Nazi Reichsbank A Brief HiSTOriCAL OVerVieW by Ray Cowdery, Copyright © 1997 & 2010 by Reddick Militaria

Because of its relative rarity, its beauty, its compactness, changed forever the concept of international conquest. its resistance to corrosion and its adaptability as a A super-legal world-bank called the Bank of International manufacturing material, gold has long been sought Settlements (BIS)* , had been chartered in Basel, after and saved. From the earliest of times, humans Switzerland by a convention of the central banks of the have collected it, worked it as an artistic material, used world's leading industrialized countries. The BIS it as a medium of exchange, to support less valuable enjoyed a unique status and unique privileges, even currency, and to settle debts. virtual exemption from Swiss law. The BIS was charged with controlling the storage, and transfer of While most of us profess to abhor war, most of us also ownership of gold for the central banks of the world, realize that times of war are "good times" for the many and its charter provided that, "the bank, its property and people in manufacturing industries that produce bullets, assets, and all deposits and other funds entrusted to it tanks, ships, land mines, body bags, grave stones and shall be immune in time of peace and in time of war other paraphernalia of war. Rarely do we stop to think from any measure such as appropriation" ( emphasis added ). of the profits made by those who finance the manufacture of the materials used to wage war or the profits made The vital service the BIS performed in the decades after on the exchanges and credits required to purchase these 1930 was to facilitate the process of gold clearing - the kinds of manufactured goods. adjustment of mutual claims by exchanging them and thereby settling the balances. It was no longer necessary From the dawn of human history until 1930 persons, to move a lot of gold to handle clearances, as virtually groups, religions or governments that waged war had all the worlds' gold was under the control logistical problems in the areas of finance, supply, of the BIS. The theory of clearing gold settlements at foreign exchange and bank clearances. Appropriating the BIS worked even better as a practice, since the BIS the monetary gold and other valuable property of a reduced most complicated gold exchange transactions defeated enemy was often easy compared with to acts of bookkeeping. transporting it back to the safety of the homeland of the victorious army. Once there, a local bureaucracy In Germany in the early 1930s, was reissued the captured wealth and attempted to exchange campaigning for the election of Nazi candidates to the it for food, new equipment and other requirements of Reichstag (parliament) and for himself. By January the conquering army, still busy in the field capturing 1933 the Nazis had been elected in great numbers and more loot. Captured loot in excess of the amount Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany by a normal, needed to fund further conquest was often used to build democratic process. Once in control and with no further infrastructure and increase the standard of living of the need for the democratic process, Hitler eliminated people who sponsored the victorious army. The glory opposition parties leaving his Nazi Party in absolute of Rome resulted mostly from Roman conquests and control. was quickly appointed by 's 19th century glory is largely traceable to the Hitler as president of the Deutsche Reichsbank far-flung looting of Napoleon's armies. (German State Bank) and immediately began a hidden program like that used by the Kaiser in In anticipation of the government of German preparation for World War I. In just a few years of "die Kaiser Wilhelm II began to amass gold secretly to be Strenge" (austerity) in Germany the Deutsche Reichsbank used to fund the coming war. When war came in 1914 was able to hide over 500 million (one the Germans were able to field a huge, well trained and - US$ 0.40m 1940) in monetary gold in spectacularly equipped army that quickly overran much secret accounts under Schacht. World bankers were left of . When the Kaiser's gold reserves were finally to assume that Reichsbank gold was equal only to depleted by 1917, his ability to finance the war, and published figures, or around 70 million Reichsmarks. thus to effectively wage war, was over. In 1930 a major change in international banking practice * BIZ (Bank für Internationalen Zahlungsausgleich) in German, and BRI (Banque de Reglements Intemationaux) in French. 1 Through accounts in the Deutsche Reichsbank with When the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939 names like "Treuhandge-sellschaft", "Konversionskasse" , they found Polish vaults virtually empty. The gold "Asservat Devisian Reserve" and "Sonderlagerung" , reserves of Poland had been loaded on trains and trucks the German government had amassed hidden gold which traveled through Rumania, Turkey and Lebanon reserves that were truly astronomical for the time. The before arriving in France at the end of October 1939. Nazis very clearly understood the need for financial With the invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, self-sufficiency as they pursued expansion through France and Luxembourg in May of 1940 the Germans conquest. When Austria was joined with Germany in a struck "pay dirt" again. They were able to exchange virtually bloodless coup in March 1938 (a union Reichsmarks for $4,858,000 of Luxembourger gold approved by 97% of Austrians in a plebiscite a few held at the in Marseilles, and through a weeks later) all gold in private hands in Austria had to complicated system which charged the Netherlands for be sold to the government at a rate of RM 3,966.27 per the German occupation, extracted $163,000,000 worth 1000 grains for Austria to come into compliance with of Dutch gold. German law and to avoid confiscation*. The private Austrian gold thus sold to the government comprised The Belgian National Bank, in anticipation of a possible about 10% of the total of $102,000,000 in gold that the German invasion, had placed their gold reserves in the Austrian National Bank agreed to exchange with the hands of the French government for safekeeping. The Deutsche Reichsbank in for an equal amount of Bank of France shipped it to French West Africa prior Reichsmarks. to the French surrender to the Germans after only six weeks of resistance on 25 June 1940. In the fall of 1938 representatives of England, France and Italy gathered in Munchen (Munich) and agreed When French authorities agreed to the German military with German diplomats that Hitler should have what he occupation of northern France (including the capital wanted of Czechoslovakia. The Deutsche Reichsbank city of Paris) they decided to move the legitimately was about to acquire another $44,000,000 in monetary elected government of the country from Paris to the old gold. Interestingly, in the case of the Czech gold the resort city of Vichy in unoccupied southern France. Deutsche Reichsbank even offered to pay the There the French Government entered into negotiations Czechoslovakian National Bank for their gold with with the Reichsbank that eventually led to the surrender freely negotiable foreign exchange. Even more interesting of the 4,944 sealed boxes of Belgian gold bars with a is the fact that $26,000,000 of the Czech gold was value of $223,200,000. While the French were sacrificing deposited in the and had to be the Belgian treasury, the great bulk of the released by them to the Germans! $2,000,000,000 of French gold reserves sat safely in the , England, Canada and at Fort-de-France By 1939 Schacht was replaced as head of the Reichsbank on Martinique, well out of reach of the Nazis. by a Nazi Party functionary, . Funk wisely put the day-to-day operations of the bank in the hands Even before the French handed over the Belgian gold, of vice-president Emil Puhl, a former director, a well- the Deutsche Reichsbank had been in negotiations with known international banker and close associate of those the remaining directors of the Belgian National Bank who ran the BIS in Basel, Switzerland. It was the gold- to purchase it. In the end, the Belgians rejected the genius Puhl who was later able to direct the flow of German offer, so along with a good deal of Dutch gold, looted gold through the Deutsche Reichsbank to the the Belgian gold was secretly taken to the Prussian BIS and thereby into the Nazi war economy of occupied State Mint in Berlin for resmelting. It quietly became western Europe. It was Puhl who understood that only . through close collaboration with the banks in "neutral" While it is true that "gold has no smell", and thus can countries could the Reichsbank dispose of enough be hard to trace, bars of monetary gold are always well- looted gold to insure German military success. Those marked with smelt numbers, serial numbers, names and "neutral" countries were Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, purity, and are registered in the books of the banks that Turkey and Portugal. own or hold them. To resmelt gold bars which have * A very similar law in the United States had required Americans provenance is unthinkable specifically because it causes to sell their gold to the government at a price of just over $30.00 known gold to "disappear" and "creates" new gold. In per ounce to avoid confiscation. 2 the hope of avoiding detection at a later date, the Belgian had engaged in other unethical banking practices. Their and Dutch gold that the Germans resmelted at the success was due in large part to the collaboration of the Prussian State Mint in 1942 and 1943 was given Swiss, French, Swedes, Portuguese, Spanish and German smelt numbers and stamped with dates Rumanians who blissfully looked the other way and arbitrarily selected from years before 1939. took the gold regardless of its origins. While those practices were illegal or unethical, the Reichsbank was Like all the other gold the Nazis possessed, the always able to justify the transactions in their resmelted Dutch and Belgian gold became the food on bookkeeping* since the gold obtained was either which the German war economy fed. When the Germans purchased with Reichsmarks or offset with other bank wished to purchase an element critical to their war charges, like occupation costs. Such was not the case effort , ten Swedish machine tools for example, they with the SS loot. It was not purchased and could not be could open a Reichsbank letter-of-credit in the amount offset by bank charges in the bookkeeping. It was booty. of $10,000 to a manufacturer of those tools in Sweden. The letter-of-credit was essentially a post-dated check SS valuables deposited with the Reichsbank consisted payable in gold or in the currency of choice of the of gold, silver, currency, jewelry, dental gold, gold eye manufacturer - anything from Swedish kroner to glass frames and other items. Arrangements for the American dollars - after the manufacturer shipped the deposit of SS valuables were made verbally at the highest ordered machine tools to the Germans. Cashing the letter - level (between Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and of-credit after shipment usually took one of two forms: Walther Funk) with all details handled by the SS- Wirtschafts- und Verwal-tungshauptamt (SS-Economic a) The Swedish manufacturer would take the Reichsbank Activity and Central Administrative Authority) which letter-of-credit and proof of shipment of the tools to the also administered SS enterprises and concentration Swedish Notenbank in Stockholm and be paid $10,000 camps. Although the SS loot arrived at the Reichsbank less bank charges for handling the transaction. The in sealed boxes, the boxes had to be opened to conduct Swedish Notenbank bought gold directly from the a receiving inventory. All deliveries of SS loot were Reichsbank throughout the war. entered in the Reichsbank books under the code name b) The Swedish manufacturer could take the Reichsbank "Melmer" . Between August 1942 and March 1945 the letter-of-credit and proof of shipment of the tools to any SS made 76 deliveries to the Melmer account in the Re - local bank and request payment through standard ichsbank, having an aggregate value of $14,500,000, commercial clearing channels. The local bank would the great bulk of it in foreign bank notes and gold. "ne-gotiate" the letter-of-credit by mail or courier On Saturday 07 April 1945 soldiers of the US 19th through the BIS in Basel, Switzerland. Upon submission Division of General Patton's Third Army entered the of proper letter-of-credit paperwork to the Deutsche Kaiseroda Potassium Mine in the small village of Reichsbank the BIS would be paid $ 11,000 in gold. Merkers, near Bad Salzungen in western Thuringia, The BIS would credit the account of the Swedish Germany. They found paintings and bags of Reichsmarks manufacturer's local bank in the amount of $10,250 stacked against steel vault doors that they were unable ($10,000 for the manufacturer, $250 as the local bank's to open. Returning on 08 April with Army Engineers profit) and keep $750 for the act of "commercial clearing”. they blasted a hole in the doors and into a huge chamber The clearing process is still essentially the same today. filled with bags of gold bar and coin, bales of currency; By the middle of 1942 the Nazis had looted, purchased suitcases of silverware, jewelry, church ornaments and or appropriated virtually every last ounce of monetary tableware. gold in Europe. Other sources of gold needed to be While precedent in international law provided that, "any found, and an immediate but small reserve came to the movable property of an enemy becomes the property of Reichsbank in the form of non-monetary gold and other the capturing power", the Americans realized they were valuables deposited with it by Heinrich Himmler's "government within a government," the Schutzstaffeln , * Contrary to popular belief, complete copies of Deutsche Re - or the SS. ichsbank financial flies and account books were captured with Nazi gold in 1945. They became a part of the records of the Office The Reichsbank had for a long time illegally falsified of the Military Government of the United States (OMGUS) and its records to hide the origins of its monetary gold and were eventually handed over to a new German entity, the Bank Deutscher Länder . 3 only temporary custodians of the greatest treasure ever bank or other monetary authority at home or abroad". found. A quick estimate placed the value of the gold The Tripartite Commission, at the time it began operations, alone at more than $241,000,000 based on the established had control of about $330,000,000 in German monetary price of US$35.00 per fine ounce. The value today gold and claims for lost gold exceeding $800,000,000. would be approximately ten times that amount, The job of restitution that was expected to be finished something on the order of 24 billion dollars! quickly turned out to be a job with no end. The very The non-monetary SS loot and the monetary gold secret and publicity-shy Tripartite Commission is still discovered at the Kaiseroda Mine in Merkers was in business today! removed by a convoy of military vehicles to the US The $14,500,000 worth of concentration camp booty, Army Foreign Exchange Depository (FED) in Frankfurt including everything from dental gold to jewelry, was am Main. The Merkers discovery represented 91% of a tiny portion of all loot recovered in Germany after the all the monetary gold found in Germany at the end of war and was not included in the Allied "gold pot". The the war, about half of it in gold bars. Only 92 of the gold SS loot was placed under the control of the Intergov - bars carried on the Reichsbank books were never found. ernmental Committee on Refugees to be used to Based on the principal that each nation that gave up rehabilitate and resettle victims. monetary gold to the Germans deserved to get a proportionate share of any and all German monetary Approximately 74% of the $770,000,000 in Reichsbank gold recovered at the end of the war, the American, gold that Hitler had at his disposal during World War II Soviet and British governments advanced the "gold was "looted" gold. At war's end the Allies had recovered pot" idea. A properly substantiated claim for gold given about $330,000,000, so the remaining $440,000,000 up to the Germans after 12 March 1938 would constitute had to be sitting in the bank vaults of the neutral profiteers a specific percentage of all claims to be made against - Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, France, Spain and 100% of the "gold pot" of recovered Nazi gold. It was Portugal. The great bulk of it, some $378,000,000 can intended that the gold pot would be divided in ratio be traced on Reichsbank books as it passed into the among all claimant countries. By the time this idea was hands of the , principal player in ready for implementation, the Soviets had moved on to the greatest money laundering scheme in history. After a new and more pressing agenda in eastern Europe and the war Switzerland "donated" $58,400,000 to the "gold the French, trying to put their war-time collaboration pot" administered by the Tripartite Commission, and in with the Germans behind them, clambered to join return the Allies agreed to drop all claims against gold America and Britain as one of the "Big Three" in charge that the Swiss had received from Germany. of the gold pot. SuggeSted Reading LiSt On 27 September 1946 statements issued at the highest Hitler’s gold Arthur L. Smith Jr., Berg Publishers level by the governments of the United States, Great Ltd., Oxford, 1989 Britain and France announced that in accordance with Part III of the Paris Agreement on Reparations , they nazi gold Ian Sayer & , Congdon and had jointly established the Tripartite Commission for Weed, NY, 1984 the Restitution of Monetary Gold (Tripartite Commission or TC) to be headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. the Price of glory Henrietta von Schirach, Frederick Monetary gold was defined by the United Nations as Muller, , 1960 "all gold which, at the time of its looting or wrongful removal, was carried as apart of the claimant's monetary This overview is sent free to purchasers of Reddick Militaria’s reserve, either in the accounts of the claimant government copy of a Nazi Reichsbank gold bar. Reichsbank Gold™ is a itself or in the accounts of the claimant country's central trademark of Reddick Militaria.

This entire brochure and the design of the Reichsbank Gold™ bar is © Copyright 1997 & 2010 by Reichsbank Gold™ Reddick Militaria PO Box 847, Pottsboro, TX 75076-0847 USA Due to the potential for misunderstanding quotations taken out of context, the copyright owners expressly forbid reproduction by any means in any form of portions of this overview which may tend to alter the meaning of a larger portion. Extracts published in reviews or other critical works which tend to alter the meaning of the general section from which they were abstracted will be treated as a violation of the rights of the copyright owners and pursued to the full extent of the law. 4