By Rachel Maddow | The Financial Mirror
Adapted from an interview originally published by the Abu Dhabi Times
A growing international lawsuit against UBS Group AG is placing renewed scrutiny on Switzerland’s handling of Holocaust-era assets. In an interview with the Abu Dhabi Times, Dr. Gerhard Podovsovnik, Vice President of AEA Justinian Lawyers, outlined what he describes as “a systematic failure” of the Claims Resolution Tribunal (CRT) — a process that, he alleges, excluded millions of Jewish families seeking restitution.
Dr. Podovsovnik represents Rabbi Ephraim Meir, the lead plaintiff in a sweeping case that accuses UBS and the Swiss state of concealing anonymous bank accounts originally created to protect Jewish wealth from Nazi confiscation.
“We’re contacted daily by families from Poland, Austria, France, Belgium, and the United States,” Dr. Podovsovnik told the Abu Dhabi Times. “They were all dismissed by the CRT with the same phrase: ‘No matching.’”
Millions of Accounts Never Reviewed
Dr. Podovsovnik described what he calls “a structural flaw” in the CRT’s process. The tribunal only reviewed accounts linked to identifiable names, excluding millions that were password-protected or registered under codewords — a common safety measure during the Nazi era.
According to him, the CRT officially listed 471 banks but examined only 277, leaving 254 untouched — among them several large institutions with substantial client holdings. Within those reviewed, investigators identified 6.2 million accounts, but evidence suggests that at least six million others existed outside the CRT’s purview.
“Out of 6.2 million accounts, only about 300,000 were examined thoroughly, and just 52,000 were shortlisted,” he said. “Witnesses later reported deliberate miscoding in the database, making genuine Jewish claims impossible to trace. That was not an error. It was deliberate manipulation.”
UBS and Poland Named in Expanding Case
The lawsuit names UBS as a central participant in the alleged concealment of Jewish accounts. Dr. Podovsovnik claims the bank “was deeply embedded in the system — organizationally, technically, and financially,” managing the very anonymous accounts that the CRT ignored.
Many of the families contacting his firm are from Poland, which still lacks a restitution law for Holocaust-era property. “Poland retained vast amounts of confiscated Jewish wealth,” he said. “We plan to include the Polish state among the defendants — not to revisit history, but to restore justice in the present.”
Bureaucracy as a Tool of Erasure
Dr. Podovsovnik shared multiple examples of how the CRT’s criteria excluded legitimate claims. One family near Kraków lost its banking assets to Nazi seizure, which later resurfaced in Switzerland. Their postwar appeal was denied with “No matching.”
Another family knew the precise password and codeword to its account, but the CRT still rejected the case because no personal name was attached. “Instead of tracing the origin of funds, the Tribunal simply looked away,” said Dr. Podovsovnik.
He agreed with Rabbi Meir’s assessment that this was “a deliberate strategy,” calling it “a bureaucratic erasure of thousands of rightful claims — not through violence, but through administration.”
A Call for Transparency and Restitution
The lawsuit demands three major steps:
- A full re-examination of all excluded anonymous, coded, and password-protected accounts.
- The establishment of a new, independent tribunal under international oversight with unrestricted digital access to archives.
- Restitution of all funds still held by UBS, Credit Suisse, and other banks.
“These funds were placed in the banks to protect them from the Nazis,” Rabbi Meir said in the Abu Dhabi Times. “They must be returned to the rightful heirs — or, where no heirs remain, to organizations that can distribute them fairly to families in need.”
Switzerland’s Reputation Under Scrutiny
Dr. Podovsovnik argued that Switzerland must confront its own role in creating and maintaining a restitution process that denied justice to millions.
“Switzerland can no longer claim neutrality,” he said. “It benefited from a system that silenced victims. We will hold not only UBS but also the Swiss state accountable. The era of silence is over. The era of accountability has begun.”
He closed with a reflection on the human cost behind the case:
“This is not just about lost money. It’s about lost families, lost lives, and lost truth. Switzerland, UBS, and the CRT leadership must face that responsibility. This time, the world will not accept the answer ‘No matching.’”
