Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War IIIn the second half of the 1990s, Stuart Eizenstat was perhaps the most controversial U.S. foreign policy official in Europe. His mission had nothing to do with Russia, the Middle East, Yugoslavia, or any of the other hotspots of the day. Rather, Eizenstat's mission was to provide justice—albeit belated and imperfect justice—for the victims of World War II. Imperfect Justice is Eizenstat's account of how the Holocaust became a political and diplomatic battleground fifty years after the war's end, as the issues of dormant bank accounts, slave labor, confiscated property, looted art, and unpaid insurance policies convulsed Europe and America. He recounts the often heated negotiations with the Swiss, the Germans, the French, the Austrians, and various Jewish organizations, showing how these moral issues, shunted aside for so long, exposed wounds that had never healed and conflicts that had never been properly resolved. Though we will all continue to reckon with the crimes of World War II for a long time to come, Eizenstat's account shows that it is still possible to take positive steps in the service of justice. |
Contents
A FiftyYear Wait for Justice | 1 |
Through the Valley of the Dry Bones | 23 |
Greta Beer and the Swiss Bank Affair | 46 |
Enter the Players | 52 |
Enter the Lawyers | 75 |
All That Glitters | 90 |
Kabuki Dance | 115 |
Scorpions in a Bottle | 136 |
Ten Billion Marks | 243 |
A Strange Ending | 259 |
Unser Wien | 279 |
Bridge over Troubled Water | 293 |
The French Exception | 315 |
A Final Accounting for World War II | 339 |
EPILOGUE | 357 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 373 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
agreed agreement Allied Ambassador American Andreani anti-Semitism asked attorneys Austrian bank accounts bankers billion DM Bronfman called chancellor claimants Claims Conference class-action lawyers Clinton Commission Committee countries D'Amato diplomatic dormant accounts Drai Eastern Europe Eastern Europeans Ed Fagan Edgar Bronfman Eizenstat Fagan Federal forced laborers France French Gentz German German companies German foundation Hausfeld Hevesi Holocaust survivors Holocaust victims Hombach Israel Singer Israeli issue Jewish community Jews Judge Korman Lambsdorff lawsuits looted art Maria Schaumayer meeting Meili ment merger million Museum Muzicant Nazi gold negotiations Neuborne neutral parties payments plaintiffs political postwar president property restitution refused returned rough justice sanctions Schröder Schuessel settle settlement side slave laborers Swiss banks Swiss government Swiss National Bank Switzerland talks tion told U.S. Department U.S. government United Volcker audits wanted wartime Washington Witten WJRO World Jewish Congress World War II York