Word: goldings
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...neutral Switzerland. The hints of unsavory Swiss behavior enticed the ordained rabbi and former political science professor from New York City into reading a biography of Dulles, which made reference to a U.S. intelligence operation code-named Project Safehaven. Its mission: to track down Nazi gold and loot being smuggled out of the Third Reich...
This is not the first time the U.S. has sought to account for all the gold bars the Nazis looted from occupied countries, the Jewish assets seized, the jewelry, gold dental fillings and wedding rings wrenched from concentration-camp victims. As early as 1943, when Washington launched Project Safehaven to locate the Nazi plunder and find out where it was going, the U.S. knew most of it was entering Switzerland. That year, spymaster Dulles warned the Swiss government that much of the 100 tons of gold bullion the Reichsbank was selling for Swiss francs was stolen. Eventually, Safehaven agents concluded...
...President Franklin Roosevelt gets a classified report from William Donovan, chief of the Office of Strategic Services, calling his attention to the personal friendship between senior Swiss and Nazi central-bank officials and a deal they had arranged. Each month, Switzerland promised to purchase 6,000 kg of German gold, which the Reich was using to buy Swiss ball bearings. Roosevelt's reply: "We ought to block the Swiss participation in saving the skins of rich or prominent Germans." But Roosevelt took no action...
Nevertheless, in 1946, the tripartite gold treaty accepted a total of only $60 million in gold as Switzerland's payment in full of Nazi loot. Britain, France and the U.S. further decided the money would be given back only to German-occupied countries, not to individual claimants...
...Britain and France froze the distribution of $68 million in gold bars they still hold from the Nazi hoard. It is the last portion of the spoils retrieved by the Allies after the war and was supposed to be parceled out to the remaining nations that claim it. Bronfman advised Clinton to suspend any action until the three Allies decide whether this gold--symbolically at least--was melted down from private Jewish assets rather than national treasuries and should be given to Holocaust victims...