Approach
The commission did not set out to write a general history of Switzerland during the Nazi era, rather it took as its task "to shed light upon certain controversial or insufficiently analyzed aspects of this history, aspects in which it appeared that Switzerland, that is to say its political authorities and economic decision-makers, had perhaps been derelict in assuming their responsibilities."
The commission was given unprecedented powers and resources by the Swiss Parliament:
- it was to have unimpeded access to the archives held by Swiss private companies including banks, insurance companies, and enterprises;
- the companies were prohibited from destroying any files relating to the period being examined by the commission;
- the initial budget of 5 million Swiss Francs was increased to a total of 22 million francs.
Read more about this topic: Bergier Commission
Famous quotes containing the word approach:
“You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins. We parry and fend the approach of our fellow-man by compliments, by gossip, by amusements, by affairs. We cover up our thought from him under a hundred folds.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)