c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee).

UNDATED _ When murders happen, certain events must unfold if authentic healing is to occur.

First, the public needs a full description of the crime, no matter how brutal and painful. Second, all guilty parties, including the accomplices, must be swiftly brought to justice, followed by appropriate punishment. And finally, the families of victims must be fully compensated for their losses.

I am reminded of these truths each time I write about the Holocaust because invariably I receive angry letters from readers urging me to forget the past and”move on with life.” But I cannot move on because every rule about confronting murder was broken in the case of the Holocaust.

The full horror of the Holocaust, especially the disgraceful actions of many neutral countries, remains unknown more than 50 years after the crimes. The accomplices to mass murder, particularly the neutral bankers and industrialists who greatly profited from Nazi Germany during World War II, were never brought to justice and punished. And, sadly, many Holocaust survivors, especially those who were trapped behind the Iron Curtain after the war, were forced to live under Communism. These”double victims”frequently received no compensation for their suffering.

Fortunately, however, a recently released U.S. government report meticulously documents the shameful record of deceit, immorality, and wickedness of the neutral countries, as well as the United States and its allies, during the Holocaust.

The 200-page report, coordinated by Stuart E. Eizenstat, the State Department’s special envoy on property restitution in Central and Eastern Europe, is based on more than 800,000 pages of evidence. Twelve Federal agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Archives, and the Department of Treasury, participated in the report. Even though the report is sickening to read, it is necessary reading because it details a systematic campaign of deceit and greed.

The report states that Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and other neutral nations were slow to recognize that World War II was”not just another war,”and that Nazi Germany was a”mortal threat to Western civilization itself …” With only four words, the Eizenstat report describes what happened during those years:”neutrality collided with morality,”and of all the neutrals, the worst offender was Switzerland.

The report found”incontrovertible evidence”that Germany stole gold from the banks of occupied countries and shipped it to Swiss banks to finance Hitler’s war machine. It was a carefully worked out strategy of high-level larceny,”no rogue operation.” But it was much more than stealing bank assets. The Germans confiscated gold from”individual citizens, including victims of Nazi atrocities. … They converted victims’ gold coins, jewelry and gold fillings into … ingots”that were also sent to Switzerland.

According to the Eizenstat report, the lucrative German campaign of plunder and Swiss money laundering strongly supported”Germany’s capacity to wage war.”It prolonged World War II, resulting in thousands and thousands of additional civilian and military deaths.

Incredibly, Switzerland’s”business as usual”policy continued after World War II. The Swiss initially refused to return any Nazi gold to”those from whom it was stolen, and they denied receiving any looted gold.” Only after long and difficult negotiations was an agreement reached in 1946. The agreement forced the Swiss to return only a small portion of their profitable war booty. Now the world waits to see how Switzerland responds to its disgraceful historical record.

The Eizenstat report also declares there are”serious questions about the U.S. role”in dealing with stolen gold. There was, the report dryly notes, a”demonstrable lack of senior-level support for a tough U.S. negotiating position with the neutrals”after the war.

With”greater support and interest”from the United States, Britain, and France,”it might have been possible to strike a better bargain on the looted goldâÂ?¦” But in the post-war period U.S. officials, including President Truman, did not force the Swiss to return the stolen gold because a new enemy, Communism, had emerged, and Switzerland’s assistance was needed to fight the Cold War.

Tragically, before we fully dealt with the Holocaust, before guilty individuals, institutions, and nations were punished, and before compensation was provided to surviving victims, our attention was quickly turned to the threat from Moscow.

Today, we are finally facing the Holocaust’s radical evil in all its forms. We owe a debt to Stuart Eizenstat and his associates for clearly describing the depravity of the crimes committed.

At last, we now know.

END RUDIN