Payment OKd for Barring of Jews

The Swiss government promised to pay more than $800,000 to two Holocaust groups, in a gesture sought by Jewish organizations after Switzerland apologized last year for turning back refugees from Nazi terror. The Cabinet decision came as pressure mounted on Swiss banks to pay back Nazi wealth and Jewish accounts left ownerless by Holocaust victims. A government spokesman said the payment was not linked to a recent controversy over allegations that Switzerland had been safekeeping Nazi gold since World War II. Marking the anniversary of the war’s end, the Swiss government last year apologized for the first time for a secret 1938 deal with Hitler’s Germany to turn back thousands of Jewish refugees seeking safety in Switzerland.