The revelations surrounding the stealing of Jewish property in Europe and the campaign for its restoration have led to a rise in antisemitism in the countries in question, chiefly Switzerland. This is the conclusion of the annual report of Tel Aviv University’s centre for research into antisemitism, drafted jointly with the Anti Defamation League and the World Jewish Congress, and published today.
The research mentions antisemitism surrounding the matter of the Jewish property as one of the two outstanding trends in the area of antisemitism in 1996, alongside the continuing decline in violence against Jews around the world. The number of violent incidents involving use of firearms reached a peak of 31 in 1994, fell to 15 two years ago, and continued to fall to 9 last year.
The number of unarmed attacks in Europe fell by half last year, and totalled 75.
On the matter of Jewish property, and plundered property in Switzerland, the report says that the issue arouses two contrary responses. On the one hand, there exists in the West an approach supportive of the Jewish campaign for restoration of the property and of exposure of problems previously swept under the carpet. On the other hand, the campaign has been exploited to renew antisemitic claims.
The report makes special mention of Switzerland, where antisemitism has so far been dormant, but is now coming out into the open. The report’s authors also state that there is strong public opposition in Eastern European countries to restoration of Jewish property to its owners, though the heads of these countries have redoubled their efforts to combat this phenomenon.
The report adds that denial of the Holocaust supplies a solution to some of those opposing restitution of Jewish property, since, if the Holocaust never happened, there is no cause to submit to a new round of extortion by world Jewry. The report states furthermore that the old image of the rich manipulative Jew has revived, and Jewish property on the eve of the Holocaust is portrayed as a source of Jewish power to this day.