Switzerland: 137 pardoned over rescue of Jews

More than 100 people, judged to be criminals because they helped Jews escape Nazi persecution during the Second World War, have had their names cleared by a Swiss commission.

Some were jailed or fined, and many lost jobs under Swiss laws on neutrality.

The commission was set up in 2004 after a new law on "rehabilitation" took effect.

The law allowed for posthumous recognition of people unfairly criminalised because they smuggled Jewish refugees across borders between 1938 and 1945.

The commission, due to end in 2011, said its aim was to repair the damage caused by a "grave injustice" of history.

A total of 137 were cleared but only one person, Aimee Stitelman of Geneva, lived long enough to see her name cleared in 2004, and died months later.