A French government commission, investigating the seizure of Jewish bank accounts during the Second World War, says five American banks Chase Manhattan, J.P Morgan, Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, Bank of the City of New York and American Express had taken part.

It says their Paris branches handed over to the Nazi occupiers about one-hundred such accounts.

A commission member Claire Andrieu said that at the time, the United States was not at war with Germany, and the American banks could have behaved differently.

The government commission is looking into ways of compensating Holocaust survivors or their relatives.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service