Forced Generosity

BERN, Switzerland: In a proposal that should please Jewish advocates without satisfying them, Swiss president Arnold Koller asked Parliament to establish a $5 billion fund to aid, among others, victims of the Holocaust and their families. The Swiss Foundation for Solidarity, to be set up in the coming year, would use proceeds from Swiss gold reserves that could produce several hundred million dollars a year, all while avoiding the use of Swiss taxpayers' money, an idea that is anathema to many conservatives. But Koller was careful to characterize the fund as a broad humanitarian measure--not a reparation. The money, he said, would help "victims of poverty and catastrophes, of genocide and other severe breeches of human rights such as, of course, victims of the Holocaust." Such vagueness is sure to raise eyebrows among Jewish leaders wondering just what their share is meant to be. But TIME's Bruce Crumley says it was a compromise Koller had to make. "There's obviously a lot of political pressure that such a fund is seen not as an admission of guilt," he said. "After denying the missing funds all along, the banks have just recently called this an oversight. They don't want to go any further." The proposed fund would be in addition to a humanitarian fund already set up by local Swiss banks and to ongoing private fund-raising efforts. Many conservatives in the Swiss parliament feel their country has done quite enough already. But Crumley guesses that despite some inevitable opposition, the fund will "have to pass" in one form or another. "There's just too much anxiety among the Swiss at seeing their image as a "neutral" nation going right out the window," he said. "Investigations are turning up more and more evidence of collusion, even conspiracy, reaching an uncomfortably high level in Swiss society." To expectant Jewish and international groups, those fears should be worth a fund or two.