the nationality of all inhabitants of the czech provinces and ...

The Break up of Czechoslovakia and the Genesis
of the Transfer
their client’s consent” to the Hadega
monopoly partnership belonging to the
Kreditansalt der Deutschen, for
conversion.
The Jewish client was then credited
on his blocked account with an amount
equivalent to about a quarter of the price
for which the items of precious metals or
stones had been sold. The balance, after
deduction of five percent commission
was transferred by Hadega to the
Reichsprotektor’s account. In line with
directives, jewellery and similar
valuables, including liturgical items, were
dismantled and separated into precious
metals and stones. Precious metals were
melted down into anonymous ingots and
the precious stones sold off separately.
The gold and platinum ingots were later
bought up from Hadega and later from
the Auswanderungsfond (emigrants’ fund)
by the National Bank for Bohemia and
Moravia on the orders of the occupation
authorities, although only the German
Supervisory Office at the Protectorate’s
Ministry of the Economy and Labour
(Überwachungstelle beim Ministerium für
Wirtschaft und Arbeit), headed by Walter
Bertsch, had the right to dispose of
them. By April 1945, the German
occupation authorities had acquired
482.35 kilos of pure gold, 5.25 kilos of
platinum and 16,700 kilos of pure silver
(15,800 kilos of which was sold to the
German company Degusso in Frankfurt
am Main) derived from the valuables of
Jewish individuals and associations. That
was the same “source” of diamonds sold
by Hadega. By the end of 1942, 5128.80
carats of brilliants and 582.04 carats of
cut diamonds. Some of the artistically
worked jewellery was not “dismantled”
but instead sold off or hoarded. Items
from precious metals and stones
represented 0.1 percent of the
“Aryanised” Jewish property, estimated at
16-20,000 million crowns.
The “Aryanisation” process and the
process of confiscation of so-called
“enemy property” in general considerably
increased the capital interest of the
German Reich in the Protectorate
economy. In 1938, the capital interest of
the German Reich in the Czech
133
Chapter IV
provinces without the border areas
amounted to 208,500,000 crowns and
including the Austrian capital interest –
415,600,000 crowns. At the end of the
war, in 1945, the capital interest of the
German Reich in the Protectorate
amounted to 2.093 billion crowns, and
with the Austrian share 2.375 billion
crowns altogether. The growth of the
German capital share in the Czech
economy was also due to a large extent to
the German banks – the Böhmische
Escompte-Bank and the Böhmische
Union-Bank. Those banks were required
by their head offices to seek out Jewish
companies in the Protectorate according
to their clients’ specifications and to
mediate their “sale”. Such a sale was
disadvantageous for the Jewish owner.
The purchase price was far less than the
estimated value and far below the market
price. The factory or other fixed asset
was sold for the agreed price and the
monetary equivalent would be credited
to the blocked account of the former
Jewish owner. However, the purchaser
had to pay in addition to that purchase
price a so-called equalisation fee, which
was paid onto the account of the
Reichsprotektor. If the “deal” was
successfully concluded, the bank would
profit from the “Aryanisation” intentions
of its client. The new owner would be
charged 2 percent of the purchase price
as an agent’s commission. It had no
intention of pushing the price too high;
on the contrary. It would often indicate
to its client that it would push it down as
low as possible. What was crucial for the
bank was not so much the profit from
the sale as the new owner’s commitment
that the “Aryanised” company would
bank with them. Such a relationship was
a fairly certain source of lucrative profit.
When a sale fell through, it made no
charge. The traditional Bohemian-based
German bank, the Kredistanstalt der
Deutschen, with offices in Liberec and
Prague, also played a major role in the
“sale” of middle-sized and smaller Jewish
enterprises and real estate to German
buyers.
The expansion of Reich German
capital was effected particularly by means