Chasing Gold: The Incredible Story of How the Nazis Stole Europe's Bullion (89 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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Pescatore, J. P., Fund, 228
Pétain, Philippe
government of, 236–237, 253, 256, 271, 307, 315
meeting with Hitler, 324
Peter II of Yugoslavia, 327, 330
Peter the Great, 342
Petrograd, 335
Pfeiffer, Franz, 422, 423, 426
Philby, Kim (code-named
Söhnchen
), 15
Philip, Prince of Hesse, 96–97
Philippstal mine, discovery of valuables in, 404
Phillips, Sir Frederick, xi, 287, 288, 291–292, 293, 300, 302
Phony War, 205, 270
Pierlot, Herbert, 233
Pilot Boat 19
, 220, 221–222, 225
Pilotti, Rafaelie, 366
Piłsudski, Józef, 135, 138
Pius XI, 259
Pius XII, xi, 9, 209, 260, 261, 262, 268, 374
meeting with Taylor, Myron, 263
Place des Quinconces, 237
Plan R4, 177
Plant No. 171, 344
Plauen, gold in, 410
Pohl, Oswald, 357, 359–360
Poison gas, British cabinet approval of, 322
Poitiers, 234
Poland
close of border with Romania, 143
demands for restitution, 430
fall of, 163, 173
German invasion of, 128, 129–149, 151, 155, 176–177, 241, 288, 300, 384
gold of, 312
fate of, 318–319
German demands for, 136–149
movement of, 136, 137–138, 176–177, 272
in Hitler’s mind, 130
inferior people in, 130
military spending by, 135
mutual defense treaty with France, 133, 134
partitioning of, 130
reestablishment of, by Versailles Treaty, 130
Soviet control of, 429
Polish Central Bank, gold ownership of, 136
Polish National Bank, board members of, 273
Polish National Railway, 138
Pontaniou prison, 272
Popular Front, 9, 11
formation of, 9
Portes, Helène de, 5
Port Etienne, 309
Port Lyautey, 309
Portugal
gold transfers from, 170
Nazi gold and, 432, 442
negotiations with the Allies, 432
raw materials in, 39, 376, 383
Salazar, António de Oliveira in, 9
U.S. receipt of gold from, 170
wartime activities of, 431
Posey, Robert, 411
Potenza, 366–367
Potsdam meeting, 429
The Power of Gold
(Bernstein), 1
PQ 11, 353
Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets, 432
The Price of Glory
(Schirach), 427
Prices
(Pearson and Warren), 52
Prieto, Indalecio, 20
Primauguet
, 282–283
Prior, William, 178
Program to Prevent Germany from Starting a World War, 389
Promontory Summit, 4
Prussian Mint, 359, 397
Prussian State Opera, 396
Puaux, Gabriel, 146
Puhl, Emil, xi
attempt to sell Nazi gold, 418–419
Bank for International Settlements and, 356
gold deals with the Swiss, 379, 441
on McKittrick, 380, 441
running of Reichsbank and, 127, 169, 305, 356–357, 359–360, 370, 373
as Schacht’s protégé, 121
secret memo written by, 102–103
visit to Sweden, 382
Purvis, Arthur B., 162
Pyrite, 383
Q
Qemali, Ismail, 198
Quai de Laninon, 247
Quai d’Orsay, 245
Queen Mary
, 165
R
RADAR, 323
Radio Corporation of America, 78
Radstadt, 418
Raeder, Erich, 87
invasion of low countries and, 173–174
Rahn, Rudolf, xi, 364, 365, 366, 371
Rajchman, Henryk, 139
Rašín, Alois, 105
Rauch, Friedrich Josef, xi, 419, 421, 423, 426
Rave, Paul, xvi, 403
Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 51
purchase of gold mined in U.S. and, 54
Reed, John, 336
Reed, Robert, 400
Reichenau, Walter von, 236
Reichsbank, 118–128
absorption of Austrian National Bank, 100–101
Allied bombing of, 395, 397
Czech National Bank turnover of gold reserves to, 111
emptying of account in London, 113
Funk, Walther, as president of, 394–395, 400, 401, 410
gold holdings at the end of World War II, 443
gold policy of, 36
hiding of gold in, 69
Precious Metal Department of, 101, 398
Puhl and, 101, 121, 123, 127, 169, 305, 356–357, 359–360, 370, 373
rumors on movement of gold, xiv
under Schacht, Hjalmar, 77, 78–79, 81, 82
Schacht’s desire to exit, 121–122
Soviet interest in getting gold left at, 394
as tempting bombing target, 394
valuables left in vaults of, 411–412
Reichsbank gold train, 420–421
Reichskonkordat
agreement, 260
Reichsmark, value of, 28
Reichstag, Göring election as president of, 62
Reichswerke Hermann Göring, 68
Reimer, Otto, 398, 402
Reinberger, Hellmuth, 173
Rennes, German capture of, 271
Renoir, paintings by, 397
Rentenmark, introduction of, 28–29
Renthe-Fink, Cecil von, conquest of Denmark and, 178–179
“Report on Recovery of Reichsbank Precious Metals,” 411
Republicans in Spanish Civil War, 8, 9
Reynaud, Paul, xi, 5
Churchill, Winston, and, 177, 244–245
French government of, 236–237
German invasion of France and, 279
purchase of American planes and, 163–164
resignation of, 253
Rheims, 401
Rheinstahl, start of dummy company and, 42
Rhineland, postwar control of, 389
Rhine River, Allied army crossing of, xiii
Rhodes, 367
Ribbentrop, Joachim von
desire for gold, 370, 372
as Foreign Minister, xi, 40, 90, 95, 106, 110, 132, 145, 163
Italian gold and, 364–365, 368
on McKittrick, 380
meeting with Pius XII, 261
Stalin and, 151
stolen gold and, 396, 410, 417
Ribbentrop-Molotov Treaty (1939), 151–152
Ricardo, David, 26
Richelieu
, 314
Riga, 153
Riyak, 146
Robert, George, 256, 307
Robles, José María Gil, 10
Rohatyn, Felix, 5
Röhm, Ernst, 62
Roman Catholic Church, 259.
See also
Vatican
in Spanish Civil War, 8–9, 10
Romania
Belgian gold in, 316
close of border with Poland, 143
fate of, 316
move of Polish gold and, 142–143, 145
Nazi development of natural resources of, 384
oil in, 40, 326, 376, 384
sales of Nazi gold and, 442
sending of bullion to U.S., 164
Soviet control of, 429
wartime activities of, 431
Romanian National Bank, Nazi gold at, 384
Rome
Allied invasion of, 363
as open city, 364
Rommel, Erwin, 242–243
Romsdalshorn, 186
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 392
FDR’s affair with Mercer, Lucy, and, 54–55
friendship with Morganthau, Elinor, 49
Roosevelt, Franklin D., xi, 47–59, 251
affair with Mercer, Lucy, 54–55
arms sales and, 160, 241
as assistant secretary of the navy, 48
blocking of gold transfer by, 154
on buy up of raw materials, 165–166
cabinet of, 159
campaigns for NY governor, 49
Cash and Carry program and, 166
Chamberlain and, 288
Churchill, Winston, and, 300, 301–302
death of, 392, 406
decline in health of, 389
disdain for gold and international financial cooperation, 52–53
in election of 1932, 50
fireside chats of, 54
Foreign Economic Administration of, 389
French war effort and, 279
friendship with Morganthau, Henry, Jr., 47, 49, 50, 159
German attack on Russia and, 339
gold policy of, 54
gold standard and, 52
hundred-day program of, 54
inauguration of, in 1933, 52
luncheons with Morgenthau and, 336–337
meeting with Churchill in Quebec, 389–390
Morgenthau’s concerns over international issues, 161
New Deal of, 44, 153
personality of, 47
post-war policy toward Germany, 389
purchase of gold and, 55–56
on reason for having gold, 438
Russia and, 336
sale of American weapons and, 241
Schacht and, 41
sending of Lend-Lease into law, 305
stabilization of dollar and, 53–54
unhappiness of, with Bank for International Settlement, 380–381
Vatican and, 259–268
voice recording system used by, 57
Roosevelt, Franklin D., Presidential Library, 57
Roosevelt, Theodore, administration of, 50
Rooth, Ivar, 167–168, 381
Rosenberg, Marcel, 13–14, 18–19
Rosenberg-Lipinsky, Hans Alfred von, 4250
Rosenburg Island, 220
Rostock, storage of records in Merkers, 396
Rotterdam, 210, 211–212
gold bullion in central bank at, 207, 208
Rouyer, Rear Admiral, 247–248
Royal Air Force, 322, 323
Royal Bank of Canada, 250
Royal Dutch Steamboat Company (KNSM), 214
Royal Palace of Laeken, 236
Royan, 276
Rubber, German need for, 165
Rueff, Jacques, 293–294, 436
Ruge, Otto, 183, 187–188
Rüger, Heinz, 425
Ruhr, postwar control of, 389
Rundstedt, Gerd von, 205, 242, 248
Russell, Lt. Col., discovery of German gold and paintings and, xiv–xvi
Russia.
See also
Soviet Union
civil war in, 335–336
gold production in, 334, 437
Napoleon’s invasion of, 339
natural resources in, 334–335
Russian Revolution, 14, 131, 335, 337, 342
Russo-Polish war, guerilla operations during, 14
Rygg, Nicolai, xi, 176, 177, 182, 183
S
Sachsenhausen concentration camp, 356
Sadkowksi, stanisław, 137
St. Stephen’s Cathedral, 95
Saint Jean, 278
Saint-Jedan-de Luz, 280
St John’s, Newfoundland, 298
Saint Louis, 278
Saint-Nazaire, 275
Salazar, Antonio, 383
Salo, 363
Salzburg, closing of border between Germany and Austria at, 95
Salzgitter, 68
Samaria
, 165
San Sirolamo Degli Illirici, College of, 416
Sardinia, 364
Sas, Jacob, 209, 212
Sauøy, 190
Sayer, Ian, 427
Scapa Flow, 192
Schacht, Eddy, 25
Schacht, Hjalmar, xi, 24, 25–27, 439
autarky and, 39, 40–42, 386
autobiography of, 27–28
banking and, 25
belief in bullion, 6
demeanor of, 25–26
desire to exit Reichsbank, 121–122
at dinner party with Göring, 31–32
economic policies of, 26, 40, 44, 45–46
founding of Bank of International Settlements and, 78–79, 84
as General Plenipotentiary of War Economy, 41
German inflation and, 27, 28–29, 74
in German politics, 31
German Reichsbank under, 36, 66, 72–73, 75–76, 77, 78–79, 81, 82
Göring’s challenge for control of economy, 60, 62, 70, 71–72, 73, 87
hiding of German gold and, 45
Hitler and, 32, 33, 35–36, 46, 67, 73, 74, 120, 122–127
on importance of gold in military buildup, 44–45
interest in defecting to U.S., 74
interrogation of, at Nuremberg trials, 43
invasion of Austria and, 97
loyalty to the Nazis, 32, 33–34
as managing director of Danat Bank, 27
meeting with leaders of Roosevelt, Franklin D.’s administration, 41
as member of Confessional Church, 356
as member of Reich Defense Council, 36
as Minister of Economic Affairs, 41
as Minister of Economics, 66
as Minister Without Portfolio, 74, 126
New Plan of 1934 of, 325
Norman and, 29, 120, 124, 127
ouster of, from Reichsbank, 169, 356
as Plenipoteniary for War Economy, 66, 70–71
post-war memoirs of, 46
at post-war trial at Nuremberg, 32
reach out to anti-Hitler opposition, 119
refusal to recognize war debt, 30
resignation of, in 1930, 31
role of, in start of BIS, 379
secret financial machinations of, 130–131
service on the Reichsbank board, 32
takeover of Austrian National Bank and, 100–101
Thompson, Dorothy’s interview of, 32–33
travels of, 31, 127–128

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