Switzerland To Examine Nazi Ties GENEVA (AP) -- Switzerland must examine its political ties to Nazi Germany as it reappraises its neutrality during World War II, the country's new president said Wednesday. Ruth Dreifuss, who took over Jan. 1 as the country's first female and first Jewish president, said Switzerland has received some unfair criticism, such as claims it put refugees in slave-labor camps. ``It's just ridiculous,'' Dreifuss said, but added, ``It was not a holiday camp. It was a hard time for everybody in Switzerland, including Swiss families and military detainees from other countries.'' However, she said the investigations into some banks and companies and the search for assets belonging to Holocaust victims was justified. Much of the country's effort to right old wrongs has been accomplished, she said, noting the $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and Jewish organizations and individual plaintiffs. More self-examination is still needed ``to bring to a good end the political role of Switzerland at that time,'' Dreifuss said. She did not elaborate, but some members of the Swiss government and other officials have been accused of collaborating with the Nazis. ``We need time for discussion and we need facts,'' she said. Dreifuss noted that an international conference will take place in Geneva this week to study a failed attempt to save Jewish refugees from Hitler. ``The refugee problem is perhaps the most painful subject of this period,'' added Dreifuss, whose father worked in a Nazi-era network to save Jewish refugees by smuggling them into Switzerland. Dreifuss said by hosting the discussion on the conference, Switzerland would help historians get a more honest view of what really happened during the war.
