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On Feb. 4, the U.S., Britain and France froze the distribution of $68 million in gold bars they still hold from the Nazi hoard. It is the last portion of the spoils retrieved by the Allies after the war and was supposed to be parceled out to the remaining nations that claim it. Bronfman advised Clinton to suspend any action until the three Allies decide whether this gold--symbolically at least--was melted down from private Jewish assets rather than national treasuries and should be given to Holocaust victims.
When the Big Three Swiss banks finally announced the Holocaust Memorial Fund on Feb. 5, reaction in the U.S. was tepid. "It's an important step," said D'Amato, "but nowhere near enough." Singer cautiously praised the decision as "a new sign of entente cordiale," but the World Jewish Congress considers the amount far too low. D'Amato was outraged that the Swiss wanted to manage the assets. "Why do you think the Swiss came forward," he said, "because of the generosity of their heart and spirit, or because they realize there could be damaging consequences if they continue their intransigence?"
The "war" will not end easily. D'Amato, riding a highly popular issue that has helped boost his standing in the polls, is already agitating to reopen the terms of the 1946 tripartite gold treaty, arguing that the Swiss lied about the much vaster sums they actually held. And the U.S. Administration doesn't rule it out.
Nor is D'Amato much moved by critics like Rolf Bloch, the main spokesman for Switzerland's 18,000 Jews. "We are Jews in a Swiss way," says Bloch. "We don't want to blame all the Swiss or put them under assault." A Jewish lawyer in Zurich representing 20 people seeking information on wartime accounts considers D'Amato's and Bronfman's tactics counterproductive. "So aggressive, so hostile," he says. "This banging on the head is wrong, and it has provoked reaction. Now we are seeing signs of anti-Semitism in Switzerland."
Bronfman is not swayed by criticism either. "If we did not put pressure on them, nothing would have happened," he says flatly. "I think about it. But Jews do not make anti-Semitism. Anti-Semites make anti-Semitism. If we are going to give them an excuse to yell at Jews, O.K. But there is a moral issue here," he says with grave passion, "and the issue is truth."
As Switzerland's Bloch reminds, there is "no Ali Baba cave under the Swiss National Bank, filled with gold and jewels." The dormant accounts will probably yield little cash, and how will anyone know how much of the $68 million in Nazi gold the Allies have left was taken from Jews rather than from national treasuries? Whatever money is eventually deemed to belong to the Jews will never be more than a tiny fraction of what was taken so viciously from them. Something akin to the truth may well be all that is left to solace them.
--Reported by Cathy Booth/Palm Springs, William Dowell and Elaine Rivera/New York and Adam Zagorin/Washington