"From a human point of view, some real mistakes have been made," Ambassador Carlo Jagmetti told a packed news conference. The intense scrutiny now focused on one of Switzerland's darkest chapters - its financial dealings with Nazis during the war - was reflected in the mere fact that he called the news conference as well as the presence of dozens of reporters.
The Swiss-Nazi wartime relationship is being investigated by Jewish groups in the United States and Europe, two U.S. congressional committees, the Swiss government and its bankers and two class-action lawsuits.
Jagmetti emphasized Switzerland's "total commitment" to determine what happened.
Jewish groups claim Swiss banks hold $7 billion in assets and interest belonging to Jews. The banks say they have found only about $32 million in unclaimed assets that could have belonged to European Jews or other non-Swiss residents who used Swiss bank accounts as safe havens for their money as the Nazis rose to power.
The investigations began gaining momentum in April when Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-N.Y.) held a hearing to probe the status of dormant Swiss bank accounts of European Jews, including Holocaust survivors and their heirs.
Senate investigators and the World Jewish Congress, delving through the National Archives for clues about the bank records, then stumbled across stacks of documents that provide fascinating details about Switzerland's role during the war.
Documents revealed that an International Red Cross agent smuggled valuables out of Germany and into Switzerland during the war.