Doo'!D: · 4232698

DOO'!D: · 4232698 5ESRE"FH69MIN=FJJX1 he opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do ot re resent the official o inion of NS.AJCSS. "The 1Vciu Kid on the Block'~: Personal Experiences '-~fan NSA. Historian anti the Nazi Gold Report, .January -· Muy 1997' Robert J. Hanyok (U I ~U6j This story picks up on the dark, with which to contend. For one thing, our office windy, and rainy morning of March 3, 1997. I was working with some federal agencies and was walking down 15th Street Northwest in departments that had little or no prior experience Washington, DC, carrying a locked briefcase filled with our material. Secondly, there was a c~rrent with nearly 400 recently declassified translations and intense public interest in the Nazi Gold issue. of Swiss diplomatic cables from 1946 that had Not only was the story front-page news, but also been found in the archives of the National there were a number of individuals with claims Security Agency. These cables revealed the tactics against Swiss banks. Their collective stories told and terms Bern communicated to its delegation before the House and Senate Banking in Washington, DC, during negotiations with the Committees created enormous public pressure Allied Commission in the spring of that year for action. Finally, the material that surfaced in regarding the disposition of national gold looted NSA came as a surprise to everyone involved. by the Nazis and deposited in banks throughout Unlike the Venona espionage messages, which Switzerland. Resurrected fifty years later, these were contained in a special project, the transla translations were part of the headline story tions of the Swiss messages I was carrying had known in the press under the headline-grabbing been found without any warning. sobriquet of "Nazi Gold." (U//~This is the (U I [EOUej I was then story of the NSA role in U.S. and Allied Efforts (and still am) a historian in To Recover and Restore Gold the interagency govern the National Security and Other Assets Stolen or Hidden ment study titled U.S. and Agency's Center for by Germany During World War II Allied Efforts to Recover Cryptologic History (CCH). Prellminary Study and Restore Gold and My destination was the Other Assets Stolen or Office of the Historian of Hidden by Germany the State Department, who, During World War II.2 at the time, was Dr. Coordinated t>y Stuart E. Eizen1tat This government report William Slany. The Swiss Un.1&< Secretaty ol Commerce !or lnternatJonel Trade was overseen by Stuart Special El!\oOy of'"" l)eparf"'8nl of Stole °" Properly Reontution ;n translations represented Cer.tral a!'KI E.as.tem Europe Eizenstat, then undersec terra incognita for our retary of commerce for office. Although a few years Prepared b)' \Wham Slany. The His.torian international trade, and earlier the CCH had partic Department ol Stale prepared by Dr. William ipated in the public release WICh N PartlCipation o4 Slany, the historian for the C11tnt1al ltlreligence~ Oep.artmantoftt'd Treml,rf of the Venona material, ~I ct COf'l\lntl'oe Fededl Sureau of Invest!~ Department of State. This Oep.artrnenr of Orienae Fedet'OI ReM"N& Boarct the Soviet spy messages ~ af .hWIOI Nat;onai Ar(hiv.ti aml Recordl Mri'Dlrwtxm article also is a description ~o'State Mll;onal~AQet'ICY from the 1940s, there were US HobcluSI ~ iilusetll'l'I of the public history some distinct differences process in which federal between the two events records (the translations) ._. 51!CRJ!T,%i9MIN1Wi<1 Page 37 eclassified and Approved for Release by NSA on 08-13-2015 pursuant to E.O. 13526, OIA Case # 58638 DOC'ID:· 4232698 SEeRETH68MIH'f/Rl1 relevant to the Nazi Gold study were discovered, assets from conquered countries and individually reviewed, declassified, and released to the public. owned gold, jewels, art, and financial holdings. This process had three considerations that made The gold from both national treasuries and indi it unique. First of all, the translations had to be vidual holdings was taken by the German declassified. Despite their age (fifty-one years at Reichsbank, melted down, stamped with the the time) and relevance to the Nazi Gold issue, Reichsbank icon, and shipped to Switzerland for the translations had to be reviewed; sanitized (if payment of war material purchases. Other assets necessary) and released by the National Security were liquidated or expropriated through a series Agency. The main tension in this process would of front companies and individual accounts. Nazi be in the clash between the public's right to know Gold also referred to the unilateral disposal by and national security needs. Secondly, there was Swiss bank officials of assets in dormant bank the dynamic of the decision process, such as secu accounts of Holocaust victims, despite the claims rity interests, within the NSA that could influence of heirs to these holdings. An exact total account the nature and scope of the release of the transla ing of the assets taken by the Nazis will probably tions. In other words, how many translations and never be known. By late 1998, one estimate how much of each page would the public see? ranged near $3 billion in today's exchange (or Finally, the decision to include the NSA records about $350 million in 1945 rates).3 or their content in the final government report depended upon the report's authors accepting the (U) In the rnid-199os a number of initiatives translations' utility and whether they carried an in the United States, Switzerland, and other coun "aura" about them (an intense public interest in tries were begun to determine the extent of· the "Ultra" material since first released in 1976) that gold, valuables, and other assets stolen by the might distract from the report's impact. Nazis. Among these efforts was the appointment, in May 1995, of an Independent Committee of (U I~ This article also contains some Eminent Persons jointly sponsored by the World personal observations about the nature of the Jewish Council and the Swiss Bankers process in which a federal historian, hailing from Association and under the chairmanship of Paul an agency usually quarantined from the public by Volcker, the former chairman of the United States a wall of security considerations, got involved in Federal Reserve. This committee was responsible the headline issue of Nazi Gold. However, before for ensuring that all assets belonging to victims of continuing with the story, three items need to be the Holocaust were returned to them or their briefly explained: the public background to the heirs. In 1996 the Swiss Federal Council appoint Nazi Gold controversy, the role of the Center for ed a historians' commission, chaired by Jean Cryptologic History, and what was in the Swiss Francois Bergier, charged with investigating the translations and how were they discovered. location of German-looted gold, money, and other assets held in Swiss banks. This committee (U) Background had been given access to all sources in Switzerland, including those of the normally (U) The expression "Nazi Gold" has been used secretive Swiss banks.4 by the media, government officials, and scholars as a shorthand way to refer to the Nazi policy and (U) In 1996 the United States government proceiS of looting, blackmailing, and otherwise started an interdepartmental study of allied illegally expropriating valuables of all types from efforts to recover gold and other assets stolen by victims of the Holocaust, mostly Jews, and the Nazi Germany during World War II. Eleven U.S. treasuries of conquered nations. What the Nazis federal departments, agencies, and other organi took included national gold and foreign currency zations contributed to this report, which probably Page38 SiC.Rli=F.'tG9MIN'flfft1" DOC'ID: · 4232698 SiGRE'Ffte6MINTl/X I was the first effective, if only preliminary, derived from the intercept and processing of for overview of the entire story. The major purpose of eign signals. NSA has been performing these the report was to identify, locate, and categorize functions since 1952. Prior to NSA. a number of the records held by the U.S. government that later government organizations, jointly (and separate researchers could use in their work. It was to this ly) performed SIGINf. During World War II the report that the NSA supplied the pertinent Swiss U.S. Army's Signals Intelligence Service (SIS), translations. later designated the Army Security Agency (ASA) -. in late 1945, intercepted and analyzed foreign (U /~The history office at the NSA, diplomatic communications. The wartime mes located at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, sages were snatched out of the ether by intercept officially known as the Center for Cryptologic operators at monitoring sites around the world, History (CCH), is much like any other govern or were turned over to the army by wartime gov ment history program. Its primary roles are two: ernment censors assigned to cpmmercial cable preseive and disseminate the historical record of terminal offices in the United States and its pos American cryptology, and instill in the NSA work sessions.5 force an appreciation for the historical legacy of its predecessors. The Center publishes its own ..£.SHBfj1n the spring and early summer of histories, supports the National Cryptologic 1946, a delegation from Switzerland, headed by Museum, and participates in a number of outside the career diplomat Walter Stucki, met in conferences, as well as sponsoring its own sym Washington with an allied committee - the posium on cryptologic history every two years. United States, Great Britain, and France - that Unlike most federal histocy programs, the NSA represented the claims of eleven nations for Records Center and Archives literally are one national gold reseives looted by Nazi occupiers.

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