Archive Press Releases

Mattéoli Commission

Statement by Ms Claire Andrieu,
member of the fact-finding mission into the looting of Jews in France (Matteoli Commission)

US House of Representatives, Washington, September 14, 1999

Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the Committee,

It is a pleasure for me, as an historian, to speak to an elected assembly, for, as you know, from Antiquity to our days, freedom of speech and historical truth have kept alive close links. The historical truth I am in charge with, at the Matteoli Commission, concerns the confiscation and the restitution of assets deposited with banks, insurance companies and notaries public. Since professor Steg has already presented the Commission, its aims and its principles, I won't go back over it. I'll only speak on a scientific mode, that is to say coldly, using dates, figures, percentages relating to assets as well as persons. There is no other way to bring facts to light, although, on such a subject, one would expect a more sensitive discourse. But the Matteoli Commission is deeply convinced that truth is the first step towards justice. Our doctrine is: facts first.

This choice will lead to a three-column table we'll be able to complete at the end of the year. The first column will give what has been restituted, and the second what has not or perhaps not been restituted. The third column is of a different type. It is that of the moral reparation, as a consequence of the new holocaust consciousness President Chirac has made official in 1995. This is where the Fund for the memory of the holocaust, that the Prime Minister Lionel Jospin announced in November 1998, will appear, provisioned by the public and the private sectors. The amounts in the second and the third column will probably be very different, clearly more important in the last one. This difference illustrates the two missions of the Matteoli Commission: to establish the facts (column 1 and 2) and, after, to have the wrongs repaired through a symbolic, solemn gesture, that will close the century.

To-day, I'll speak of columns 1 and 2. My statement will review four points: the general historical background, the particular history of deposited assets, the organization of present researches, and some provisional results.

PART ONE: BRIEF HISTORY OF OCCUPATION AND LIBERATION

1- The partition of France into three systems of sovereignty from 1940 to 1944

In 1940-1944, the main sovereign of continental France is Nazi Germany. It occupies the Northern Zone which covers three fifths of the territory. Anti-Semitism is its main agenda. It publishes its own orders against the Jews, and, except for two cases, it was at the origin of all important Vichy laws against Jews. Nazi occupants alone decided to round up the Jews and to deport them.

Next to the occupant, Vichy holds a secondary sovereignty. This vassal dictatorship took alone two decrees against Jews: the status of the Jews, dated October 3, 1940, and the law on the internment of foreign Jews, dated the day after. But afterwards, all its main decisions were inspired by the Germans and ancillary to discussions with them. This subordination inside collaboration was illustrated by the creation of the General Commission for Jewish Matters, in March 1941. This service was the symbol of the State anti-Semitism, and worked in close collaboration with the Germans. The only serious point of disagreement with the occupant lay on the fact that Vichy wanted to keep the product of the spoliation of the Jews, whereas the Germans demanded it. Eventually, the Nazis only got the assets of nationals of the Great Reich.

The third sovereignty over France, was that of General de Gaulle's Free France. As soon as 1940, General de Gaulle wrote to the World Jewish Congress and to the American Jewish Congress, to let them know that "decrees directed against the Jews can, and will, have no validity in Free France [...] When we shall achieve victory, [...] the wrong will done in France itself will be righted." On the BBC, the French broadcast denounced fifteen times the persecutions against Jews. The confiscations were aimed at four times, from 1941 to 1944. Described as an "organized theft", they were declared legally null as soon as April 1941, and the buyers duly warned.

This tri-partition of sovereignty in France led to results that, although terrifying and shameful for ever, are less terrible than in most other occupied countries. About 76 000 Jews were deported from France, that is 25 %, the lowest percentage of Jews deported in Europe, after Italy (20 %) and before Romania, Hungary and Norway (50 %). As Serge Klarsfeld has put it, one fourth of Jews living in France were deported with the complicity of Vichy, and three fourths were saved by the French. 68 000 men and women living in France were deported, moreover, for having participated in the Resistance. Regarding the aryanization of entreprises, 40 % were sold, and 60 % were still in the hands of provisional administrators at the Liberation. During the same period, the economic exploitation of France by the occupant progressively reduced the industrial production in 1944 down to 40 % of its prewar level.

2- The reunification of France under the authority of the Resistance. 1944

As General de Gaulle had announced it, the Liberation marked a total rupture with the period of the Occupation. From 1943 in Algiers to 1945, thirteen governmental orders dismantled the Vichyst legislation, organized restitutions and decided compensations for the deportees and their families. After general elections, from December 1945 to 1949, thirteen other laws were passed to achieve the restitution and compensation process. The Republic abided by its principles.

Till now we have reviewed the governmental acts and underlined the absence of autonomous decision making process in Vichy, except for the two laws of October 3 and 4, 1940. Let us turn toward the specific case of deposited assets.

PART TWO: THE DESPOILMENT AND REFUNDING CHANNEL OF DEPOSITED ASSETS

3- The confiscation of deposited assets: a three-Phase Process

The first measure against Jews was taken by the Nazis. On September 27, 1940, they ordered the census of the Jews. Regarding the spoliation, the Nazis also took the initiative by issuing an order dated October 18, 1940. They skillfully pushed the Vichysts in the same direction.

a- The baiting: the German order, October 18, 1940

The paragraph 4 of this order, stipulated that any legal operation contracted with a Jew after May 23, 1940 could be declared null. The credit institutions were not mentioned, but certain banks decided to restrict freedom of access for the Jews to their accounts. Banks which took into account the text did it freely, and the others were probably anxious at not being sufficiently prudent. Thus, the measure functioned like a bait. It let time to banks to enter mentally, and for some of them practically but with moderation, in the confiscation process. Deliberate or not, this preliminary phase set up by the Nazis, was to be, eventually, redoubtably efficient by the way it induced the banks to accept the idea of confiscation, which was directly contrary to their traditional mission towards their clients.

b- Year 1941: the great year of spoliatory measures

In Spring 1941, the occupant edicted two orders which directly affected deposited assets. One order stipulated that Jewish stocks and shares could be sold, and the second, dated May 28, 1941, decided to block Jewish accounts. In both texts, the Jews were only authorized "essential grants", or grants for "usual activities" or "maintenance costs", to which was fixed a ceiling. The order to freeze the accounts was given directly by the Germans to the Bankers' Union, which transmitted on the spot to its members.

On July 22, 1941, the Vichy government passed in turn its great spoliation law, after a six-month period of discussion with the German authorities. Under the terms of this act, the stocks and shares of the Jews had to be placed under the provisional administration of the "Domains", the State Property Management Agency, and sold by it. The product of the sales had to be paid to the Deposit and Consignment Office (a State financial institution) on an account opened in the name of the Jew, and consigned. The balances of the cash deposits also had to be paid to the Deposit Office, in the same conditions.

The total intermingling of the Nazi and the Vichyst legislations were made patent in the "circular on the Jewish capital", dated August 25, 1941. It was issued by the French General Commission for Jewish Matters, but it enforced the German orders.

The climax of this collaboration was the fine imposed by the Germans to the Jews of the Northern Zone in December 1941. The Vichy government was the secular arm of the Nazis in this one billion tax levy.

As far as the occupied zone was concerned, the banks obeyed the Nazi orders and Vichy laws without delay during this year 1941. They had been prepared to these measures by a six-month latency period. All the banks obeyed, even those which were freer than others, like the American ones. They too, although coming under a neutral and democratic power, declared their Jewish accounts, even the foreign accounts for one of them, which was not required yet. This means that the responsibility must not only be analyzed in terms of nationality, but rather in terms of human obedience to authority.

Even in this terrible year 1941, the spoliatory boost had some limits. For instance neither Vichy nor the Germans ever froze the accounts in the Southern Zone, that is to say in two fifths of the territory. There, there was no census of the accounts. The result of this is that the levies on Jewish deposited assets in the Southern zone amount to only 0.3 % of the stocks and shares sold under the Occupation, and less than 2 % of the other monies reremoved.

c- 1942-1944: hesitations and reservations toward new measures

The fine episode was a climax, but, because of its brutality, and because it was paid to the Germans, it also marked the beginning of interrogations. Then came the yellow star, which was so unpopular in France that the occupant did not try to impose it in the Southern Zone, and the big round-ups, which shocked public opinion. In the same time, the battle of Midway, then that of Stalingrad, revived the idea that the Axis forces were not invulnerable.

That is why the new measures against the Jewish deposited assets were received without enthousiasm. They were enforced slowly and with reservation by the banks. In 1943, they delayed the implementation of the levy of new tax, and try not to answer to the Germans who ask them to declare the assets of the Jews who by virtue of their nationality came under the Great Reich. In 1944, with the support of the ministry of Finance, they opposed passive resistance to the occupant's demand to be given the "enemy assets" which included those of Jews who had left without giving their address. The pressure began to build in January 1944. It is not before July that certain banks gave way to threats.

Nevertheless, the previous measures, that of 1941, continued to be applied. In particular, the Domains, the State Property Management Agency, continued to sale Jewish stocks and shares at the same rate-including up July 1944.

4- The restitution policy, 1944-1958

As General de Gaulle has announced it since 1940, the Provisional Government of the French Republic straight away launched a restitution policy.

Paris had hardly been liberated than on August 30, 1944, the ministry of Finance published a decision unfreezing the cash and securities accounts. The rightful owners gain access to their property again without any procedure. The Professional Banking Association circularized the decision.

Procedure was needed for other measures related to the deposited assets. An order dated October 16, 1944, organized the handing over by the Domains of the unsold stocks, with a statement of account. An order dated November 14, arranged the restitution by the Deposit and Consignment Office of the sums consigned there in the name of the Jews. For those who preferred to have their securities back in kind, an order date April 21, 1945, set up a speeded-up legal procedure.

But for the assets which had been taken by the Germans, in particular the sums and the product of the sales of stocks necessitated by the payment of the fine, the rightful owners had to wait. By a law enacted in 1948, the French government took in charge the German debt. The reimbursement took place from 1949 to 1954. The other pillages committed by the Nazis were compensated later. The gold stolen in safe deposit boxes in particular in July 1944, was returned in 1953 and 1958. This was a consequence of the Inter-Allied Paris Agreement of January 1946. Since France did not recover more than 62,5 % of the gold she had been taken by the occupant, the individuals received the same percentage of their own losses. A German law completed this measures for them, the BRUG law, passed in 1957.

The despoilment and refunding channel was totally ignored when the Matteoli Commission decided to bring it to light. All these measures had to be rediscovered before drawing any balance sheet. This was the first work of the Banking and Financial group set up at the Mission.

PART THREE: THE WORK OF THE STUDY MISSION

5- The organization of the researches by the Mission, 1998-1999

The research machinery is divided in two parts.

a- The Supervisory Committee

In March 1998, at the demand of the Mission, the ministry of Finance made public its commitment, lending its support to the Mission's task vis-à-vis the banking sector. It set up, within the National credit and securities council, a supervisory board presided over by Mr. Saint-Geours, former chairman of the Stock Exchange Committee. The board consists of the secretary general of the national credit and securities council, representatives of the Banking supervisory commission, the Deposit and consignment office, the Ministry of Finance, the French associations of credit institutions and investment firms. The Mission is represented on this board by Professor Steg, vice-president of the Mission, and Ms Andrieu, member of the Mission in charge with the banking and financial sector.

This Supervisory Committee symbolizes the commitment of the profession and benefits from the authority of official organizations. It has draw the list of the credit institutions that already worked under the Occupation, either themselves or through a subsidiary. To-day, 106 banks, a tenth of different credit institutions and 20 investment firms are working on the subject.

b- The Mission group on deposited assets

In April 1998, the Mission has set up its own investigation task force on deposited assets. Presided over by myself, a university professor, the group assembles archivists and historians working in a dozen of credit institutions, private or public. The group works on an academic mode, like a university seminar. This method was the only way to understand the mass of dispersed and disparate archives available in different place in Paris and in the Provinces.

The main resources lie in the National Archives: they are the archives of the General Commission for Jewish Matters (CGQJ). The existence of these papers are of crucial importance. Not only have they allowed us to learn about the spoliation, but they give us the means to check the present works of the credit institutions, since under the Occupation, the banks had to declare the Jewish accounts to the CGQJ, and since we also dispose of the archives of the Restitution Service which worked from 1945 to 1953 at the ministry of Finance.

At the beginning, the researchers felt as if they were looking at hieroglyphs. They had to build a giant jigsaw-puzzle to arrive to understand the mechanisms of spoliation and restitution. This could not be done by the alone Mission, because each hypothesis had to be tested in the light of the particular practice of the credit institutions. After a good deal of experimentation, the puzzle began to appear.

Thanks to these methods, the Mission was able to publish three research guides for deposited assets, which have been delivered to the Banking and Financial Services Committee. The complexity of the spoliation and refunding channel is such, that 461 dates need to be informed for each account if one wants the table to be complete. When one knows that about 67 000 accounts were blocked, that means 30 millions operations to fulfill. This enormous work is now under way. At the end of this month, the banks will hand in their report. This document will be compiled according to the recommendations of the Mission. A thoroughly detailed table of contents, 28 synthetic tables of figures and the disk containing all clients and a maximum of 461 dates for each will be handed in.

Last May, according to the public statement made by the French Banking Association, the institutions already gave the Mission the disks containing the lists of their clients considered to be Jewish under the Occupation. The Mission has checked them through the public archives.

As a matter of fact, the Mission could not have proceeded differently. The archeological work had to be done in common with researchers in banks or else we would have yet to understand the whole mechanism. But, when you think about it, you see the considerable advantages of this method, and it becomes a doctrine.

b- A doctrine of action: direction and control of researches

It is naturally difficult to have credit institutions finance scientific works, especially of such a little glorious part of their history. Many resistances had to be overcome and still must from time to time. Since the beginning of this year, nevertheless, the professional associations have understood the Mission's message.

Here are two concrete proofs of that: the documents handed in by two banks before the diffusion of the Research Manual, and after.

The action through direction and control of researches implemented in the banks has, as a first advantage, to end up in mobilizing banks. They get caught up in the game and work all the more better. Not only are quality and thoroughness improved, but the speed of work is accelerated.

Let us recall that public archives give us the means to check all declarations of banks related to spoliation.

The second reason why this method seems the best, is still more serious. If the credit institutions were working or handing over their archives under constraint, they would be placed in a system of obedience to authority. This would reproduce what happened under the Occupation, and what made them feel not guilty after the war: they had only done what they had been asked to.

Our system of direction and control is more efficient. A new consciousness arises, that somehow plays the role of Holocaust education. This work of the society on itself seems to us the only way to en up politically and morally ahead.

6- Provisional results

- Number of frozen accounts in the Northern Zone: about 67 000, among which about a half of saving banks accounts.

- Number of levied accounts: between 2500 and 10 000 (research in progress)

- Amount of the total levy: less than 2 billion francs of the time

- Restitution rate: higher than 90 % (research under way)

- Forfeiture in the 1970's: less than 1% of forfeited accounts (in number and in amount)

All these information will be made available in the final Report of the Mission at the end of the year.

 

To conclude, I'll say that only one thing is simple and obvious in this file: the barbarity which is at the root of it. All the rest is complicate, confiscation methods as well as restitution channels. Our conviction is that any premature global settlement would hamper the bringing to light of the truth, and hinder the consciousness currently rising. This truth and this consciousness are part of the redressment of injustice.

Embassy of France, September 15, 1999