Property Restitution Like Switzerland Like Poland Codevilla

Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and the Rewriting of History, by Angelo M. Codevilla. 2000

Like Switzerland (1990s) Like Poland (2018): Tactics of the Holocaust Industry—Valuable Lessons for Today

I focus on the machinations of the Holocaust Industry, as described in this 2000 book, and then relate them to current events surrounding Poland (Summer 2018).

MEDIA DISTORTIONS OF HISTORY SERVE THE HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY

Author Codevilla writes, “During the war, Allied economic warriors used to jest that the Swiss worked six days a week for the Axis, and on the seventh day prayed for an Allied victory. They could jest because they knew reality well. But between 1995 and 1999, a publicity campaign orchestrated by the Clinton administration in conjunction with Edgar Bronfman, billionaire owner of a liquor and media empire, so caricatured the role of Switzerland in World War II that it led those unfamiliar with the realities of war to some dangerously wrong conclusions about how the world works.” (p. ix-x).

“The anti-Swiss campaign is as good an example as any. Reporters, editors, and the few who paid attention to the campaign failed to understand that they were being manipulated, in part because they were ignorant of history and of how nations deal with one another when they are serious.” (p. xi).

APPLICATION TO POLAND TODAY

The ignorance about Poland, in the media, is likewise astonishing. The crucial CONTEXT of Polish conduct—occurring under a powerful, brutal Nazi German occupant—is overlooked or treated as a sideshow to Jewish suffering.

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MORAL BLACKMAIL: DEMONIZING THE INTENDED TARGET OF THE HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY

“New discoveries showed that Switzerland had really been an ally of Nazi Germany, that the Swiss people shared culpability for the Holocaust, and that Swiss banks had stolen the assets of murdered Jews. Of course there was not a shred of new information in all of this.” (p. x).

APPLICATION TO POLAND TODAY

We hear such media gems, totally unburdened by historical fact, as “Polish death camps” and Polish “consent” for the Nazi Germans to build their death camps and—failing that—of some mystical and undefined “Polish complicity in the Holocaust”. We even hear fantastic, made up numbers—all those “200,000 fugitive Jews killed or denounced by Poles”. To add to the mix, we even hear some Jews saying that, “The Poles were worse than the Germans.”

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FALSELY EQUATING COERCED NAZI-COMPLIANT BEHAVIOR WITH NAZI COLLABORATION

“They should have known better than to accept uncritically a documentary showing munitions rolling off Swiss assembly lines while the voice professed shock, shock, that a self-proclaimed neutral country could have sold munitions to the Nazis. Anyone schooled in international affairs would have noted that the documentary never revealed that the Swiss were surrounded, and utterly bereft of the coal and oil they needed to sustain their army and to keep from starving and freezing. The Germans alone decided how much fuel the Swiss would get, at what price, and what they would accept in exchange. Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich would not be satisfied with chocolate. What were the alternatives to selling precision instruments and munitions? How much could Switzerland shave from the amount that Germany demanded?” (p. xi).

APPLICATION TO POLAND TODAY

Switzerland was surrounded by Nazi Germany: Poland was conquered and brutally occupied by Nazi Germany. The German-appointed and German-directed Blue Police (POLICJA GRANATOWA) was under strict German orders and under German supervision. And yet the JUDENJAGD (hunt for the Jews) is treated, by the media, as some kind of freely-chosen Nazi-collaborating act, moreover based on “long-standing Catholic-based anti-Semitism”. It most certainly was neither of these. It was a forced concession to raw German power, pure and simple.

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LIKE SWITZERLAND LIKE POLAND: CANNED COMPLAINTS ABOUT “NOT SAVING ENOUGH JEWS”

“A sterile debate followed over whether the Swiss people had saved enough Jews.” (p. xi).
“How dare Americans blame Switzerland failing to take more Jewish refugees when Switzerland took more than America?” (p. 205).

APPLICATION TO POLAND TODAY

How many times have we been reminded that, the Yad Vashem awards notwithstanding, “very few” (or, better yet, “too few”) Poles actually rescued Jews?

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THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT ENLISTED FOR PURPOSES OF HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY SHAKEDOWNS

“This campaign was significant in itself: A powerful private party induced officials of the United States, as well as the American legal system, to force foreigners who do business here to pay a huge bribe. Public officials served private interests without any legislative body taking a single vote, any executive official making a decision for which he might be held accountable, any court pronouncing a judgment or even ruling on the admissibility of evidence. This is another example of America’s continuing movement away from the rule of law, as well as from a serious foreign policy.” (p. x).

“Why should the Swiss people have paid any attention to these demands, much less felt the need to comply? Because behind the demands was the threatening insistence of the Clinton administration. The threat was first delivered by Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat…”(p. 7).

APPLICATION TO POLAND TODAY

And now, nearly 75 years after the events of WWII, the U. S. Government and Congress are once again sitting in judgment of the history of another sovereign state—Poland. This time it is by recently passing, moreover by a farcical voice vote, Act S. 447, by interfering with the Polish legislation, and by insisting on unlawful transfer of the so called “heirless property” (although it is not heirless at all) to self-appointed Jewish organizations.

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THE FOREIGN-SUPPORTED LOCAL POLITICAL LEFT SUPPORTS THE HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY

“The Eizenstat report also takes up the CHEVAUX DE BATAILLE that extreme leftists in Switzerland had been trying to ride ever since the war…Ever since, these marginalized leftist intellectuals have tried to delegitimize their country’s social order by tarring it with nothing less than guilt for collaborating with the Holocaust.” (p. 13).

“And how dare America take sides with Swiss individuals of the radical left against their fellow citizens?” (p. 206).

APPLICATION TO POLAND TODAY

In like manner, the LEWACTWO, supported by foreign interests and foreign monies (e. g, George Soros) keeps harping on “Polish anti-Semitism”, exclusively blaming Poles for everything negative in past and present Polish-Jewish relations, making neo-Stalinist Jan T. Gross a hero, attacking the PiS government, etc. The LEWAKS have even come out in support of the mendacious “Polish death camp” construct.

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HOLOCAUST-INDUSTRY SHAKEDOWNS: WHY CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS

Class-actions lawsuits are desirable tools of the Holocaust Industry. Ever since 1966 in the USA, class-action lawsuits did not need the individuals represented to actually co-sign the legal documents. Instead, the individual had to opt-out, which few people do. (p. 178). Author Codevilla adds that, “The system has put great power in the hands of judges. If the judge finds that any set of plaintiffs (in practice, their lawyers) represent a class containing millions of people, the lawyers for that class can bring enormous pressure to bear on the defendant to settle—meaning to pay ransom without ever going to trial.” (p. 178).

In addition, there is the adverse publicity created by “tearful victims” and the process of “discovery” (pp. 178-179). “But the real hammer is that public officials take the presence of the class actions suits they themselves are generating, or backing, as an excuse to act as if the plaintiffs’ accusations had been proven…The truth of the accusations is immaterial, above all because those who bring the suits have every intention of preventing them from coming to trial before a jury.” (p. 179). “…the amount of the settlement would be just a bit less than what would lead the defendant to go out of business or to fight.” (p. 183).

The venue for a class-action lawsuit is all-important. The author alleges that Judge Korman had been chosen for the case because he had been appointed to the federal bench through Democratic patronage, and was part of a corrupt party machine. (pp. 185-186). Author Codevilla adds that, “Unsurprisingly, Judge Korman accepted the non-self-evident contention of the plaintiffs and the World Jewish Congress that they represented vast classes of individuals victimized by Swiss banks and government—an assertion that the plaintiffs made no effort to document.” (p. 186).
Judge Korman had a lot to say what evidence was admissible, and he warned the defendants that they may have to pay much more than claimed by the plaintiffs, and he also warned the plaintiffs that it is conceivable that none of the evidence presented by them would be admissible, especially in a court of appeal. (p. 190). This, of course, facilitated a settlement that sidestepped the relevant facts in the case.

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MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING FACTS

“Swiss banking secrecy was not meant for Jews, and there is no evidence that if affected Jews especially.” (p. 166).

Far from being deemed particularly safe and desirable, Swiss banks were less likely to acquire WWII-anticipating foreign holdings than banks in New York and London. (p. 167).

According to author Codevilla, the clincher that forced the Swiss banks to pay the Holocaust Industry was the threat of New York City Comptroller Alan G. Havesi, who had the power to impose sanctions on the Swiss banks (such as withholding licenses) (pp. 184-190; See also p. 208).
Finally, “Then the agreement stated that the Swiss side did not agree with the allegations, that each side believed that it could uphold its case in court, but that both had chosen the settlement instead: $1.25 billion would purchase the end of the anti-Swiss campaign and preclude further suits relating to World War II.” (p. 192). Legal peace had come—in this case.

In the end, 20% of the monies went to Jewish organizations and the remaining 80% went to the lumped-together “survivors and services provided by Jewish organizations.” (p. 197). The lawyers claimed $13 million. (p. 196).

A later survey (Volcker report) identified only 2,726 Swiss bank accounts, potentially related to Holocaust survivors, to be “open and dormant.” (p. 198).