Officials Offer Fund Linked to Holocaust

In an attempt to contain an international furor over whether Switzerland profited from the Holocaust, the government offered to establish a fund to aid Jews who lost assets, tapping money from the unclaimed bank accounts of Jews killed by the Nazis. But officials of the Federal Executive, Switzerland’s governing body, did not acquiesce to Jewish groups’ demands that Switzerland donate $250 million to elderly and destitute Jews who lost family and wealth. Jewish groups claim Swiss banks hold about $7 billion in assets and interest that belonged to Jews killed in the Holocaust. The banks have identified $27 million.