Nazi Gold and Klaus Barbie

Nazi Gold and Klaus Barbie

by Tom Bower
Nazi Gold and Klaus Barbie

Nazi Gold and Klaus Barbie

by Tom Bower

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Overview

Two shocking exposés of Nazi cruelty and international collusion from “one of the finest investigative journalists” (The Washington Times).
 
Nazi Gold: The Full Story of the Fifty-Year Swiss-Nazi Conspiracy to Steal Billions from Europe’s Jews and Holocaust Survivors
This riveting exposé reveals the shocking truth about how the Swiss banking industry knowingly collaborated with the Third Reich during the darkest era in modern history. With the knowledge and acquiescence of the Swiss government, hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Jewish Holocaust victims were systematically hidden away in Swiss bank accounts. For the next half century, Swiss authorities engaged in a covert campaign of lies, subterfuge, and corruption to hide the wealth from its rightful owners—concentration camp survivors and the families of the slain—while freely dispensing the illegally obtained funds to fugitive Nazis. Nazi Gold is an explosive account of state-endorsed crimes and atrocities; of former victims fighting courageously for their due in the face of prejudice, hatred, and indifference; and of the dedicated US Treasury agents who worked tirelessly for decades to right an unconscionable wrong.
 
“Compelling [and] carefully researched.” —The Washington Times
 
Klaus Barbie: The Butcher of Lyons
In 1942, SS Gestapo chief Nikolaus “Klaus” Barbie was dispatched to Nazi-occupied France after leaving his bloodstained mark on the Netherlands. In Lyons, Barbie was entrusted with “cleansing” the region of Jews, French Resistance fighters, and Communists, an assignment he undertook with sadistic cruelty. Thousands died on Barbie’s orders. Following the D-Day invasion, Barbie fled, slaughtering all his prisoners. But the war’s conclusion was not the end of the “Butcher of Lyons.” With the dawning of the Cold War, Barbie went on to find a new employer: the US intelligence services. He escaped to South America, where he lived a free man until extradited to France to finally stand trial for war crimes in 1983.
 
“[A] taut, richly backgrounded story.” —Kirkus Reviews
 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781504054973
Publisher: Open Road Media
Publication date: 07/24/2018
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 870
File size: 6 MB

About the Author

Tom Bower (b. 1946) is a British writer and investigative journalist. A former reporter for BBC’s Panorama, his books include unauthorized biographies of Tiny Rowland, Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Geoffrey Robinson, Gordon Brown, and Richard Branson. He won the 2003 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for Broken Dreams, an investigation into corruption in English football.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

CONFRONTATION AND TEARS

Bern–November 17, 1952

Hatred shone in their faces. Distrust echoed in their voices. The chill inside the conference room struck deeper than the winter air in the ancient square outside.

Tragedy had compelled the nine men to sit around the long wooden table, but their common sentiment was anger. None had suffered, but all were suspicious. Humanity was confronting greed and, after seven years of strife, the innocent had finally won one victory: the agreement to gather on the afternoon of November 17, 1952, in the parliament building.

All nine men were Swiss, but the majority regarded two of their number as foreigners, not properly acceptable as ancient Helvetii. These two were both Jews, representatives of an intimidated minority who could not boast of courage or prowess. The majority were lawyers and bankers, protectors of their nation's wealth, proudly successful in excluding their country from the moral conflicts that for centuries had plagued their neighbors. At the head of the table sat Markus Feldmann, the new minister of justice and the police, renowned as an ambitious workaholic but carelessly shortsighted about the conflict he was seeking to broker.

"We're here," announced Feldmann, "to discuss the fate of money deposited by foreigners in Switzerland who were killed because of Nazi violence and wartime events." The sanitization of the vocabulary used to refer to the Holocaust had been perfected in Switzerland ever since Adolf Hitler became chancellor in neighboring Germany. For the twelve years of the Third Reich, none of the non-Jews in that room had protested about the criminality occurring beyond their frontiers and, in the aftermath, none been troubled to consider the truth. Comfortable survival and self-enrichment remained their entrenched gospel, and any challenge to that credo prompted instant suppression. Such a challenge had now arisen. "Parliament has decided," continued Feldman, "that we need a decree or regulations to deal with the money in question."

The "money in question" was the unaccounted-for millions of Swiss francs — some insiders would eventually confess to "hundreds of millions" — which had been deposited in the Swiss safe haven by Europe's Jews as much as thirty years earlier. Those Jews had been murdered, their records had disappeared and their secrets were known only to their trustees, represented by the Swiss around Feldmann's conference table — secrets that they were unwilling to divulge.

Naturally, the minister looked to Emil Alexander, the reticent but experienced director of the ministry's Justice Division, to provide an unobjectionable summary of the reasons for their meeting: "At first, when the question of the so-called heirless assets became a reality," began Alexander, "we tried to deal with it practically. People applied at banks claiming that their missing relations had left behind a fortune deposited in a Swiss bank, and the Bankers Association made inquiries among its members." To Alexander's right sat Max Oetterli, the Swiss Bankers Association's pugnacious forty-six-year-old secretary. Oetterli had fought hard to prevent this meeting and had no intention of leaving without expressing his hostility. "The results," summarized Alexander, referring to Oetterli's work, "were usually very thin, which is not very surprising, because the people who came to the banks based their applications on a hunch." Oetterli agreed with that and with what followed.

"Those inquiring at the banks," continued Alexander, "were usually unable to prove that the person was dead or even missing. A further complication is that making inquiries in some countries, especially Eastern Europe, is dangerous. Another great difficulty is that some deposits were registered under false names which the inheritors don't know. And some people did not deposit their money in banks but entrusted it to private people like lawyers, notaries and business associates. Those identities are of course unknown to the people hunting for their inheritance. Finally, after all this time, there is a chance that money could be lost because of the statute of limitations."

Around the table, even men who were foes agreed with the lawyer's summary. Alexander had arrived at the purpose of their meeting. Protests during recent months had persuaded the government to consider a law compelling Switzerland's banks, insurance companies and others to declare any assets in their custody owned by murdered Jews. "The banks," confirmed Alexander, "insist that they do not want to enrich themselves with this money; that they would not apply any time limit to reclaiming the deposits and that we can discuss later what to do with any unclaimed money." Oetterli again nodded, but his face hardened as Feldmann signaled to George Brunschvig, the president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG). Brunschvig's lobbying for a new law had incensed the bankers.

"Experience shows," began Brunschvig, bruised by his past encounters with Oetterli, "that those bankers involved seldom give satisfactory information. The only guaranteed way of discovering these deposits, we believe, is by introducing a new law." Brunschvig glanced for support at his colleague Paul Guggenheim, a respected professor and lawyer.

"We've really got two problems," said Guggenheim. "First, how to find the heirless assets; and then to decide who will receive the money." Glancing at Oetterli, the professor continued, "I don't like the bankers' proposals because they don't guarantee that all the financial institutions will be honest. That's why a law is vital." The Jewish lawyer, outraged by the perfidies practiced by Oetterli and his ilk since 1945, dropped any pretense of courtesy. "I'm not very impressed by the bankers' plea that a law would damage their absolute requirement of secrecy. On the contrary, it seems to me that they are more damaged if they keep on with their denials of having any money." At the last moment, Guggenheim tempered his bluntness with an olive branch: "With goodwill, we can surely find a solution to this problem."

Goodwill was far from Oetterli's thoughts as Alfred Wegelin, the managing director of the Schweizer Volksbank, launched the counterattack: "We strongly disagree about this problem. We're wide apart." Sympathy and understanding about recent history were not emotions extended to the two Jews. "We bankers want to find a solution to the deposits of those who are dead. That's why we support the efforts to help the inheritors. But they must abide by the law. Today a deposit could be described as an heirless asset and sometime in the future the owner will turn up — especially if they live in Eastern Europe." For the banker, the only solution was to do nothing: "The money is very safe in the banks. It's always available for the inheritors."

Albert Matter, the director of the Basler Kantonalbank, sitting beside Wegelin, would over the next years prove to be as insensitive as Oetterli, yet on this occasion he began with an apparent reassurance. "Banks certainly do not want to enrich themselves with the so-called heirless assets. There's no danger that claimants will lose their money because they don't appear for a long time. We're always ready to help people who come to us looking for money, so long as it's within a certain framework." Sneers came as easily to Matter as palliatives: "But don't forget. It's not only people who have deposited money with us who have disappeared. People who owe us money have also gone." Matter's bank had evidently endured some uncomfortable moments. "We've had to put that fact down to experience," he concluded. Some in Europe had experienced the Holocaust while Matter and his colleagues had experienced bad loans. Some Jews,Matter's colleagues griped, had even allowed themselves to be murdered in order to escape repayment of their loans.

The gulf appeared unbridgeable. For the minister, directing a small army of secret-police officers spying on their fellow countrymen, the thought of prying into banking secrets was nearly intolerable. In the tradition of Swiss ministers, Feldmann's role was not to govern but to serve the different interests of the community. Switzerland's bankers, he accepted, did not require the government's protection, only the assurance of noninterference. Together, the bankers were stronger than the state, and they applied pressure when their interests required it. "Clearly," said the minister passively, "the Jewish group want a law and the bankers don't. The representative of the Bankers Association should tell us how he imagines future cooperation."

Oetterli took the stage, narrowing his eyes and hunching his shoulders. His mood was far from benign. "All our experience convinces us that the problem is vastly exaggerated." He emphasized each word, at once aggressive and derisive. "Many claimants seem to have convinced themselves that — because a missing relation once passed through Switzerland — he must have deposited a fortune here." Mocking the Jews came naturally to Oetterli, especially in the battle to protect his members. "The proposed law will be a serious breach of banking secrecy and will damage Swiss banking. If there are any heirless assets, the safest place for them is in the bank. Their future, if they are really shown to be heirless, can be discussed later." Oetterli had often mentioned talking about the heirless assets "in twenty or thirty years' time," ignoring the urgent needs of the survivors.

"Have all your inquiries worked smoothly up to now?" asked Feldmann.

"Our members have tirelessly sought to help inquirers," replied Oetterli. "We do everything we can. Unfortunately, the documents provided are often inadequate."

The implication that Oetterli and his members were assisting claimants infuriated Guggenheim. Inquiries to the Bankers Association about accounts — which were considered only if accompanied by a hefty fee — had aroused what the headquarters in Basel had called "a number of legal and practical problems." To Guggenheim, they were "the completely impossible requirements" of proving the death of a depositor, the proof of heirship and the precise identification of the bank account.

"Proof of death in a gas chamber is extremely difficult," Guggenheim had long complained. "All we know is that the deceased was last seen entering a concentration camp and is not known to have ever emerged." Moreover, the requirement that the accounts be identified was impossible. The Jews had chosen to deposit their money in Switzerland because it guaranteed anonymity. They were not always likely to reveal their ruse to their families.

"The Bankers Association isn't proposing anything new," snapped Guggenheim. "We're not going to get any further because hardly any of the banks are prepared to give information voluntarily." But Oetterli was manifestly unimpressed. Charge and countercharge had become routine, even though the representatives of the Jews were mild men who feared exciting enmity. Oetterli was beyond persuasion, but Feldmann's sympathy was vital, and Guggenheim addressed his comments to the politician.

"Six million people have disappeared and that exceptional fact requires special remedy. Because of those terrible events not only whole families but whole communities have disappeared. In many cases there aren't going to be any inquiries at the banks. Only if a law orders a census of deposits can we find the lost deposits. Other countries have adopted similar measures for this special problem. And the same should happen here — even if it's not easy. There are definitely deposits at the banks whose owners have not contacted their bank since 1942. A law ordering that those deposits be declared cannot undermine banking secrecy."

"It's absolutely clear that we have to consider a major moral problem," agreed Feldmann, only to be interrupted by the clamor of bankers insisting on their reverence for the sanctity of the law. "A new law is inevitable," insisted the politician. "No one can deny that this issue is political, psychological and moral. The cause was something monstrous. The bankers don't want a law. I propose to order the drafting of a law, and we can discuss it later."

Most mortals, faced with such determination, might have held back to await the minister's proposals. Oetterli was different. Loathing his adversaries and outraged that a politician should dare to contemplate interfering with the sovereignty of Switzerland's banks, he threatened to withdraw all cooperation: "Any law would be monstrous and will cause a great row." Oetterli's choice of the word monstrous, the very word Feldmann had used to refer to the Holocaust, was deliberate and provocative. Switzerland's bankers, accustomed to having their warnings respected, understood how to exploit the weaknesses of the nation's stagnant and secret political system. For Oetterli, the bankers were the keepers of the flame and the protectors of the nation's future. Certainly they were unaccustomed to contradiction from Jews. But Brunschvig felt that he had been unusually provoked. "What amazes me is Herr Oetterli's threats to withdraw his cooperation if there's a law. We can't overcome that. Yet your investigations have revealed practically nothing." Everyone understood Brunschvig's unspoken accusation. Hiding behind the secrecy laws, the bankers were conspiring to delay, or to deny that the assets existed, or to demand that they should not be returned to their owners. Frustrating all inquirers, the bankers' tactics persuaded even the most determined claimant to abandon the quest. It amounted to a fraud on the victims and the survivors. "Only a law," concluded Brunschvig, "can solve the problem."

"I'm very skeptical about the Bankers Association's position," agreed Guggenheim. "They seem to have little understanding about the heirless assets."

Now the tension in the room burst out into open warfare. "I am absolutely amazed," shouted Oetterli, "that you're actually considering confiscating money entrusted to us."

"There's no question of expropriation if there's an owner," snapped Guggenheim, irritated by Oetterli's familiar distortion. "We're talking about using property which is no longer owned by anyone for social purposes."

There was nothing more to say. The disagreement was fundamental. Two entrenched interests were unwilling to yield. "My timetable," announced Feldmann, "is to hold a conference in February to discuss the draft law."

It was 4:30 in the afternoon. Bern, Switzerland's federal capital, was dark. Gravely, Markus Feldmann said good-bye to his visitors. As the eight walked out of the parliament building into a dimly lit square, the floodlights illuminating the solidly built structures nearby confirmed the realities of power in Switzerland. On the left was the Berner Kantonalbank, the headquarters of a regional center of finance. On the right was the headquarters of Switzerland's National Bank. For twelve years, the representatives of Nazi Germany's central bank had walked through its stone doorway to be welcomed by their Swiss friends. Even after Hitler's defeat, the bank's directors — ignoring the Allies' outrage — had continued to look after the interests of Germany. Their motives were not humane. Self-interest was the supreme guide for all of Switzerland's banks, which was the precise reason why, soon after Markus Feldmann bid farewell, he bowed to Oetterli's demands and abandoned the notion of serving morality. Any thought of a new law was jettisoned.

New York–October 16, 1996

The aged, tearful faces revealed a lifetime's suffering. Under jarring neon lights in an eighth-floor conference room within sight of the Statue of Liberty, the witnesses could hardly disguise their unique odyssey. Surrounded by murmuring journalists, lawyers and officials, the five women and one man, cast as victims and survivors, were united by a recurring nightmare and a searing loss. They had been nurtured amid wealth and love in Jewish communities scattered across Europe, but their childhood security had been shattered and their loving parents murdered by unforgiving persecution. By twist of fate and good fortune, unlike six million others, they had survived Auschwitz and other infamous slaughterhouses to enjoy the affluence of New York. Even that salvation, over the years, had not dented the sorrow or the anger aroused by their bitter inheritance. Too late to exact retribution against the murderers of their parents, they had eagerly accepted an invitation to travel on that bright October morning in 1996 to a drab federal courthouse to testify on behalf of an unusual indictment.

Over the decades, respected judges within that concrete building had heard innumerable accounts of New York's sordid crimes and bewildering inhumanity, but no witness had been summoned to relate a similar chronicle of profiting from mass murder — an unprecedented theft committed by the apparently respectable citizens of the world's most peaceful nation. Renowned as diligent bookkeepers, those burghers had insulted, ignored and ultimately forgotten the six witnesses and many more who had pleaded for understanding. Now the witnesses gloried in an unexpected opportunity to revive some unfinished business and compel the bookkeepers to submit a final account.

(Continues…)


Excerpted from "Nazi Gold and Klaus Barbie"
by .
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Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
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Table of Contents

  • Contents
  • Nazi Gold
    • Title Page
    • Dedication
    • List of Abbreviations
    • Preface
    • 1 Confrontation and Tears
    • 2 The Seeds of Crime
    • 3 The Crusade
    • 4 Looted Gold
    • 5 “An Impenetrable Racket”
    • 6 Cracks
    • 7 The Nazis’ Friends
    • 8 The Pawns
    • 9 Washington Showdown
    • 10 The Hidden Millions
    • 11 Perfidious Swiss
    • 12 The Polish Conspiracy
    • 13 New Hope
    • 14 Keepers of the Flame
    • 15 Complicating the Riddle
    • 16 The Deal
    • Final Words
    • Postscript
    • Sources
    • Bibliography
    • Index
    • Acknowledgments
  • Klaus Barbie
    • Title Page
    • Glossary
    • Preface and Acknowledgments
    • The Conspiracy
    • The Nazi
    • The Betrayal
    • The Butcher
    • The Coup
    • The Devastation
    • The Fugitive
    • The Mercenary
    • The Deception
    • The Rat Line
    • The Nazi Hunters
    • The Retribution
    • Aftermath
    • Note on Sources
    • Bibliography
    • Index
  • About the Author
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