Trading with the enemy - the whole story
A World War II Central Bank / Nazi Gold Controversy

Jewish holocaust, Swiss banking privacy, Nazi gold,

• Could it be that New York Senator D’Amato’s vicious attacks on Switzerland are motivated by something more than the usual political chase for votes and political contributions from his New York electorate?
   
• Are these unwarranted attacks an attempt to cover-up the deplorable wartime financial activities of the Bank for International Settlements?
   
• Could this also be an attempt to avoid exposing the close relationship of certain New York banks, multi-national corporations as well as the Federal Reserve System?
   
• Learn why some “secret” Swiss accounts of Jewish and other European depositors were in fact lost forever during World War II.
   
• How the privacy protect of Swiss banking can become a double-edged financial sword for beneficiaries if the  depositor dies without revealing the existence of the account to family members.
   
• How history is only important if we can learn from it.  Can we ascertain that the Swiss will continue to defend their banking privacy and financial independence from a revenue hungry Washington by their earlier resistance to similar attacks, threats and tactics by Nazi Germany.
   
• We address the difficult question of reparations to the victims of descendants of genocide and property confiscation but wonder if special circumstances should be made in this case as every people in the world have been victims of government since history began. 
   
• Are there hidden reasons for the federal government and financial press attacks on Switzerland that actually have very little to do with real concern over the public controversy.  Perhaps Washington and U.S. financial competitors envy the 35% of the world’s private wealth safely managed from Switzerland.  Why are these resources funding the public relations attack on Switzerland and their safe haven wealth that is protected from a falling dollar and American government wealth attacks reminiscent of the Nazi attacks on Swiss bank privacy back in the 1930’s?

“What does it matter, whether Switzerland has been able to give us the commercial advantages we desire, or has given too many to the Germans, to keep herself alive?  Switzerland has remained a democratic state, standing for freedom in self-defense among her mountains, and in thought she has been, in spite of race, largely on our side.”                                                                                                  – Winston Churchill, 1944

It is clear that horrible injustices, as are characteristic of any war, were committed during World War II.  However, those committed against the Jews by the Nazi government were so abhorrent, they inspire an immediate emotional response from most people who regard the complete injustice of the situation.

Particularly in light of revelations regarding possible Nazi gold and money stores placed in Switzerland by the Nazi government, many people around the world are prone to jump to the conclusion that Switzerland and Swiss banks, aided by their historic secrecy laws, have profited from millions of dollars of assets pilfered from Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Indeed, these victims were shamefully stripped of all material possessions, down to the heisting of gold teen out of the victims’ mouths in order to fund SS accounts and the German war effort.  

Ironically, however, the Swiss Banking Secrecy Law, which was enacted before the war ever began, was originally meant to protect those German citizens, including many wealthy Jews, who were hiding their assets in Switzerland to escape the far-reaching hand of the National Socialist government in the German Reich.  

Now persons and law firms seeking restitution on the part of these victims of Nazi crimes during the war are certain that these secrecy laws are allowing Swiss banks to benefit from these assets which rightfully belong to Jewish victims and their heirs. 

There are many points not fully understood about the situation. Firstly, a majority of the gold which the German government did exchange in Swiss banks during the war came from the treasuries of conquered nations, not individual victims.

This gold was certainly not generally funneled through any of the commercial banks now in existence in Switzerland.  Most was done through an international bank located in Basel, a cooperative bank set up by the central banks of several countries, including the United States.

Through this bank, The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Swiss National Bank and financial institutions and central banks of many other countries were closely tied financially with Germany and the other Axis powers.

Additionally, most of the profiting done during the war was not accomplished by banks or countries in general, but rather by unscrupulous businessmen and the financial elites of many countries.  Both playing allied and axis powers, hedging all bets and covering all angles so as to assure themselves of profits during, as well as after, the conflict. 

A majority of the gold which the German government did exchange in Swiss banks during the war came from the treasuries of conquered nations, not individual victims.

While Switzerland did make concessions to Germany during the war, so did many other countries, some of them supposedly Allied nations, not neutral ones, like Switzerland. 

The Bank for International Settlements – The Key Player

To understand this web of duplicity and deception one must begin with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central bank for central banks, as it has been called.“¹  This bank was set up by the victorious allied nations after World War I to allow Germany to repay the excessive war reparations placed upon them.  

Germany’s economic system, strapped beyond reason by overwhelming reparations payments, was in a shambles.  The debts other nations carried because of World War I, in addition to the depression and generally terrible economic conditions around the world, combined for a desperate world financial condition.  

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