Jewish Holocaust survivors in Israel

From Jerusalem Bureau Chief Walter Rodgers

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- For some Jewish Holocaust survivors in Israel, the Swiss bank settlement is more like a down payment than restitution or justice.

"Justice can never be done. Justice has nothing to do with money," says Holocaust survivor Moshu Sanbar. "My mother ... came to Auschwitz. Immediately, she was sent to the crematorium. My father was sent to one of the camps, and he just disappeared."

The $1.25 billion that Swiss banks agreed to pay Wednesday is only for lost bank accounts and safe deposit boxes held by Jews at the outbreak of World War II.

Still missing and unaccounted for are millions, perhaps billions, of dollars due Holocaust victims for lost life insurance policies and confiscated Jewish real estate.

Art pirated from Jewish collections and sold by the Nazis may amount to billions more. And hardest to trace may be valuable Jewish gold melted down by the Nazis, gold which came from jewelry and tooth fillings of Holocaust victims.

Swiss banks agreed Wednesday to pay $1.25 billion for lost bank accounts and safe deposit boxes

Though the restitution issue started with the missing bank accounts, there is another reason it just won't go away: the search for the money has raised bigger moral questions -- and not just about Swiss bankers. It has also highlighted much wider anti-Semitism across Europe during the Nazi era.

"I hope that other countries and other institutions will learn the lessons that the Swiss banks have learned -- that it's not something you can run away from but something you have to turn around and confront," says Bobby Brown, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Confronting the horror remains a central tenet of Jewish thought, and the process isn't only for Jews.

"I think for the whole [of] mankind, it's better to remember," says Sanbar. "It can happen easily in other countries with other people. This should not happen. We should be against dictatorships of any kind."

Many Israelis are crediting the Swiss with taking an important first step. But with the average age of Holocaust survivors now 82, there is not much time left for restitution.