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Swiss appoint Elie Wiesel to Holocaust fund board
May 1, 1997
Web posted at: 4:35 p.m. EDT (2035 GMT)BERN, Switzerland (CNN) -- The Swiss cabinet has formally appointed three non-Swiss Jews, including Nobel winner Elie Wiesel, to a board overseeing a Swiss fund for Holocaust victims, the government said Thursday. Wiesel will have the title "doyen international chairman" but no special powers, said Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti.
Wiesel, a Nobel Prize laureate and concentration camp survivor, was named along with two Israelis: Josef Burg, a former Israeli minister, and Avraham Hirschson, a member of the Israeli Knesset's restitution committee. The board's four other members are Swiss.
All needy Holocaust survivors are eligible to apply to the fund for financial aid. The fund, being set up with 265 million Swiss francs ($180 million) donated by Swiss banks and industry, is separate from a 7 billion Swiss franc fund which the Swiss government wants to set up, using money taken from revaluing Swiss gold reserves.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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