Synopses & Reviews
The U.S. official who spearheaded the fight to reclaim the stolen and confiscated assets of Holocaust survivors and other victims of World War II tells the inside story of that fight and how it was won.
In the second half of the 1990s, Stuart Eizenstat was perhaps the most controversial U.S. foreign policy official in Europe. His mission had nothing to do with Russia, the Middle East, Yugoslavia, or any of the other hotspots of the day. Rather, Eizenstat's mission was to provide justice albeit belated and imperfect justice for the victims of World War II. Imperfect Justice is Eizenstat's account of how the Holocaust became a political and diplomatic battleground fifty years after the war's end, as the issues of dormant bank accounts, slave labor, confiscated property, looted art, and unpaid insurance policies convulsed Europe and America. He recounts the often heated negotiations with the Swiss, the Germans, the French, the Austrians, and various Jewish organizations, showing how these moral issues, shunted aside for so long, exposed wounds that had never healed and conflicts that had never been properly resolved. Though we will all continue to reckon with the crimes of World War II for a long time to come, Eizenstat's account shows that it is still possible to take positive steps in the service of justice.
Review
"[D]ense but readable....Just as Richard Holbrooke did with the Bosnian peace negotiations in To End a War, Eizenstat provides readers with a look at how a gritty American negotiator can drive home a deal nobody especially likes but all learn to live with." Samantha Power, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"[C]omprehensive, well-written and unsparing....While other books have been written about this subject, none has been as comprehensive or as balanced." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Given what he achieved, it's perhaps unsurprising that Eizenstat's tone is a tad arrogant; 'I' is a favored word. He's also given to clichés that clog the prose and excessive detail that sometimes obscures his vital message. Despite its stylistic flaws, though, a compelling narrative of an enormously important story." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[A] clear and penetrating account....[T]he material on Switzerland, and the lengths many Swiss were willing to go to cover up their complicity in Nazi financial activities, is particularly interesting....Eizenstat raises important questions about how Europeans and Americans have come to grips with the legacy of war and genocide." Library Journal
Synopsis
The U.S. official who spearheaded the fight to reclaim the stolen and confiscated assets of Holocaust survivors and other victims of World War II tells the inside story of that fight and how it was won.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [365]-385) and index.
About the Author
Stuart E. Eizenstat served in several high-level positions in the State, Treasury, and Commerce Departments from 1993 to 2001. He is currently the head of international trade and finance at the law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.
Table of Contents
Foreword ix
Introduction: A Fifty-Year Wait for Justice 1
1 Through the Valley of the Dry Bones 23
2 Greta Beer and the Swiss Bank Affair 46
3 Enter the Players 52
4 Enter the Lawyers 75
5 All That Glitters 90
6 Kabuki Dance 115
7 Scorpions in a Bottle 136
8 The Settlement 165
9 The Barbarians of Culture 187
10 Remembering Dora-Mittelbau 205
11 As Old as the Pyramids 229
12 Ten Billion Marks 243
13 A Strange Ending 259
14 Unser Wien 279
15 Bridge over Troubled Water 293
16 The French Exception 315
Conclusion: A Final Accounting for World War II 339
Acknowledgments 357
Notes 365
Photo Credits 387
Index 389