The Rise of the Fourth Reich - ThereAreNoSunglasses

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 115Swiss officials claim that their policies toward the Allied and Axispowers were those of balanced neutrality, but the scales were heavilytipped in favor of the Nazis, at least on economic matters. “Declassifiedintelligence reports reveal that Swiss banks, particularly the Swiss NationalBank, accepted gold looted from the national treasuries of Nazioccupiedcountries and from dead Jews alike, gold they either boughtoutright or laundered for the Nazis before sending it on to other neutralcountries,” wrote Adam LeBor, author of Hitler’s Secret Bankers: The Mythof Swiss Neutrality During the Holocaust. According to LeBor, “Swissbanks supplied the foreign currency that the Third Reich needed to buyvital war material. Swiss banks were the vital financial conduit that allowedNazi economic officials to channel their loot to a safe haven inSwitzerland. Swiss banks financed Nazi foreign intelligence operations byproviding funds for German front companies in Spain and Portugal.”Bormann had a personal account at the Reichsbank under the fictitiousname “Max Heiliger,” into which he siphoned a substantial portionof the Reich’s wealth. Utilizing both gold and “treasure,” Bormann, throughhis chief of economics, Dr. Helmut von Hummel, sent these riches out ofthe country for later use.Abs presents a classic example of the survivability of high-level bankers.He not only survived the war but was instrumental in Germany’s postwarrevival, becoming a financial adviser to West Germany’s first chancellor,Konrad Adenauer. He maintained his positions on the boards of DeutscheBank, Daimler-Benz, and Siemens. In 1978, Abs headed a West Germanconsortium that managed to buy and return nearly $20 millionworth of artwork taken from Germany in the 1930s by the Jewish BaronRobert von Hirsch. Later that same year, Abs addressed American businessleaders at a meeting chaired by fellow banker John J. McCloy, onetimechairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, the Ford Foundation, and theCouncil on Foreign Relations. McCloy served as a member of PresidentLyndon B. Johnson’s Warren Commission and was a legal adviser to theRocke fel ler family.It was Abs who had prevented two American banks in France—Morganet Cie and Chase of New York—from being closed or controlled by theGerman occupation authorities. According to U.S. Treasury reports cited