Chasing Gold: The Incredible Story of How the Nazis Stole Europe's Bullion (83 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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The sight that American G.I.s saw after they blasted open the door. Reichsbank officials had carefully lined up bags of gold, each containing two bars, into long rows.
Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library Photo Collection
.
General Eisenhower and his staff examined both the bags of bullion and the priceless museum art that the Nazis had hastily packed and sent south by train from Berlin.
Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library Photo Collection
.
Colonel Bernard Bernstein examines the contents of a suitcase of valuables taken from inmates of Nazi prison camps. U.S. soldiers at first thought it was simple war booty, but the colonel knew it was from Jewish victims.
Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library Photo Collection
.
A box of gold wedding rings discovered near the Buchenwald concentration camp in southern Germany.
Courtesy of the Holocaust Museum Photo Collection
.
Refugees trying to flee Berlin in early 1945 after the bombing of the Reichsbank building in February.
Hjalmar Schacht, in May 1945, at the Dachau concentration camp. The Nazis had arrested him in July 1944 after the attempt on Hitler’s life.
Both photos courtesy of Bundesarchiv Berlin Photo Collection
.
INDEX
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
A
A4
, 234
Aachen, 231–232
Aalborg, German attack on, 178
Abyssinian War, 285
Acheson, Dean, 53, 56
Addis Ababa, 367
Adler
(freight train), 420, 422
Aeneid
(Virgil), 1
Agadir, Morocco, movement of French gold to, 315
Agar, Augustus, 289–290, 295
Agricultural Advisory Commission, Morganthau, Henry, Jr. as head of, 49
Agriculture Adjustment Act (1933), 51
Ahamed, Liaquat, 4–5, 59
Albania
demands for restitution, 430–431
dispute with British over Nazi gold, 430–431, 449
gold of, 365
Italian conquest of, 197–203
stolen gold of, 440
Albanian Central Bank, gold of, 202–203
Albert Canal, 231, 232
Albert I, King of Belgium, 211, 233
Alchemy, 2
Alexander III, czar of Russia, 334
Alfhild II
, 190, 191, 192
Algérie
, 242
Algiers, gold in, 316–317, 319
Allied Gold Declaration, 387–388
Allied gold pool, 429–430
Alpenfestung
(Alpine fortress), 395–396
Altaussee, 417
Amalienborg, German capture of, 178
Amann, Max, 379
American Agriculturist
, Morganthau’s ownership of, 49, 57
Amis, 424, 427
Amsterdam, 210.
See also
Netherlands
Dutch bullion at central bank in, 207
Åndalsnes, 183, 184, 185–186, 187
Angell, James, 429–430
Anglo-French Purchasing Board, 162
Ankara, Turkey, shipment of French gold to, 241
Anschluss
, 91, 95, 98–99, 103, 161, 430
Ansiaux, Hubert, ix, 233–234, 236, 237, 238
Anti-Bretton Woods offensive, 436
Anti-Catholicism, 259
Anti-Semitism, 27, 50, 121, 153, 260.
See also
Jews
Antonov-Ovseyenko, Vladimir, 14
Antwerp, 228
Apolda, bank in, 409
Aragaz
, 277
Archangel, 347, 348
Archer, Ernest, 297, 298
Ardennes forest, German offensive in, 206, 242, 392, 413
Argentina, wartime activities of, 431
Argonne Forest, Battle of, 243
Army of Africa, Franco as commander of, 12
Arnhem, 225
Aryanization of the German economy, 385
Ashkenazy Jews, 14
Aspe, Francisco Méndez, 17, 21–23
Attlee, Clement, 429
Auboin, Roger, 113
Auschwitz death camp, 356, 359
Australia, gold production in, 437
Austria
Anschluss
in, 91, 95, 98–99, 103, 161
demands for restitution, 430
DSK operations in, 70
exchange rate in, 97, 98
German takeover of, 86–103, 118–119, 130, 200
gold holdings of, 99, 159, 440
instability of, following World War I, 91
Keppler, Wilhelm, as commissioner of, 92–93
Nazi seizure of gold in, 101, 160, 229–230
plebiscite in over union with Germany, 93, 94, 95, 96
shipment of gold to Czechoslovakia, 99
stolen gold of, 440
takeover of iron and steel facilities in, 68
under-valuation of currency of, 97
Austria Central Bank, gold of, 99
Austrian National Bank, 99
Reichsbank absorption of, 100–101
Austrian Nazi Party, 95
Austro-Prussian War (1866), 24–25
Autarky, 37.
See also
Self-sufficiency
backing of, by I. G. Farben, 38
Nazi party belief in, 37
Schachtian system of, 39, 40–42, 64–65, 66, 386
Autobahn, 36
Azaña, Manuel, 9, 17
Azzolini, Vincenzo
attitude of, 370–371
Bank for International Settlements and, 373
as president of the Bank of Italy, ix, 364, 366–367, 368, 369, 372
trial of, 373–374
B
Bad Godesberg, 108
Badoglio, Pietro, 201, 364
Bad Salzungen, 399, 400
Bad Sulza, 417
Bad Tölz, 400, 420
Balkans, 322–332
Soviet activity in, 316
Baltic States, 151–157.
See also countries in
gold as problem in, 153–154
mutual assistance pacts and, 152
Bamako, gold in, 316
Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
Austrian gold in, 101
Azzolini and, 373
Baltic banks and, 154
Beyen as president of, ix, 81, 82, 112–113, 114, 115
central bankers and, 99
Czech gold at, 111, 112, 115–117, 160
establishment of, in Basel, Switzerland, 78, 80
executives of, 81, 82, 83
facilitation of German war reparations and, 79
gold shipments to New York by, 167
holding of gold reserves for member countries, 84
Italian gold at, 365
McKittrick as president of, x, 305, 366, 380, 418
member banks of, 80
multinational reputation of, 81
Nazi battle for gold and, 84, 379–381, 442
outbreak of World War II and, 84
Puhl as delegate to board of, 356
Romanian gold holdings at, 384
Roosevelt, Franklin D.’s unhappiness with, 380–381
Schacht as founder of, 78–79, 84
sending of money to Gosbank, 153
Bank Leu, sales of Nazi gold and, 442
Bank of Bohemia and Moravia, 113, 116–117
Bank of Canada, 286
movement of gold to, 287, 296–297
Bank of Danzig, 136
Bank of Denmark, emptying of vaults at, 176
Bank of England
Austrian gold in, 101
Belgian gold at, 231, 234
Czech gold at, 112
establishment of, 5
Germany’s account at, 101
gold storage in U.S. and, 164–165
holding of gold reserves and, 84
movement of gold and, 285–286, 296–297
under Norman, Montagu, 77, 80–81, 82, 84, 163
sale of gold by, 100
sequestering of Baltic gold reserves and, 154
Bank of Finland, 155, 157
Bank of France
Belgian gold at, 231
gold transfer from, 307–310
Moret, Clément, as governor of, 240
sale of gold bullion to, 148–149
Bank of Iceland, gold traffic and, 167
Bank of Italy, 363–364
gold in, 202–203, 374
shipment of gold to BIS, 366
Bank of Latvia, gold traffic and, 167
Bank of Poland, German demand for gold from, 138
Bank of Romania, gold traffic and, 167
Banque Bulgare de Commerce, 385
Banque d’Athenes (Greece), 385
Banque de l’Indochine, 281
Banque Nationale de Belgique
, 228
Bao-Dai, 281
Bara

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