until
1879 to obtain their rights.
In 1933 and 1935 the Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund/Fédération
suisse des communautés israélites (Swiss Federation of Jewish
Communities) took legal action against the distribution of The Protocols
of the Elders of Zion and Henry Ford's The Inter-national Jew .
During the Second World War, more than 30,000 refugees, mostly Jews, were
refused asylum by the Swiss authorities and were forced to return to Austria,
Germany, Italy or France. The cost of upkeep of the 24,000 Jews who were
accepted, mostly for a short time towards the end of the war, was imposed
on the Swiss Jewish community. This information came to light in 1994, when
the Swiss government finally granted historians access to wartime files
on Jewish immigration.
The period from 1945 to the end of the 1970s saw only isolated incidents
of public antisemitism. Christian and Jewish organizations united to fight
all forms of xenophobia.
In 1978-9 the screening of the American television series Holocaust was
followed by the desecration of cemeteries, and the daubing of graffiti and
arson attacks on synagogues in Basel and Zurich. Apart from the activities
of some small neo-Nazi groups, antisemitic incidents during the 1980s occurred
in Switzerland mainly as a reaction to events in the Middle East. The 1982
Lebanon War brought about a new wave of anti-Jewish manifestations that
subsided shortly afterwards.
In autumn 1992, however, following the events in the German town of Rostock,
there was a marked increase in incidents.
In December, a constitutional initiative put forward by Christoph Blocher,
spokesman for the Zurich nationalistic wing of the SVP/UDC (see GENERAL
BACKGROUND), to reduce the number of foreigners and refugees in the country
was rejected.
New legislation implemented in 1995, which allows the imprisonment of asylum-seekers
and illegal immigrants from the age of fifteen for up to a year without
trial, was severely criticized by the Tribunal Fédéral (supreme
court) on a number of occasions. About 7,000 foreigners have nevertheless
spent time in jail in 1996 on account of that law.
Following the use of the slogan "Aren't you too fed up with the unstopped
immigration of fake asylum-claimants and Tamil-tourists?" during the
October 1995 Nationalratswahlen (parliamentary elections), two politicians
from the Freiheitspartei der Schweiz/Parti suisse de la liberté (Freedom
Party of Switzerland) were fined SFr. 500 in March 1996 by the magistrates
court of St Gallen, for contravening the anti-racist law. Charges had been
filed by a member of the Alternative Partei. The Freiheitspartei der Schweiz
was formerly known as the Autopartie (Automobile Party) and began as a movement
to protect the rights of car drivers.
The far-right activist Jürg Künzli, the leading ideologue of the
Volkssozialistische Partei, (People's Socialist Party) was accused in April
of blackmail, threatening abuse and calling for violence. He supposedly
sent letters to a number of journalists and politicians with "positive
attitudes towards foreigners". The date of his trial has not yet been
fixed.
Most far-right organizations in Switzerland are small, fragmented and
locally based, with rarely more than a handful of members. A study, Rechtsextremismus
in der Schweitz (Far-Right Extremism in Switzerland) commissioned by
Arnold Koller, then head of the federal department of justice and police,
and conducted in 1995, estimated the total number of active members of the
far right to be between 300 and 400. Many of the organizations are short-lived;
examples would include: Cercles Thulé, Proudhon, Avalon and the Amis
de Robert Brasillach, all of whom were linked by the involvement of the
Geneva lawyer Pascal Junod. The groups have been dormant since 1994 with
the exception of Cercles Thulé, which was revived in October 1996
and holds private meetings in the suburbs of Geneva. However, there has
been a worrying tendency for new, more militant, groups to replace their
predecessors.
National Koordination/Coordination Nationale (National Coordination), led
by veteran antisemite Gaston-Armand Amaudruz from Lausanne, remained the
main umbrella organization for far-right groups in 1996. Since its creation
in 1983 National Koordination has served as a meeting-point for traditional
fascists, Holocaust-deniers, racists and skinheads. Today, however, younger
neo-Nazis tend to see National Koordination as an "old men's club".
For many years Amaudruz was also the soul of Le Nouvel Ordre Européen,
which was founded in 1951, making it one of the oldest far-right organizations
in Western Europe. Since the beginning of the 1970s the group has lost much
of its influence. Amaudruz is the author of racist and antisemitic books
and articles, and publishes a monthly magazine, Courrier du Continent.
This magazine has a limited distribution and is available by subscription
only. Amaudruz, who was prosecuted in 1995 for violations of new anti-racist
legislation, appeared in court again in 1996 as the proceedings continued
(see LEGAL MATTERS). Nevertheless, he continued during the year to distribute
racist and antisemitic literature, including Die Auschwitz-Lüge
(The Auschwitz Lie) by Thies Christophersen (see LEGAL MATTERS and Denmark).
The number of skinheads in Switzerland appears to have grown in recent years
but may be as few as 300 persons. The most significant group is perhaps
the Schweizer HammerSkins (SHS, Swiss Hammerskins), active in the cantons
of Luzern/Lucerne, Zurich, Thurgau/Thurgovie and, to a lesser extent, Vaud.
Members of this group, who dress entirely in black, are inspired by the
Hammerskin groups in the USA (see page 49). Their ideology is racist and
antisemitic. Their publications act as a vehicle to advertise skinhead events,
and in 1996 they announced their plans for an Internet home page. In May
1996 the police seized 1,000 antisemitic stickers from members of the group
in Thurgau/Thurgovie. There were no arrests.
The Vereinigung gegen Tierfabriken (VgT, Association Against Animal Factories),
led by Erwin Kessler, was among the organizations that campaigned against
the new anti-racist legislation passed in 1995. Kessler is also an unrelenting
opponent of shekhita (Jewish religious slaughter of animals). In
1996 the VgT continued to publish its quarterly newsletter, Tierschutz
Nachrichten (Animal Protection News), from its Tuttwill base (Thurgau).
A number of complaints have been lodged against Kessler in past years. In
March 1995 Kessler, in a publicity stunt, lodged a complaint against himself;
and in May 1996 a Zurich lawyer and former head of the Jewish community
filed charges. The dates of the trials are yet to be set.
None of the political parties that form the governmental coalition tolerates
antisemitism, although individual members may participate in racist or antisemitic
events. The populist Schweizer Demokraten/Démocrates suisses (SD/DS,
Swiss Democrats) and members of the Freiheitspartei der Schweiz (see RACISM
AND XENOPHOBIA) have in the past associated with members of the far right
and skinhead groups. However, they were not involved in antisemitic activities
during 1996.
In January 1997, economics minister Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, who held Switzerland's
rotating presidency until the end of 1996, apologized for having labelled
as "blackmail" demands from Jewish groups for compensation for
Holocaust victims.
In the same month, the Swiss ambassador to the United States, Carlo Jagmetti,
resigned after a confidential memorandum containing comments about Jewish
groups was leaked to the Swiss newspaper Sonntags Zeitung. The memo
described the problems faced by Switzerland in relation to the claims for
compensation arising from Swiss bank accounts from the Nazi period and the
action required to deal with those claims. Jagmetti was reported to have
told the foreign minister that Switzerland was engaged in a "war"
that must be won "on the foreign and domestic front", adding,
"You cannot trust most of our adversaries".
Since 1993 there has been a downward trend in the number of serious antisemitic incidents and this continued in 1996. No violence against individual Jews, or against Jewish institutions, was recorded in 1996. However, anonymous antisemitic letters were addressed to Jews and Jewish communities, and antisemitic graffiti and stickers were frequently sighted, particularly in the Swiss German cantons. Most antisemitic activity was to be found in far-right publications (see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA).
Despite the implementation of new anti-racist legislation in 1995, antisemitic
books and texts were still on sale in bookshops all over the country, or
were available by mail order. In some cases, legal proceedings were undertaken
and sentences passed, but not executed, pending a final decision from the
courts of appeal (see LEGAL MATTERS).
A number of books with antisemitic content are tailored to suit the needs
of an esoteric clientele. One such example is Geheim Gesselchaften und
ihre Macht im 20. Jahrhundert (Secret Societies and Their Power in the
20th Century) by Jan van Helsing, which is published in Germany (see Germany).
Four complaints were filed in Swiss courts in March (see LEGAL MATTERS).
Similar publications available in 1996 were Aron Monus's Verschwörung:
Das Reich von Nietzsche (Conspiracy: Nietzsche's Reich), which blames
the Jews for the Holocaust and claims that Hitler was manipulated by the
Jewish Freemasons, and the works of former Austrian priest Johannes Rothkranz.
All were distributed by Emil Rahm. Rahm, an entrepreneur from Schaffhausen,
publishes the bi-monthly newspaper Memopress , which has in the past
published antisemitic articles and regularly contains lists of antisemitic
publications. Two complaints against Rahm were filed in August 1996: one
by a Zurich lawyer, the other by a Schaffhausen jurist. Both complainants
are representing themselves. Investigations were still in preliminary stages
at the beginning of 1997.
Antisemitic magazines and journals published and available in Switzerland
include Recht+Freiheit (Law+Freedom) and the German-language Euronews.
Recht+Freiheit , a review first published in Basel in 1995 by Ernst
Indlekofer, is distributed by Pressclub Schweiz, which hosts many Swiss
antisemitic writers. The antisemitic Euronews is published in Geneva
by Alfred Künzli and is distributed free of charge.
In April a book by Sami Aldeeb, a Swiss jurist of Christian Palestinian
origin, was published in Lausanne, attacking Jews for ritual circumcision
and comparing it to the practice of female clitorectomy.
New publications from the Neue-Visionen-Verlag (see HOLOCAUST DENIAL) included
a history of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and a publication
by the German Erich Glagau on the Babylonian Talmud.
Zeiten Schrift , a quarterly published by two members of the Universale Kirche (Universal Chuch), Ursula and Benjamin Seiler-Spelman, continued to make antisemitic references in 1996.
Although it at first appeared that the implementation of new anti-racist
legislation (January 1995) had restricted the publishing activities of Swiss
Holocaust-deniers, in fact material continued to circulate unabated in 1996.
Despite previous convictions, the main offenders continued to be Jürgen
Graf, Andreas Studer, Arthur Vogt and Bernhard Schaub. Graf, who in August
1995 was convicted and sentenced to one year's imprisonment on probation
by a German court, remained free during the year, pending appeal. Graf appears
to be taunting his convictors, and it was reported that he sent copies of
his latest work to the prosecuting attorney in the Mannheim court in Germany.
Graf's writings were distributed in 1996 by the far-right publishing houses
Neue-Visionen-Verlag (New Visions Publishing House) and Arbeitsgemeinschaft
zur Erforschung der Zeitgeschichte (AEZ, Institute for Historical Research).
They were also available at the Schweizerisches Buchzentrum.
The Neue-Visionen-Verlag has a history of circulating Swiss-produced, as
well as international, Holocaust-denial material. Shareholders in the company
include former Nazis, for example seventy-five-year-old former Wehrmacht
member Gerhard Förster. Förster has been investigated for his
associations with Graf and, in April 1996, was indicted for distri-buting
Holocaust-denial material and violating article 261 of the Swiss penal code.
No date has been set for his trial.
The AEZ was established in 1994 and publishes the Holocaust-denial journal
Aurora . Contributers include Graf, Studer, Vogt and Schaub. Graf is
reported to have personally sent the latest issue of Aurora to the
Jewish newspaper Jüdische Rundshau.
There appear to be increasing international connections between Holocaust-deniers.
Graf is known to co-operate with other far-right deniers in Sweden, Belgium
and Austria. He regularly posts his views on the Internet, on the home page
of Swedish Holocaust-denier Ahmed Rami (see Sweden) as well as on the Bürgerforum
Europa (Citizens' Forum Europe) home page, run by Austrian neo-Nazis Bürgerschutz
Österreich (Citizens' Protection Austria) (see
Austria).
According to a 1994 public opinion survey by the Vox research institute,
12 per cent of the Swiss people thought that Jews were too influential,
and a quarter of the electorate was receptive to the ideas of the far right.
The results of a more recent study, conducted for the daily newspaper Le
Matin , found that the Swiss population was divided regarding perception
of antisemitism in the country: 43 per cent of Swiss were "anxious"
about the level of antisemitism in the country, while 46 per cent found
it to be only a "minor problem"; 44 per cent of the respondents
thought that Switzerland should have done more to help the victims of the
Holocaust after the Second World War.
The law against racism, ethnic or religious discrimination and Holocaust
denial that came into effect in January 1995 was applied by a tribunal
de police in the district of Neuchâtel in June. The tribunal is
presided over by a judge, with two assistants and no jury. The tribunal
passed a twenty-day suspended prison sentence on two skinheads who had written
about Nazi death camps and a Jewish conspiracy in the skinhead magazine
Mjölnir.
There were other cases in different parts of the country, notably for the
use of racist and antisemitic expressions in the public sphere. But legal
proceedings on matters related to antisemitism appear to proceed slowly.
Two important lawsuits are on-going and should be brought to a conclusion
in 1997.
The first is the case against Gaston-Armand Amaudruz (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS,
MOVEMENTS) in court in Lausanne. Complaints were filed against Amaudruz
by the Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme
(LICRA, International League against Racism and Antisemitism) and the Federation
of Swiss-Jewish Communities. He has been charged with racism, antisemitism
and Holocaust denial under article 261 of the Swiss penal code. The date
for the opening of the trial was expected to be announced in early 1997.
The second major lawsuit is against Aldo Ferraglia, a Montreux bookseller,
who is charged with distribution of Holocaust-denial literature. The attorney
general of the Canton de Vaud has taken personal charge of the case and
the trial is expected to start in March 1997. As a result of this lawsuit,
all books of the French philosopher and Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy (see
France) were seized from Ferraglia's bookshop and, following a warning from
the examining judge, have been withdrawn from other shops and libraries
in the area.
In January, Thies Christophersen, a former Nazi SS officer and author of
Die Auschwitz Lüge (The Auschwitz Lie, see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS,
MOVEMENTS), was expelled from Bienne in central Switzerland. Following the
refusal of the head of police of the unit dealing with "foreigners"
to issue Christophersen with a residence permit, Christophersen was required
by local and federal police to leave the country at the end of 1995. Christophersen
died in Germany in February 1997.
Four complaints were filed in Swiss courts in March concerning the book
Geheim Gesellschaften (see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA). Two were lodged
in the cantons of Thurgau and Zug, a third in Basel by the Jewish community
against the Jäggi bookshop, and a fourth in Zurich by a legal expert
against a bookshop in Nuremberg (Germany) that had allegedly offered copies
of the book to participants of the World Congress on UFOs (Zurich). The
police confiscated all the volumes of the book held by Jäggi in November.
A magistrate in Winterthur (Zurich canton) ordered an inquiry into the further
activities of Max Wahl in May following a complaint by a Zurich lawyer.
Wahl was convicted of incitement in 1995, and had apparently ceased to write
and publish the monthly Eidgenoss (Swiss Citizen), once the most
notorious Swiss far-right, Holocaust-denying and antisemitic publication.
The Swiss group Aktion Kinder des Holocaust (Children of the Holocaust Action
Group) filed charges in May and July against a number of shops selling the
music of the German pop band the Böhsen Onkelz (Angry Uncles) and a
second group, Tod im Juni (Death in June). Due to the racist nature of some
of the lyrics of these bands, the shops are accused of propagating racist
views.
In July, the president of the tribunal of Büren an der Aare (Bern canton)
imposed suspended four-month prison sentences on two young mechanics for
publicly using phrases like "Turks out" and "Jewish swine".
Also in July, Reimer Peters, a German citizen and head of the European Chapter
of the Universale Kirche (Universal Church), located at Walzenhausen (Argau/Argovie),
received a suspended four-month prison sentence and a SFr. 5,000 fine for
antisemitic remarks, which he had included in a letter to the 200-300 Swiss
members of the church. He appealed against the sentence.
Berne journalist Urs Frieden organized a campaign aimed at combating
racism on the football scene. During the 1995-6 season, players of the junior
Berne football club were sponsored to wear shirts with the slogan "Together
Against Racism" during matches.
Anti-racist agencies worked actively in 1996; as a result of positive publicity
and many visitors, educational projects such as the Anne Frank exhibition
were also successful.
In September, the Swiss government pledged SFr. 1 million to two Jewish
groups in connection with its formal apology in 1995 for turning back Jewish
refugees from Nazi persecution. The money was to be paid both to an Israeli
organization that provides psycholo-gical counselling to Holocaust survivors
and towards repairs at the Auschwitz camps.
Antisemitism continues to be condemned by all the mainstream political
parties and the gen-eral media in Switzerland. However, anti-semitic groups,
mainly in German-speaking Switzerland, continue to produce and distribute
antisemitic propaganda, including Holocaust-denial material, without hindrance.
Lawsuits are still to produce a dissuasive effect, but this is expected
in 1997.
The relative weakness of the far right in Switzerland has been attributed
by political scientists to the fact that some of its "values"for
example, a strong stance against foreignershave been adopted by the "bourgeois"
parties.
The new information brought to light in 1996 over "Swiss gold",
the assets left in Swiss banks by Jewish victims of the Holocaust (see GENERAL
BACKGROUND), has dominated the national and international media. Throughout
the year the Swiss government made attempts to restore and retain its reputation,
both of its neutrality during the Second World War and currently as a safe
and honest banking power. It was expected by some Jewish organizations that
this perceived damage to the country's reputation, coupled with the high
profile of Jewish issues in the media, would lead to an increase in antisemitic
incidents in Switzerland. However, in 1996 this prediction was not fulfilled,
and it is too early to say whether it will be the case in the coming year,
given the fact that the debate over "Swiss gold" is certain to
continue for some time yet.
© JPR 1997