Nazi gold (german: Raubgold, "stolen gold") is
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
possessed by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. Much of the focus of the discussion is about how much of this was transferred by
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
to overseas banks during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
; the ruling Nazi party executed a policy of looting the assets of its victims (nationally and internationally, including from those in concentration camps) to accumulate wealth, at least partly to finance the war efforts. Because gold stores are often private, exact details of transactions and storage are difficult to precisely identify. Gold that was collected was stored at least in part in central depositories. The transfer of gold in return for currency took place in collusion with many individual
collaborative
Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...
institutions. Although Swiss banks have been commonly identified as holding ill-gotten Nazi gold (although a nominally neutral party to the conflict, this in essence helped fund the Nazi war effort), the exact identities of the foreign banking institutions as well as the exact extent of the transactions remains unclear.
The present whereabouts of Nazi gold that disappeared into European banking institutions in 1945 has been the subject of several books,
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
, and a failed
civil suit brought in January 2000 against the
Vatican Bank
The Institute for the Works of Religion ( it, Istituto per le Opere di Religione; la, Institutum pro Operibus Religionis; abbreviated IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a financial institution situated inside Vatican City and run by a ...
, the
Franciscan Order
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
, and other defendants.
Acquisition
![Schachtanlage Merkers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Schachtanlage_Merkers.jpg)
The draining of Germany's gold and foreign exchange reserves inhibited the acquisition of
materiel
Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context.
In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the specifi ...
, and the Nazi economy, focused on militarisation, could not afford to deplete the means to procure foreign machinery and parts. Nonetheless, towards the end of the 1930s, Germany's
foreign reserves
Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, influence ...
were unsustainably low. By 1939, Germany had defaulted upon its foreign loans and most of its trade relied upon
command economy
A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, part ...
barter
In trade, barter (derived from ''baretor'') is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Economists distingu ...
.
However, this tendency towards
autarkic
Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems.
Autarky as an ideal or method has been embraced by a wide range of political ideologies and movements, especiall ...
conservation of foreign reserves concealed a trend of expanding official reserves, which occurred through looting assets from annexed
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, occupied
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
, and Nazi-governed
Danzig.
[UK Treasury correspondence, T 236/931.] It is believed that these three sources boosted German official gold reserves by US$71m ($1.3b 2020) between 1937 and 1939.
To mask the acquisition, the
Reichsbank
The ''Reichsbank'' (; 'Bank of the Reich, Bank of the Realm') was the central bank of the German Reich from 1876 until 1945.
History until 1933
The Reichsbank was founded on 1 January 1876, shortly after the establishment of the German Empi ...
understated its official reserves in 1939 by $40m relative to the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
's estimates.
During the war, Nazi Germany continued the practice on a much larger scale. Germany expropriated some $550m in gold from foreign governments, including $223m from
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
and $193m from the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
.
These figures do not include gold and other instruments stolen from private citizens or companies. The total value of all assets allegedly stolen by Nazi Germany remains uncertain.
Merkers Mine
Advancing north from
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, the
US 3rd Army
The United States Army Central, formerly the Third United States Army, commonly referred to as the Third Army and as ARCENT, is a military formation of the United States Army which saw service in World War I and World War II, in the 1991 Gulf Wa ...
cut into the future
Soviet zone when it occupied the western tip of
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
. On 4 April 1945 the
90th Infantry Division 90th Division may refer to:
;Infantry
* 90th Division (1st Formation)(People's Republic of China), 1949–1950
* 90th Division (2nd Formation)(People's Republic of China), 1950–1952
* 90th Light Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
* 90th Infantry Divi ...
took
Merkers
Merkers-Kieselbach is a former Municipalities in Germany, municipality in the Wartburgkreis Districts of Germany, district of Thuringia, Germany. Since 31 December 2013, it is part of the municipality Krayenberggemeinde.
Geography
Merkers-Kieselb ...
, a few kilometres inside the border in Thuringia. On the morning of the 6th, two military policemen,
Pfc. Clyde Harmon and Pfc. Anthony Kline, enforcing the customary orders against civilian circulation during an evening curfew, stopped two women on a road outside Merkers. Since both were French
displaced person
Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, g ...
s, with one of them pregnant attempting to find a doctor, the
military policemen decided to bring them back to Pfc. Richard C. Mootz. Luckily for Mootz, he and the women had something in common: they could all speak German. While getting to know them better and escorting them back into the town, they passed the entrance to the
Kaiseroda salt mine in Merkers.
The two women told Mootz that the mine contained gold stored by the Germans, along with other treasures. Once back in his unit, he attempted to tell three other officers, but they weren't interested in listening. He called other military personnel; by noon, the story had passed on up to the chief of staff and the division's G-5 officer, Lt. Col. William A. Russell, who, in a few hours, had the news confirmed by other DPs and by a British sergeant who had been employed in the mine as a prisoner of war and had helped unload the gold. Russell also turned up an assistant director of the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
in Berlin who admitted he was in Merkers to care for paintings stored in the mine.
The next day was Sunday. In the morning, while
Colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
Bernard D. Bernstein, Deputy Chief, Financial Branch, G-5,
SHAEF
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...
, read about the find
in the ''
Stars and Stripes''s Paris edition, 90th Infantry Division engineers blasted a hole in the vault wall to reveal on the other side a room wide and deep. They found 3,682 bags and cartons of German currency, 80 bags of foreign currency, 8,307 gold bars, 55 boxes of gold bullion, 3,326 bags of gold coins, 63 bags of silver, one bag of platinum bars, eight bags of gold rings and 207 bags and containers of Nazi loot that included valuable artwork.
On Sunday afternoon, Bernstein, after verifying to the fullest the newspaper story with Lt Col R. Tupper Barrett, Chief, Financial Branch, G-5, 12th Army Group, flew to SHAEF Forward at
Rheims
Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne.
Founded by ...
where he spent the night, it being too late by then to fly into Germany. At noon on Monday, he arrived at General
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...
's Third Army Headquarters with instructions from
Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
to check the contents of the mine and arrange to have the treasure taken away. While he was there, orders arrived for him to locate a depository farther back in the SHAEF zone and supervise the moving. (Under the
Big Three arrangements, the part of Germany containing Merkers would be taken over by the Soviets for
military government control after the fighting ended.)
Bernstein and Barrett spent Tuesday looking for a site and finally settled on the Reichsbank building in Frankfurt.
Disposal
The present whereabouts of the Nazi gold that disappeared into
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an banking institutions in 1945 has been the subject of several books,
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
, and a civil suit brought in January 2000 in California against the
Vatican Bank
The Institute for the Works of Religion ( it, Istituto per le Opere di Religione; la, Institutum pro Operibus Religionis; abbreviated IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a financial institution situated inside Vatican City and run by a ...
, the
Franciscan Order
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
and other defendants. The suit against the Vatican Bank did not claim that the gold was then in its possession and has since been dismissed.
The
Swiss National Bank
The Swiss National Bank (SNB; german: Schweizerische Nationalbank; french: Banque nationale suisse; it, Banca nazionale svizzera; rm, Banca naziunala svizra) is the central bank of Switzerland, responsible for the nation's monetary policy an ...
, the largest gold distribution centre in continental Europe before the war, was the logical venue through which Nazi Germany could dispose of its gold.
[Eizenstat Special Briefing on Nazi Gold](_blank)
. Stuart Eizenstat, US State Department, 2 June 1998. Retrieved on 5 July 2006. During the war, the SNB received $440m ($8b 2020) in gold from Nazi sources, of which $316m ($5.8b 2020) is estimated to have been looted.
Vatican
On October 21, 1946, the U.S. State Department received a Top Secret report from
US Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and th ...
Agent
Emerson Bigelow. The report established that Bigelow received reliable information on the matter from the American
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) or
CIC
CIC may refer to:
Organizations Canada
* Cadet Instructors Cadre, a part of the Canadian Armed Forces
* Canadian Infantry Corps, renamed in 1947 to Royal Canadian Infantry Corps
* Canadian International Council
* Canadian Islamic Congress
* Chemi ...
intelligence officials of the
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
.
The document, referred to as the "Bigelow Report" (oftentimes as the ''Bigelow dispatch'', or ''Bigelow memo'') was declassified on December 31, 1996, and released in 1997.
The report asserted that in 1945, the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
had confiscated 350 million Swiss francs ($1.5b 2020) in Nazi gold for "safekeeping," of which 150 million Swiss francs had been impounded by British authorities at the Austro-Swiss border. The report also stated that the balance of the gold was held in one of the Vatican's numbered
Swiss bank account
Banking in Switzerland dates to the early eighteenth century through Switzerland's merchant trade and has, over the centuries, grown into a complex, regulated, and international industry. Banking is seen as emblematic of Switzerland, along with ...
s. Intelligence reports, which corroborated the Bigelow Report, also suggested that more than 200 million Swiss francs, a sum largely in gold coins, were eventually transferred to
Vatican City
Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—'
* german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ')
* pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—'
* pt, Cidade do Vati ...
or to the
Institute for Works of Religion (aka the Vatican Bank), with the assistance of Roman Catholic clergy and the
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
Order.
Such claims, however, are denied by the
Vatican Bank
The Institute for the Works of Religion ( it, Istituto per le Opere di Religione; la, Institutum pro Operibus Religionis; abbreviated IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a financial institution situated inside Vatican City and run by a ...
. "There is no basis in reality to the
igelowreport", said Vatican spokesman
Joaquin Navarro-Valls, as reported in ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine.
Portugal
During the war,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, with
neutral status, was one of the centres of
tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...
production and sold to both
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
and
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
* Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...
powers. Tungsten is a critical metal for armaments, especially for
armour-piercing bullet
Armor-piercing bullets for rifle and handgun cartridges are designed to penetrate ballistic armor and protective shields intended to stop or deflect conventional bullets. Although bullet design is an important factor with regard to armor penet ...
s and shells. The German armaments industry was nearly entirely dependent on the supplies from Portugal.
During the war, Portugal was the second largest recipient of Nazi gold, after Switzerland. Initially the Nazi trade with Portugal was in hard currency, but in 1941 the
Central Bank of Portugal established that much of this was
counterfeit
To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...
and Portuguese leader
António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar (, , ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese dictator who served as President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1968. Having come to power under the ("National Dictatorship"), he reframed the re ...
demanded all further payments in gold.
In 2000, Jonathan Diaz, a French bus driver, found documents at the
Canfranc International railway station
Canfranc International railway station ( es, Estación Internacional de Canfranc) is a formerly international railway station in the village of Canfranc in the Spanish Pyrenees. The Somport railway tunnel, inoperative since 1970, which carries t ...
that revealed of 'Nazi Gold' had passed through the station.
It is estimated that nearly of Nazi gold were
laundered through Swiss banks, with only being returned at the end of the war.
See also
*
August Frank memorandum
*
Chiemsee Cauldron
*
Confederate gold
Confederate gold refers to hidden caches of gold lost after the American Civil War. Millions of dollars' worth of gold was lost or unaccounted for after the war, and its possible location has been the source of speculation of many historians and ...
*
Gold laundering
*
Lake Toplitz
Lake Toplitz (German: ''Toplitzsee'') is a lake situated in a dense mountain forest high up in the Austrian Alps, from Salzburg in western Austria. It is surrounded by cliffs and forests in the Salzkammergut lake district, within the Totes Gebirg ...
*
List of missing treasure
This is an incomplete list of notable treasures that are currently lost or missing. Note that the existence of some of these treasures is mythical or disputed.
List
See also
* Art theft and looting during World War II
* Looted art
* Lost ar ...
*
Montagu Norman
Montagu Collet Norman, 1st Baron Norman DSO PC (6 September 1871 – 4 February 1950) was an English banker, best known for his role as the Governor of the Bank of England from 1920 to 1944.
Norman led the bank during the toughest period in m ...
*
Moscow gold
The Moscow Gold ( es, Oro de Moscú), or alternatively Gold of the Republic ( es, Oro de la República), was 510 tonnes of gold, corresponding to 72.6% of the total gold reserves of the Bank of Spain, that were transferred from their original ...
*
Nazi gold train
The Nazi gold train or Wałbrzych gold train is an urban legend about a train laden with gold and treasure that was hidden by the Nazis in southwest Poland during the last days of World War II.
The apocryphal tale claims the train full of valua ...
*
Nazi loot
Nazi plunder (german: Raubkunst) was the stealing of art and other items which occurred as a result of the organized looting of European countries during the time of the Nazi Party in Germany. The looting of Polish and Jewish property was a k ...
*
Romanian Treasure
The Romanian Treasure ( ro, Tezaurul României) is a collection of valuable objects and the gold reserves (~120 tonnes) of the Romanian government sent to Russia for safekeeping during World War I. After the Romanian Army entered Bessarabia, at ...
, the
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
n gold reserves sent (alongside other valuable objects) to
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
for safekeeping during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, but never returned.
*
Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold The Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, also known as the Tripartite Gold Commission, was a panel established in September 1946 by the United Kingdom, United States and France to recover gold stolen by Nazi Germany from othe ...
*
Yamashita's gold
Yamashita's gold, also referred to as the Yamashita treasure, is the name given to the alleged war loot stolen in Southeast Asia by Imperial Japanese forces during World War II and supposedly hidden in caves, tunnels, or underground complexes in ...
*
Nazi dental gold
The collection of gold dental fillings, Crown (dental restoration), dental caps and dentures extracted from the mouths of the victims of Aktion T4 and the Nazi concentration camps was a feature of the The Holocaust, Holocaust. The practice origina ...
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
*
Further reading
*
* Bradsher, Greg (1999). "Nazi Gold: The Merkers Mine Treasure" i
''Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration'', Prologue Page, Spring 1999, vol. 31, no. 1*
*
* Taber, George M. (2014). ''Chasing Gold: The Incredible Story of How the Nazis Stole Europe's Bullion''. Pegasus.
* Vincent, Isabel (1997). ''Hitler's Silent Partners: Swiss Banks, Nazi Gold, and the Pursuit of Justice''. New York: William Morrow.
*
* {{cite book , title = The Nazi Hydra in America , last = Yeadon , first = Glen, year = 2008 , page = 700 , publisher = Progressive Press , isbn = 978-0930852436
External links
Nazi Gold and Art – from Hitler's Third Reich and World War II in the NewsReport of the Swiss Bergier Commission*
ttp://www.reformation.org/usnews.html (''U.S. News & World Report'') "A vow of silence. Did gold stolen by Croatian fascists reach the Vatican?"30 March 1998
*
ttp://www.vaticanbankclaims.com Lawsuit against Vatican Bank to recover Second World War era gold*
ttp://www2.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/nazigold.html Law-Related Resources on Nazi Gold and Other Holocaust Assets, Swiss Banks during World War II, and Dormant AccountsNazi Gold: The Merkers Mine Treasure*
ttps://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=281598 THE CASE OF GENERAL ANTE MOŠKOV 1945–1947 OR GENERAL ANTE MOŠKOV AND THE SO CALLED USTASHI GOLD 1945–1947
Conspiracy theories in Germany
Gold
Economy of Nazi Germany
Aftermath of World War II
Legendary treasures