Swiss banks allegedly profited by accepting gold taken from Jews during World War II

From Correspondent Charles Feldman

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Taking a walk with Si Frumkin through his Studio City home means coming face to face with the ghosts of his past.

Frumkin is a Holocaust survivor. He was 14 when the U.S. Army liberated him from a Nazi concentration camp.

Si Frumkin, one of the Holocaust survivors

Along with an estimated 100,000 Holocaust survivors around the world, Frumkin will benefit from Wednesday's historic settlement between various Jewish groups and private Swiss banks -- banks that allegedly profited by keeping accounts opened by Jews during World War II and by accepting gold taken from Jews by the Nazi regime.

"These are thieves who are returning a portion of what they had stolen 55 years ago, which they would much rather not give back but had to," says Frumkin.

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"I'm not grateful. I'm not grateful at all. I'm outraged that this hadn't happened before and that thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, died in dire poverty while the Swiss moguls were sitting on that money that didn't belong to them."

The deal calls for a payment of $1.25 billion, which some Jewish leaders say is only a fraction of the true value of what the Swiss banks actually owe.

Under terms of the settlement, all Holocaust survivors may be eligible to benefit, even those whose names didn't appear as part of a class action suit to recover money from the Swiss.