Switzerland and Gold Transactions in the Second World War

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Acknowledgements The Independent Commission of Experts: Switzerland – Second World War received assistance from many quarters in compiling this interim report. Thanks are due in particular to the following persons, companies, and associations for their cooperation and valuable advice and suggestions. Professor William Z. Slany, US Department of State, Washington, DC; Greg Bradsher, US National Archives, College Park, M.D.; Gill Bennett, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London; Vladimir Nikolaevich Kuzelenkov, Director of the «Centre for the Preservation of Historical-Documentary Collections» («Special Archive»), Moscow; Minister Vladimir P. Kozlov, Director of the Ross Archives, Moscow; Professor Dieter Lindenlaub, Head of the Archives of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt; Maria Keipert, Political Archives of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Bonn; Krystyna Oleksy, State Memorial Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, Oswiecim; Professor Christoph Graf, Daniel Bourgeois, and other staff members at the Swiss Federal Archives, Bern; Professor Klaus Urner, Historical Institute, Archive for Contemporary History, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich; Jean-Pierre Roth, Vice-Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, Vincent Crettol and Patrick Halbeisen, Swiss National Bank, Bern/Zürich; Piet Clement, Bank for International Settlements, Basel; Professor Willi Boelcke, Stuttgart; Hersch Fischler, Düsseldorf; Credit Suisse Group, Zürich; Swiss Bankers Association, Basel Swiss Bank Corporation, Basel; Union Bank of Switzerland, Zürich; Swiss Life, Zürich; Swiss Re-Insurance, Zürich; Swiss Insurance Association, Zürich; Zurich Group, Zürich; BMP Translations AG, Basel; Gary Fliszar, Fribourg; Mary Louise Mettler, Basel (Translations into English); Gary Fliszar, Fribourg (Proofreading). July 1998 Jean-François Bergier
Interim Report on Gold I Preface Preface Gold played an essential role in the financial transactions carried out during the Second World War. It is a metal that can assume a multitude of forms: bar, coins, pieces of jewelry. It can be smelted and resmelted, disguising its origin. It was also a universally accepted means of interbank payment, a form of money easily exchanged for more liquid currencies, and thus very valuable to the belligerent states. Since the autumn of 1996, gold has again taken center stage, this time in international discussions concerning the responsibility borne by both countries and individuals for their activities during World War II: gold has become emotionally and symbolically linked to the suffering of the victims of Nazism. Switzerland’s participation in the war-time gold trade − the participation of its financial center as the hub of gold transactions – has become a focus of debate. It is now imperative that Switzerland’s complex and sometimes controversial activities be brought out into the open. The Independent Commission of Experts: Switzerland – Second World War, set up in December 1996 with the mission of carrying out an in-depth investigation of the conduct of Switzerland and of its financial center, has chosen to treat the gold trade issue as a priority, and to dedicate to this topic its first interim report. The convocation of the International Conference on Nazi Gold, held in London from December 2 to 4, 1997, provided us with a special impetus. Despite all our efforts, we were unable to complete this report in time for that event. Our research work on a number of archival sources had not progressed sufficiently, and it was our desire to take advantage of the questions as well as the information contributed at the conference by the delegates coming from some forty countries and organizations. We therefore limited ourselves to submitting a working document which proposed a broadly applicable definition for the various categories of Nazi gold as a function of its origin, be it legal or criminal, and to providing a global, statistical balance sheet (in a revised and enhanced form, this same document constitutes Chapter I of the present report). Other reasons also justify the priority that the Commission has given to gold. The transactions carried out with this precious metal relate to and elucidate a number of other aspects of our research: Switzerland’s commercial and financial relations with the belligerent powers and with the other neutral countries; the use put to Swiss francs by Switzerland’s trading partners; the role played by the commercial banks and, to a certain degree, that of the insurance companies in the war-time economy; and the manufacture of articles destined for export. In a more indirect manner, the examination of gold policy makes it possible to observe the behavior of both the economic and political key players of the time. It illustrates the tensions between the
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Switzerland and Gold Transactions in the Second World War

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