Switzerland and Gold Transactions in the Second World War

Interim Report on Gold 36 Chapter 1
Burger, was introduced around the end of 1943. According to this new regulation, the WVHA
ordered that in the future, valuables and dental gold were no longer to be shipped directly to
the Office A-II headed by SS Captain [SS-Hauptsturmführer] Melmer, but rather to the
Concentration Camp Administration [Office D], which would deliver them to Melmer.
Auschwitz, on the other hand, continued making its shipments directly to Melmer.
To summarize, the disposal of looted gold had several routes: from the T4 killing centers to
Degussa; from the Soviet Union direct to the Reichsbank and to the Pawn Shop; from military
authorities in all the areas occupied by Germany, as booty, via the Reich Main Accounting
Office to the Reichsbank; as refined precious metal from Lublin to the WVHA and on to the
Reichsbank; as unrefined precious metal from Auschwitz-Birkenau to the WVHA. It must be
noted that we know very little about the security police. In addition, the above-mentioned
September 1942 order issued by the Ministry for the Eastern Territories is a strong indication
that looted gold could also bypass the Reichsbank. For a long time, the paths taken by victim
gold, as well as the manner in which it was disposed, have only been very partially researched.
Due to the absence of sources, the elucidation of these points is to a certain extent doomed to
failure.
Seen as a function of the quantity and of the value it represents, the gold which was looted
from victims is but a fraction of the proven gold reserves handled by the Reichsbank. 70 This
fact, however, should not palliate the reality that the human suffering behind these statistics is
incalculable.
1.2.3 Tables and Coherence of Data
The following tables illustrate the magnitude, the institutional trails and the geographical
structure of the gold transactions. They include a compilation, for the Third Reich and
Switzerland, of the most important gold transactions which took place between 1 September
1939 and 30 June 1945. The relationship between the tables is explained in the following.
Table I provides an overview of the origin and use of the Reichsbank gold. Table II juxtaposes
those sums which are listed as Shipments to Switzerland («Gold Shipped Abroad») in Table I
with the Acceptances from Germany («Reichsbank’s Shipments to Switzerland») on the Swiss
side. There are certain problems of compatibility and deviation between the Swiss and the
German statistics which are not serious. Table III provides information on the gold purchases
and sales of the Swiss National Bank. Analogous to the presentation in Table I, a distinction is
made between origin and use, whereby gold transactions with the Allies and the non-belligerent
states are also identified. The remaining Reichsbank shipments to the Swiss National Bank,
which were not purchased by this bank but rather recorded as deposit on account of other
70
See Table I in this Chapter.