U.S. REPORT: SWISS HELPED NAZIS FINANCE WWII.Byline: David Lee David Lee may refer to:
In a sweeping report on gold and other assets other assets Assets of relatively small value. For financial reporting purposes, firms frequently combine small assets into a single category rather than listing each item separately. looted by Nazi Germany, the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. condemned neutral Switzerland on Wednesday for helping Germany bankroll bank·roll n. 1. A roll of paper money. 2. Informal One's ready cash. tr.v. bank·rolled, bank·roll·ing, bank·rolls Informal its war machine. It also questioned whether the United States did enough to recover gold and other assets stolen from Holocaust victims While victims of the Holocaust were primarily Jews, the Nazis also persecuted and often killed millions of members of other groups they considered inferior, undesirable or dangerous. and European banks. Some of the plundered gold contained jewelry and dental fillings taken from Jews, Gypsies and other concentration camp prisoners, the report said, and portions were included in assets administered by a commission set up by the Western allies after World War II. Certain ingots, including dental gold from death-camp inmates, ended up in a pool distributed after the war to European central banks European Central Bank (ECB) Bank created to monitor the monetary policy of the countries that have converted to the Euro from their local currencies. The original 11 countries are: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, , said the 211-page report, commissioned by President Clinton in October. Declaring that ``neutrality collided with morality,'' the report said Switzerland's cooperation with the Nazis helped sustain the German war effort. ``Whatever their motivation, the fact that they pursued vigorous trade with the Third Reich had the clear effect of supporting and prolonging Nazi Germany's capacity to wage war,'' Stuart E. Eizenstat Stuart Eizenstat (born 1943) is a partner at Washington, DC law firm, Covington & Burling and senior strategist at APCO Worldwide. He is married to Frances Eizenstat, and has two sons and five grandchildren. He received his J.D. from Harvard University in 1967. , undersecretary of commerce for international trade and the coordinator of the 11-agency report, said of the Swiss. The report said Switzerland essentially acted as Nazi Germany's ``banker and financial facilitator'' as the Nazis perpetrated ``one of the greatest thefts by a government in history,'' amassing an estimated $580 million, worth $5.6 billion today. Of that total, the report said, about $400 million - $3.9 billion in today's dollars - was deposited in Swiss institutions. Switzerland returned only $58 million after the war. The report demonstrated that even as the German army rampaged across Europe, Hitler faced a severe shortage of currency for war materiel ma·te·ri·el or ma·té·ri·el n. The equipment, apparatus, and supplies of a military force or other organization. See Synonyms at equipment. . The Nazis solved this problem by seizing gold from the central banks of 11 conquered nations, exchanging the bulk of it for Swiss francs. The Nazis also regularly sent Jewish jewelry by diplomatic pouch to the German legation legation: see diplomatic service; extraterritoriality. in Bern, Switzerland, where it was picked up by a German agent who sold it in Switzerland for war materiel, the report said. ``Gold that the SS took from Jewish Holocaust victims and from Jewish and non-Jewish concentration camp inmates was purchased by the Reichsbank and incorporated into Germany's gold reserves,'' said the report, released on the 52nd anniversary of Germany's surrender. A desire for profits, in part, motivated Switzerland and five other officially neutral nations, Eizenstat said. The report called Switzerland's attitude ``business as usual.'' ``Too often, being neutral provided a pretext for avoiding moral considerations,'' he said. ``The report makes painfully clear that neutral countries - Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and, until the last three months of the war, Turkey - were slow to recognize and to acknowledge that this was not just another European war. Most never did.'' He added: ``Their cooperation was motivated in part by fear of invasion . . . and in part by Nazi sympathies in some countries, and by a desire for profit in all. All helped support and prolong Nazi Germany's capacity to wage war at a time of grievous Allied and civilian casualties.'' Of all the officially neutral nations, he said, Switzerland had ``the deepest and most crucial economic relationship with Nazi Germany, involving banking, trade, industrial production and the use of their railways.'' It added: ``Switzerland also supplied Germany with key war materials, such as arms, ammunition, aluminum, machinery and locomotives.'' The report said there is no evidence that Switzerland realized the Nazi plunder included resmelted gold jewelry, coins and dental fillings from concentration camp prisoners. In Bern, Swiss Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti released a statement saying the revelation that gold from Jewish victims was mixed with looted bars was ``shocking.'' But he said the American study lacked ``a measured recognition'' of Switzerland's extremely difficult position as a tiny country encircled en·cir·cle tr.v. en·cir·cled, en·cir·cling, en·cir·cles 1. To form a circle around; surround. See Synonyms at surround. 2. To move or go around completely; make a circuit of. and threatened by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Switzerland had no choice but to trade with the Axis powers, he said. ``In those dramatic days this neutrality policy meant for Switzerland a tightrope walk between adaptation and resistance,'' Cotti said. Eizenstat said the report also ``shines a bright light on our own country's shortcomings A shortcoming is a character flaw. Shortcomings may also be:
The United States government ``knowingly contributed gold looted by Nazi Germany from individual persecutees to the gold pool that was subsequently distributed'' by the Tripartite Gold Commission set up in September 1946 for restitution of looted Nazi assets, he said. Almost all the German gold reserves held by the Reichsbank at the end of the war were captured by the U.S. Army, which released it to the commission's gold pool, according to the report. After 1946, the report said, monetary gold looted by the Nazis was held by the Tripartite Commission in accounts in the Bank of England Bank of England, central bank and note-issuing institution of Great Britain. Popularly known as the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, its main office stands on the street of that name in London. , the Bank of France and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Bank of New York, abbrieviated to BNY, was a global financial services company that existed until its merger with the Mellon Financial Corporation on July 2, 2007.[1] The bank now continues under the new name of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. . |
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