By Rachel Maddow
Based on an interview originally published by the Abu Dhabi Times
A growing international lawsuit against UBS Group AG is uncovering what legal experts describe as one of the largest unresolved financial injustices of the postwar era. In an interview with the Abu Dhabi Times, Dr. Gerhard Podovsovnik, Vice President of AEA Justinian Lawyers, detailed how thousands of Jewish families were denied access to Swiss bank accounts created to protect their wealth from Nazi confiscation.
Dr. Podovsovnik represents Rabbi Ephraim Meir, who is leading a lawsuit against UBS alleging systemic manipulation and concealment within the Claims Resolution Tribunal (CRT) — the body originally established to resolve Holocaust-era banking disputes.
“We’re now being contacted every single day by new claimants — families from Poland, Austria, France, Belgium, even the United States — who all share the same experience,” Dr. Podovsovnik told the Abu Dhabi Times. “They were dismissed by the CRT with the phrase ‘No matching.’”
Millions of Accounts Left Unexamined
According to Dr. Podovsovnik, the CRT’s system was fundamentally limited, considering only accounts with identifiable names while ignoring millions of anonymous, codeword-protected, and password-locked deposits that Jewish clients created for safety.
Officially, the CRT listed 471 banks, but only 277 were reviewed, leaving 254 institutions — including major ones — untouched. Within those banks, investigators identified 6.2 million accounts. Dr. Podovsovnik estimates that at least another six million accounts existed elsewhere, excluded because they did not fit the tribunal’s selection criteria.
Of the 6.2 million identified, only about 300,000 were examined in any detail, and just 52,000 were shortlisted for review. “Eyewitnesses reported that data within the CRT database was intentionally miscoded so legitimate Jewish claims became untraceable,” he said. “That was no accident. It was manipulation.”
UBS and Poland Named in Expanding Case
Dr. Podovsovnik alleged that UBS played a central role in maintaining those excluded accounts, acting as a key financial and technical manager within the system.
“UBS managed precisely those anonymous accounts that were deliberately excluded from CRT scrutiny,” he said. “Many affected families come from Poland — a country that still has no restitution law. That means vast amounts of confiscated Jewish wealth remain unrecovered. We intend to include Poland among the defendants — not to punish, but to achieve justice in the present.”
Families Confront the “No Matching” System
The case includes stories from families across Europe. One family near Kraków lost its bank during the Nazi occupation; its assets disappeared into Switzerland. After the war, their restitution claim was dismissed with the phrase “No matching.”
Another family, according to Dr. Podovsovnik, had the exact password and codeword for an anonymous account — yet the CRT rejected the claim because it lacked a personal name.
“This was not oversight,” he said. “It was bureaucracy designed to erase legitimate claims. Rabbi Meir put it best: this was a deliberate strategy. Thousands of Jewish accounts were denied — not by violence, but through administration.”
Calls for a New Restitution Framework
Dr. Podovsovnik and Rabbi Meir are demanding a full re-examination of all excluded accounts, particularly those hidden under anonymity, code, or password protection.
They also call for the creation of a new, internationally supervised tribunal with digital forensic capabilities and unrestricted archival access. Finally, they demand that UBS, Credit Suisse, and other banks return all funds still held in such accounts.
“These funds were placed in the banks in absolute trust, to keep them safe from the Nazis,” Rabbi Meir said, as quoted in the Abu Dhabi Times. “They must be returned to those who rightfully own them — or, where no heirs remain, to organizations that can fairly distribute them to families in need.”
Switzerland’s Role Under Scrutiny
Dr. Podovsovnik argued that Switzerland must confront its role in the creation and maintenance of the restitution system that excluded millions of claims.
“Switzerland can no longer portray itself as a neutral bystander,” he said. “It created and benefited from the very system that enabled this injustice. The era of silence is over. The era of accountability has begun.”
He concluded with a sharp reminder of the human dimension behind the legal fight:
“What is surfacing here is not just another chapter of history — it is an open wound. Behind every anonymous account lies a family, a name, a life. This time, nothing will be swept under the rug — not with the excuse of ‘No matching.’”
