Chasing Gold: The Incredible Story of How the Nazis Stole Europe's Bullion (66 page)
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Authors: George M. Taber
BOOK: Chasing Gold: The Incredible Story of How the Nazis Stole Europe's Bullion
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Reichsbank Gold Holdings at the End of World War II
7
7
$256 million
Total Nazi Gold Trade 1938-1945
8
8
Reichsbank gold transactions
$909.2 million
Looted from central banks
$475 million
Seized from individuals, both German and others
$146 million
Nazi spent during the war and lost gold
$645 million
Gold Recovered in Germany in 1945
9
9
U.S. Army recoveries from April-December 1945
$262.2 million
Merkers
$238.5 million
Reichsbank branches
$14 million
Other locations
$9.7 million
Bullion Soviet army seized at the Reichsbank in Berlin
$4 million
Tripartite Commission Restitution of Monetary Gold
10
10
Claimed
Recognized
Netherlands
145.7 tons
110.2 tons
Italy
73.4
69.3 tons
Albania
2.6
2.3 tons
Austria
91.3
78.3 tons
Czechoslovakia
45
13.3 tons
Yugoslavia
12.3
2.7 tons
Belgium
204.9
198.4 tons
Greece
12.6
none
Luxembourg
4.3
4.2 tons
Poland
138.7
(Danzig only) 4.1 tons
ENDNOTES
ABBREVIATIONS
BA
British Archives
BHM
Bavarian Main State Archives Munich
BNB
Belgian National Bank Archives
FDR
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library
FNB
French National Bank
Fold3
Fold3 Website
GARF
The State Archive of the Russian Federation
GFAB
German Federal Archives Berlin
HM
Papers and Diary of Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
HT
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library
BC
Italian Central Bank Archives
IMT
International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg Trial)
IWM
Imperial War Museum, London
NACP
U.S. National Archives College Park, Maryland
NAN
National Archives of Norway
NYFED
New York Federal Reserve
RGAE
Russian State Archive of the Economy
RGASPI
Russian State Archive of Social and Political History
RGVA
Russian State Military Archives
TCA
Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary
Gold Adjudication, National Archives College Park
TD
Thomas Dodd Nuremberg Papers, University
of Connecticut
TsA
Central Archive of the Federal Security Service of the
Russian Federation
PROLOGUE
1.
Greater glory to come: Charles M. Province,
Patton’s Third Army, p. 223
.
2.
Your just reward: “Absolute War” in
The Poems of George Patton
.
3.
Down the road: NACP RG 331 Bernstein Report to Brig. Gen. F.J. McSherry G-4. /390/46/9/2. Function in ETOUSA Operations: Merkers-Harringen-Frankfurt Areas in Germany 9 April to 22 April 1945. Dated 26 April 26, 1945.
4.
Back to Merkers:
Ibid
.
5.
Arrested all the mine executives:
Ibid
.
6.
Cardboard or wooden containers: NACP RG 260 Monthly Report of Financial Aspects of the Allied Occupation of Germany, April 1945.
7.
Property in world history: NACP RG 331 Report of Developments in Removal of Treasure from Kaiseroda Mine at Merkers, Germany sent to Brig. Gen. McSherry April 8, 1945. Arthur Smith,
Hitler’s Gold
, p.163.
CHAPTER ONE: THE GLITTER OF GOLD
1.
The human race: Gerard Loeb,
Battle for Investment Survival
, p. 102.
2.
Period of time: Peter L. Bernstein,
The Power of Gold
, p. 367.
3.
A barbaric relic: John Maynard Keynes,
Monetary Reform
, p. 172.
4.
On each side: Peter L. Bernstein,
The Power of Gold
, p. 3, and World Gold Council.
5.
Second Millennium
B.C.
: Fernand Braudel,
Memory and the Mediterranean
, p. 61.
6.
Things go smoothly: Thucydides,
The History of the Peloponnesian War
, VI, 34, 2, the Jowett Translation.
7.
In great quantities: Fordham University, Internet Medieval Sourcebook. www.fordham.edu.
Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal
.
8.
Most productive eras:
Ibid. Columbus Letter to the King and Queen of Spain, 1494
.
9.
An ounce: World Gold Council paper by Timothy Green, Central Bank Reserves, www.gold.org.
10.
Pre-war level: The Churchill Centre, www.winstonchurchill.org, speech May 4, 1925, House of Commons.
11.
In the bourgeois sense: Joseph Schumpeter,
History of Economic Analysis
, p. 406.
12.
The twenty-first century: Peter L. Bernstein,
The Power of Gold
, p. 372.
13.
Vote for Gold:
Ibid
. p. 369.
14.
In his mattress: Benjamin P. Thomas and Harold M. Hyman,
Stanton
, p. 319.
15.
Limit the power of government: Liaquat Ahamed,
Lords of Finance
, p. 169.
16.
The toothpaste tubes: Felix Rohatyn,
Dealings
, p. 3.
17.
Worth of gold: Noel Barber,
The Week France Fell
, p. 298.
18.
Before a higher god: Adolf Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, Vol. 2, Chapter 2.
19.
Europe’s national depositories: Arthur L. Smith, Jr.,
Hitler’s Gold
, p. 163. Hjalmar Schacht,
Gold for Europe
, p. 13.
20.
All hazards get gold: Peter L. Bernstein,
The Power of Gold
, p. 15.
CHAPTER TWO: SPANISH PRELUDE
1.
Half a million dead: Hugh Thomas,
Spanish Civil War
, p. 900.
2.
In its vaults: Angel Viñas,
The Financing of the Civil War in the book Revolution and War in Spain 1931-1939
, p. 267.
3.
National parliament: Gerald Howson,
Arms for Spain
, p. 2.
4.
Sisters were killed: Paul Preston,
The Church’s Crusade Against the Republic
, p. 53.
5.
Religion and the church: Papal Encyclicals Online, Pius XI,
Dilectissima Nobis
. www.papalencyclicals.net.
6.
Nationalists and Catholicism: Hugh Thomas,
Spanish Civil War
, pp. 938-939.
7.
Plotted a coup d’etat: Gerald Howson,
Arms for Spain
, pp. 5-15.
8.
Funeral of democracy: Hugh Thomas,
Spanish Civil War
, p. 5.
9.
Republican-controlled Madrid: Oliver Todd,
Malraux
, p. 181.
10.
Planes to Franco: Hugh Thomas,
Spanish Civil War
, 331-334. Angel Viñas,
The Financing of the Civil War
, p. 253.
11.
Until March 1937:
Ibid
. Angel Viñas, p. 268.
12.
From your country: Hugh Thomas,
Spanish Civil War
, p. 338.
13.
Spanish Republic: Oliver Todd,
Malraux
, p. 183.
14.
Bullion to France: Angel Viñas,
The Financing of the Civil War
, p. 268
15.
Pessimistic reports: Daniel Kowalsky.
Stalin and The Spanish Civil War
. Chapter 1.
16.
And code breakers:
Ibid
., chapter 9.
17.
The artillery fire: W.G. Krivitsky,
In Stalin’s Secret Service
, p. 71.
18.
Agency’s economic department: Edward Gazur,
Alexander Orlov
, p. 14.
19.
On September 16: Alexander Orlov,
Reader’s Digest
, December 1966, pp. 31–43.
20.
Gave to Franco: RGASPI, Fond 17, op. 166.
21.
The good life: Bolloten, p. 143.
22.
Million gold dollars: Louis Fischer,
Men and Politics
, p. 356.
23.
All with aviation: Kowalsky, Daniel.
Stalin and The Spanish Civil War
, chapter 3.
24.
The best security: Edward Gazur,
Alexander Orlov
, p. 85.
25.
For the government: Angel Viñas,
The Financing of the Civil War
, p. 228.
26.
The Spanish gold: W.G. Krivitsky,
In Stalin’s Secret Service
, p. 87.
27.
In Soviet Russia: Alexander Orlov,
March of Time
, p. 384.
28.
Time of delivery: Gerald Howson,
Arms for Spain
, p. 122.
29.
By Schwed personally: Alexander Orlov,
March of Time
pp. 381-382.
30.
To that country:
Ibid
. p. 385.
31.
To store munitions:
Ibid
. pp. 385-387.
32.
Bank of America:
Ibid
. p. 387.
33.
Arriving Soviet vessel: Alexander Orlov,
Readers Digest
.
34.
Carry each box: Alexander Orlov,
March of Time
p. 91
35.
When he could: Alexander Orlov,
Reader’s Digest
.
36.
Soon be over: Alexander Orlov,
March of Time
p. 391.
37.
Settle the problem: Edward Gazur,
Alexander Orlov
, p. 93.
38.
Checked and weighed:
Ibid
.
39.
Be legally meaningless: RGVA RF, Fond 05, Litvinov Files, op. 16, P.114, file 1.
40.
Sure of your figure: John Costello and Oleg Tsarev,
Deadly Illusions
, p. 262.
41.
Your figure to anybody:
Ibid
.
42.
End to end: W.G. Krivitsky,
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