The Story Behind the Nazi Gold :: World War II History

The Story target the Nazi GoldNazi Gold Hard currency ransacked from treasuries of countries occupied by the Axis powers during World War II. Ingots consisting of bullion limpid down from the teeth of murder victims and weddings bands and jewelry. About two thirds of an estimated $660 million ($7.8 trillion in todays dollars) in stolen Nazi gilded passed through Switzerland during the war. And like either sharp businessmen with hot cheeseparings, the Swiss disposed of much of their coin quickly - through Portugal mainly, but also to Sweden, Spain, and other central banks (Hirsh 48). believably no to a greater extent that $140 million frame unaccounted for, and a good portion of that was probably sold onward as well. But what remains of the known Nazi hoard (none of which has been returned to the Jewish community) is cost no more than about $65 million according to the Brussels-based Tripartite Gold Commission, unsex up after World War II to return stolen luxurious to nat ional treasuries. Recently the Clinton administration created a commission to search for each Nazi funds that might feel ended up in U.S. Federal Reserve vaults. We have to be willing not that to focus the spotlight on Switzerland, says Under Secretary of Commerce Stuart Eizenstat. We have to be willing to follow the trail of assets into our own treasury (qtd. in Hirsh 47). This trail though, suggests that there is no huge stash of Nazi funds in Switzerland. The loot has scattered worldwide through numerous proceedings and is probably irretrievable. Also, because so many banks were involved, the amount of gold left in Switzerland is probably negligible, contrary to what investigators have until now presumed. At this point the appeal or returning the Nazi Gold to its rightful owners is not worth the trouble and inconvenience it would create.Documents released in recent months have made it reform that Swiss banks traded in looted Nazi-gold, and that Swiss businesses made a dow er selling arms to the Nazis. In a historical report create around May 9,1997, it was said that there was no depict that the Swiss or other neutral countries knew that gold from the central banks had been smelted together with gold fillings, wedding bands, and other jewelry stolen from Holocaust victims (Sanger). But, Eizenstat found incontrovertible evidence that Swiss bankers knew they were trading in gold that Germany had looted from the treasuries of states it occupied, and also a handwritten ledger sheet from the Reichsbank showed a deposit of 29,996 grams of dental gold into a Swiss account (A harsh.