A 72-year-old Israeli rabbi says he possesses evidence of secret Nazi-era Swiss bank accounts untouched since World War II. His investigation is reviving uncomfortable questions about Swiss secrecy, wartime finance, and the unfulfilled promises of restitution.
The Rabbi with the Evidence
Rabbi Ephraim Meir, a soft-spoken German-Israeli scholar, carries with him a briefcase filled with what he says are copies of banking records and affidavits linking six numbered Swiss accounts to Nazi affiliates in the late 1930s.
As first reported by Riva Pomerantz, an investigative journalist with Ami Magazine, Meir claims that the heirs of one account holder formally transferred their ownership rights to him — allowing him to pursue what he calls a moral mission: “to turn treif money into something kosher.”
If proven, his discovery would reopen one of Europe’s most sensitive financial histories — the hidden wealth of the Nazi era and Switzerland’s long-criticized banking secrecy.
From East Germany to the Swiss Alps
In 2007, East German lawyers approached Meir with an unusual request. Their clients believed they were linked to Nazi-era accounts still held in Swiss banks and sought an Israeli intermediary to break through “a wall of secrecy.”
At first, Meir refused. But when faxes began arriving — filled with account codes, transaction references, and bank merger records — he decided to investigate.
A proposed partnership with Israel’s late finance minister Yaakov Neeman fell through due to legal conflicts. Israeli intelligence agencies, Meir says, declined formal participation but did not discourage his search.
Inside UBS: The 2009 Meeting
In March 2009, Meir and German banking lawyer Harald Reichart — a specialist in dormant accounts — met with UBS executives in Zurich.
According to Ami Magazine, they presented historical bank identifiers from East German archives and asked: “Where are these accounts now?”
A senior UBS lawyer allegedly replied that the accounts had been transferred to the Claims Resolution Tribunal (CRT) — the court-supervised body created after U.S. lawsuits in the 1990s to process Holocaust-era claims.
Meir found the response troubling. The CRT, he said, was meant to manage restitution for Nazi victims, not for affiliates of the regime itself.
UBS maintains that it has fully complied with all legal restitution processes. Hong Kong Wire has not independently verified the 2009 meeting or the documents cited.
Switzerland’s Shadowed Neutrality
Officially neutral during the war, Switzerland’s banks handled gold, foreign currency, and other assets linked to Nazi Germany.
The controversy resurfaced in the 1990s when whistleblower Christoph Meili revealed UBS’s destruction of wartime records. The resulting scandal led to a $1.25 billion global settlement and the creation of the Claims Resolution Tribunal, which reviewed tens of thousands of dormant Holocaust-era accounts.
Meir now accuses a later phase of the CRT — which he calls “CRT-II” — of suppressing data and rejecting claims without proper explanation.
Much of the CRT’s documentation remains sealed under U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman’s order until 2070, though he has allowed for review if credible new evidence emerges.
The Heir and the Map
After years of tracing family records, Meir and Reichart say they located Detlev Köhler, son of a Nazi-era intelligence officer. In 2023, Köhler and his sister allegedly met Meir in Zug, Switzerland, to sign documents transferring full ownership rights to him.
At the same meeting, they revealed a hand-drawn map hidden in an old desk compartment, allegedly marking a tunnel near Buchenwald where valuables had been buried.
German authorities, Meir says, have authorized preliminary surveys to assess whether excavation is safe.
Hong Kong Wire has not independently verified these claims.
Demanding Transparency
Following UBS’s refusal to continue discussions, Meir began calling for a “third CRT” — an independent, fully transparent tribunal to handle unresolved accounts.
His attorney, Dr. Gerhard Podovsovnik of AEA Justinian Lawyers, told Ami Magazine that UBS’s 2023 acquisition of Credit Suisse merges decades of financial records — and with them, a duty to clarify their origins.
“They will need to open the books,” Podovsovnik said.
Meir has also outlined plans to pursue discovery in U.S. courts and coordinate diplomatic efforts to pressure Swiss authorities to reveal what he calls “the last locked vaults of history.”
If Justice Is Found
If successful, Meir says any recovered funds will go toward religious and humanitarian causes. He has pledged to dedicate 18 Torah scrolls in memory of victims of the 2008 Merkaz HaRav attack — a date that coincided with his first UBS meeting.
He insists that he will not personally profit. But the challenges are formidable: proving ownership, tracing accounts through decades of mergers, and reopening settlements thought to be closed forever.
“Justice has a long memory,” Meir told Ami Magazine. “If the doors won’t open, we’ll knock through the courts.”
Whether those doors lead to hidden wealth or yet another archive of secrecy remains unknown.
Contact for Holocaust-Era Account Claims
Dr. Gerhard Podovsovnik, LL.M., M.A.S.
Vice President, AEA Justinian Lawyers
📧 office@drlaw.eu | 📞 +43 664 110 3403
Editor’s Note
This report summarizes Ami Magazine’s investigation “Nazis, Swiss Banks & the Jewish Money That Vanished” (October 1, 2025) by Riva Pomerantz.
All claims regarding Rabbi Ephraim Meir, UBS, Credit Suisse, and the Claims Resolution Tribunal (CRT) are attributed to that publication.
Hong Kong Wire has not independently reviewed sealed or disputed records.
Historical context on the Swiss Banks Holocaust Settlement is available through the Claims Conference and U.S. District Court filings from the 1998 settlement.
This article is presented for journalistic analysis and commentary under international fair use and press freedom standards. Hong Kong Wire makes no independent allegations of wrongdoing.
