World Jewish Congress Statement on Holocaust Remembrance

Following Remarks by U.S. Ambassador Michael Waltz at the United Nations

NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On January 27, 2026 — Holocaust Remembrance Day — the United States addressed the world at the United Nations. Speaking to the General Assembly, U.S. Ambassador Michael Waltz stated: “Today the United States of America joins the international community in honoring the memory of those six million Jews murdered in cold blood in the Holocaust, including one and a half million innocent children.”

Ambassador Waltz made clear that the Holocaust is not distant history and underscored a stark truth highlighted by reporting in the Financial Times in March 2020: that a major Swiss bank continued to harbor Nazi-linked accounts decades after World War II. As Ambassador Waltz stated, “The Holocaust was history’s largest organized theft, an attempt to erase Jewish life, but at the same time enriching the Nazis.” This recognition reinforces the ongoing efforts of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee – led by Senators Chuck Grassley and Sheldon Whitehouse – to compel UBS to investigate Nazi-era accounts, including the forthcoming February 3, 2026, U.S. Senate hearing, “The Truth Revealed: Hidden Facts Regarding Nazis and Swiss Banks.”

With respect to the victims of the Holocaust, Ambassador Waltz declared: “We recommit ourselves with fierce determination to pursue justice for the victims, for the survivors and their families.” The leaders of Switzerland and the leadership of UBS – including Iqbal Khan and Colm Kelleher – should heed this message. As a bank that benefits from trillions of dollars in U.S. client assets and derives nearly half of its profits from the United States, UBS must recognize that assets obtained through expropriation, persecution, and genocide do not shed their criminal origin, and that Swiss banks cannot become lawful owners of assets taken from victims of genocide. The continued possession or concealment of such assets creates material legal and financial exposure under U. S. law.

Fiduciary duty requires institutional shareholders and equity analysts to account for Holocaust-era expropriation exposure and to credit the position of the United States government: “We reaffirm our commitment to justice through restitution.”

Switzerland and UBS should take concrete action:

• Open all relevant archives fully and without restriction relating to Holocaust-era assets;
• Facilitate independent forensic review of accounts linked to victims of Nazi persecution;
• Commit to justice and restitution, consistent with the Washington Principles.
  
  

As Ambassador Waltz urged: “Please let us honor the victims through decisive action… Open the archives. Full restitution and an unbreakable stand against antisemitism everywhere and always. May the memory of the victims be a blessing but a call to responsibility for us all.”

UBS’s responsibility to act is clear. The time to act is now.

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