Chasing Gold: The Incredible Story of How the Nazis Stole Europe's Bullion
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Officials at the Banque de France were extremely helpful both before and after the week I did research in Paris. Didier Bruneel, the director of the excellent publication Cahiers anecdotiques de la Banque de France and the special counselor to the bank’s president, helped in many ways. He provided the first solid information about how the Soviet Union saved its gold, and also allowed me to use photographs he had collected for his own book Les Secrets de l’Or. When I arrived in Paris, Arnaud Manas, the head of the archives at the French National Bank, had just finished the defense of his doctoral thesis on the Vichy government’s gold policy. He gave me a copy of it and also helped me find my way through his archives.
Paul Dostert in Luxembourg has done work on his own country’s gold during the war, and he gave him time both to explain what happened and point me to the archives. We also had a pleasant lunch at an outdoor café.
A small team helped in Holland. Alexander Nieuwenhuis put together an excellent program that got me to the right people. Ronald Dijkstra, who was just finishing his own book on the Dutch story, spent a day walking around Rotterdam, retracing the steps of the soldiers who carried gold to a boat that hit a mine and sank and then visiting the site. We also visited the ship museum near the Hook of Holland, where officials told us more about the ship. Gerard Aalders, who has written an excellent book in Dutch about his country’s gold, answered all my questions over glasses of Dutch beer. Daphne Dupont-Nivet translated his book for me.
Svetlana Chervonnaya in Moscow deserves all the credit for finding the right Russian documents and then translating them. It would have been impossible to do the Soviet chapter without her. She was also very helpful in unraveling the story of the shipment of Spanish gold to Moscow in 1936.
In Britain, Robert Hart, who was a fellow journalist many years ago in Bonn, worked with me for a week combing the British National Archives outside London for cabinet records and ship logs.
Central bankers have a reputation for being stuffy, but officials at banks from Portugal to Turkey, with many more in between, were generous in providing help in uncovering their stories. Most of the communication was done over the Internet. I would like to thank in particular Jenni Hellström at the Bank of Finland, who sent me the chapter from a history of her bank that dealt in detail with the Finnish story.
Officials in national and central bank archives are the unsung people in the background. They helped find the right documents or photographs. Joseph M. Komljenovich, Julie Sanger, and Marja Vitti at the New York Federal Reserve opened up their collections during two long visits. Officials at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and the Harry S. Truman Library were helpful when I visited their archives. The William J. Clinton Library provided documents over the Internet. The staffs of the U.S. National Archives in College Park Maryland, the Banque de France, the Bundesarchiv in Berlin and Freiburg, the Bayerische Hauptstaatsarchiv in Munich, and at the British National Archives were particularly valuable. I made four long visits to the U.S. National Archives in College Park, MD, and Margaret Shannon and Candace Clifford also did work for me there. Peter Voskamp tracked down some crucial material at the newspaper collection of the Library of Congress in Washington. The staff at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut opened its wonderful collection of Nuremberg Trial documents. Andy Hollinger of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington provided many useful photos from its collection.
Librarians also were essential aides. I thank those at Brown University, University of Rhode Island, Stanford University, the New York Public Library, Princeton University, University of Connecticut, Harvard Business School, Vero Beach, and the Block Island Free Library.
The most important assistance of all came from my wife Jean, who over several years read and edited many early versions of chapters, and from our daughter Lara, who diagnosed computer problems and also created the maps that accompany most chapters and designed the book’s photo pages. Both Jean and Lara were always there for me.
Special thanks to Jennifer McCartney for very carefully proofreading the manuscript.
I would also like to give special thanks to Harvey Klinger, my agent now for five books, and to Jessica Case and all the people at Pegasus Books.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934 wrote a personal dedication to Henry Morgenthau, Jr., his close friend and partner in power: “For Henry from one of two of a kind.” Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Photo Collection, Morgenthau Folder.
In Munich in the early days of his rise to power, Hitler returns the Nazi Sieg Heil salute to members of his paramilitary units. They had a hypnotic dedication to their Führer. Courtesy of the Bundesarchiv Berlin Photo Collection.
Adolf Hitler liked to get away with close aides at his mountain retreat outside the village of Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps. From left to right: Hitler, Martin Bormann, who became his secretary, Hermann Göring, the head of the Luftwaffe, and Baldur von Schirach, the leader of the Hitler Youth organization. Courtesy of the Bundesarchiv Berlin Photo Collection.
Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht considered himself a master of both economics and politics and mistakenly thought he could control Hitler. Schacht, the president of the Reichsbank, alone among the people around the Führer refused to wear the Nazi uniform. Courtesy of the Bundesarchiv Berlin Photo Collection.
The Reichsbank headquarters in the heart of Berlin was a showpiece building for the new Nazi regime. Hitler personally presided over its groundbreaking in 1933. Courtesy of the Bundesarchiv Berlin Photo Collection.
Hjalmar Schacht with two of his young protégés. In the center is Karl Blessing, and to the right Emil Puhl. Hitler fired Blessing in January 1939, but Puhl stayed on to the very end. Courtesy of the Bundesarchiv Berlin Photo Collection.
This internal Nazi document explained the capture of the Belgian gold. At the time Germany had almost run out of bullion because of its heavy military spending. Courtesy of Bundesarchiv.
Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, enthusiastically gloated over the gold captured in Nazi-occupied countries. Reichsbank President Walther Funk was at the right. Courtesy of Bundesarchiv Freiburg, Belgium’s Contribution to the German War Economy, March 1, 1942.
Sailors loading gold onto ships in the convoy that took both King George VI and British bullion to Canada in the spring of 1939. Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum Photo Collection.
Royal Canadian Mounties protected the British gold that had arrived with the king and took it to the Bank of Canada. Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum Photo Collection.
Sailors inspecting a box of French gold that was about to be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to safety at the New York Federal Reserve in lower Manhattan. Courtesy of Banque de France, Keystone France.
Holland’s Princess Juliana and her family, plus some of the Dutch gold, traveled in this central bank van from a palace in The Hague to a British ship waiting to evacuate them. Courtesy of the Dutch National Bank Photo Collection.
The Nazi cruiser Blücher was torpedoed as it arrived at the Oslo fjord, which set back German plans to capture the Norwegian central bank gold on the first day of the invasion. Courtesy of the Norwegian Maritime Museum.
The French shipped large amounts of gold to Halifax. Bullion was dropped off, and then those same ships turned around and took American war materiel back to Europe. Courtesy of Banque de France Photo Collection.
The French got all of their gold out of the mainland, and much of it ended up in their African colonies, where locals helped them move it inland. Courtesy of Bank de France Private Photo Collection.
After the Nazi invasion in June 1941, the Soviets moved their most valuable goods—gold, Lenin’s body, and Hermitage artworks—to safety beyond the Urals. Courtesy of David M. Trachtenberg.
The note Treasury Secretary Morgenthau wrote in the middle of the night ordering that the gold stored at the New York Federal Reserve be moved immediately to Fort Knox. Courtesy of
Morgenthau Diaries, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library.
Harry Dexter White was the key staff person for Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. White’s influence grew greatly during the war, but no one in the government realized he was also a secret Soviet agent. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Photo Collection.
Harry Hopkins traveled to Moscow in July 1941 to ask Joseph Stalin how the U.S. could help the Soviets militarily following the Nazi invasion. Famous photographer Margaret Bourke-White of Life magazine happened to be there on another assignment. She said Stalin had the coldest eyes she had ever seen. Courtesy of Getty Images.
Dock workers in both Manhattan and New Jersey first unloaded boxes of bullion that had arrived from European central banks. Courtesy of the New York Federal Reserve Photo Collection.
The precious cargo was then put into armored Brinks trucks and taken to the New York Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan. The boxes were small but heavy. Courtesy of the New York Federal Reserve Photo Collection.
So much was arriving, especially in 1939 and 1940, that the underground vault was soon filling up, and the staff had to work overtime just to verify the contents and check it all in. Courtesy of the New York Federal Reserve Photo Collection.
Security was heavy at both ends of the shipments to Fort Knox. The gold was moved by escorted trucks to Pennsylvania Railroad train cars and then transferred by trucks to the vault. Courtesy of the United States Mint.
Armed guards on watch at the railroad siding before the shipment arrived. Courtesy of the United States Mint.
The U.S. Post Office had overall responsibility for moving the precious cargo safely south. Courtesy of the United States Mint.
To ensure security, trucks pulled right up to the doors of the train before unloading. Courtesy of the United States Mint.
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