Nazi Gold and the Role Of

THETUFTS - DAILY [Where You Read It First Friday, October 30,1998 Volume XXXVII, Number 35 I Nazi gold and the role of the Swiss discussed bv Zabludoff d byILENESTWN he believed the problem is due tc Speaker introduces the new EPIIC lecture series Daily Staff Writer certain ideas and associations thai Combining a historical per- weremadeabout poisonsandtox. by ANDREW FREEDMAN interest, explainingthap‘the third “Swiss made lotsofmoney during spective and international events, ins evenbeforethemodemnucleza Daily Editorial Board generation after an event is the World War 11.” ProfessorEmeritus JohnEllisVon age, in that such weapons m While theNazi era in Germany one who really gets interested in He continued to discuss the pat- Cortland Moon lectured on the viewed as the most threatening has been studied continuously it.” tern of “Swiss Amnesia,” saying history of weapons of mass de- and destructive possible. since the end of World War 11, not Zabludoffsaidthe first genera- that “they built up a myth of neu- miction on Tuesday night. His The professor demonstrated all aspects of the time can be said tion “wants to forget,” the second trality; they never mentioned the talk was an extension of ‘“Loose how poisons were used as deadly to have been given equal atten- generation “didn’t learn from the profits they made and all the other Nukes,’ deadly gasses, killer mi- weapons in Shakespeare’sworks tion. first generation,” and the third issues, including all the Jews ;robes: confronting weapons of King John and Hamlet. These One of these issues was generation becomes “extraordinar- stopped at the border,” he said. mass destruction,” a new course examples were used to illustrate brought to light on Wednesday ily interested.” Zabludoffdoes, however, credit affered by the experimental col- earlier views on poison and the night. A Former Central Intelli- He termed the issue of Nazi the Swisspeopleformore recently lege. fact that throughout history poi- gence Agency (CIA) gold as “The banner issue ... but coming to terms with any past “The purpose of the course is sons have been viewed as deceit- Counternarcotics Operations it’s only the surface issue. Gold abuses. ’ “There is a younger :oraise awarenessamongstudents ful and dishonorable, as well as Deputy Director and the principle has an auraabout it,” he said. “The generation that is really rethinking If WD(weapons of mass de- deadly. Moon also cited the use of economic expert to the class ac- major issue is the amount and as- this issue,’’ he said. struction) issues and to challenge poison in the Bible and the asso- tion suit against Swiss banks, sets that were stolen from the Jew- “I think Switzerlanddeservesa students to think creatively about ciation of poison with the serpent Sidney Zabludoff addressed the ish community during World War lotofcreditwith fightingwith this issue.” ;elutions to the problem of in Judeo-Christianbeliefs. history ofNazigoldandthe Swiss 11. Very little has been written about WlD,” said Mary Beth Reissen, Forexample, inthe Judeo-chris- banks. this and known about,” he said. Zabludoff responded toaSwiss he professor teaching the course. tian creation story, a poisonous Zabludoff was on campus as Zabludoffmentioned an agree- audience member who spoke of Moon, the speaker, taught his- serpent is blamed for the banish- part of the Education for Public ment that was signed in 1946 that thedifficult position that Switzer- .oryat various institutions around ment ofAdam and Eve from Eden. Inquiry and International was supposed to settle the issue land was in at the time of the war he world for 35 years. He has “Poisonisametaphorfortheway Citizenship’s(EP1IC)new 1998-99 of Nazi gold. “There was a lot of and pointed out that it was a na- mitten several books on the topic evil operates,” Moon said. Practitioner in Residence Program. deception on the part ofthe Swiss tion surrounded by enemies. fbiologicalandchemical warfare The professor then jumped to Introducing Zabludoff, EPIIC in that negotiation,” he said. “Do Zabludoff said that by reading the newspapers from the time it including Confines of Concept: the industrial revolution, where he Director Sherman Teichman you let stand an agreement that becomes clear that “There were a American Strafegyin World War cited Upton Sinclair’sl~~mas-praisedhiseflortsattracingillegal was based on deception?” 11. Moon testified before the terpiece, The Jungle, in which the trails ofmoney. “He has been able Zabludoff asked. lot ofarguments at that time” over whethertoaid theGermansornot. President’s Chemical Warfare meat industry was described a to trace things that are untrace- He added that in stealing Jew- able,” Teichman said. ish and other assets, the Nazis “It was not a simple issue,” he R Commission and has attended a unsanitaty, corrupt, and viewed number of conferences on the as poisoning the public with ran- Zabludoff began his address “acted against the Hague Con- said. “Scholars today would ar- subject of chemical warfare. This cid food. In many of Charles by pointin gout therecent increase vention of 1907” which barred gue it was a small controlling includes the 1991 Third Review Dickens’ novels, coal and smog in interest regarding Nazi gold and such actions. clique” that steered the govern- ConferenceoftheBiological Weap- were seen as poisons not only ta stolenassetsduring World War 11. “The Jewish communityexisted ment toward aiding the Germans msandToxin Convention,held in the environment, but also as poi- “It’s phenomenal how many and was vital in the economies of to such a large degree. Seneva, Switzerland. sons infecting the human body as people are really getting into this Europe,” Zabludoff said. “Money In an interview with the Daily, Maon’s topic was “Breaking well. issue mw,” he said. isstandingforthiscommunitythat Zabludoff delved further into his he Taboo against Chemical and Moon explained that humans Zabludoff then discussed his existed.” feelings regarding Swiss involve- Biological Weapons: the histori- as a species view poisons as what theory explaining this surge of Discussingtherole ofswitzer- ment. :al perspective.” In his speech, we find most threatening to our interest. “There is a confluence of land, which remained neutral dur- “In the case of the Swiss, I get he professor used examples fiom society because they are associ- events that have. brought every- ing the war, Zabludoffclaimed that disturbed about it sometimes, to thing together,” he said. the country was not as innocent realize the things that they did, but iterature and history to illustrate ated with wch R W~!Pmge of Nhy chemical and biological war- ideas. Poism hhs been associated The demise ofthe Soviet Union as it might appear. “Anybody who also to realize the problems and ’are is viewed as one of the most with the destruction ofourplanet, “opened up insights into what looks at the material will realize issues they faced in a time surrounded by the Nazis. There were iorrific forms of torture and war- as well as the obliteration of our happened to the Jewish commu- that in the financial area the Swiss nity in Europe,” Zabludoff ex- actively benefitted from Nazi Ger- a number of Swiss, not a lot, who are in society. The professor ’ society - being that there is no Eked, “Why are chemical and bio- absolute protection &om nuclear plained. many,” he said. justtookadvantage ofthe wartime ogical weapons so abhorred? weapons-aswellasthedestruc- In addition, Zabludoffcredited Further explaining his state- profits in a sense and earned a lot Why isn’t the idea of war itself so what he termed “The Third Gen- ment, he termed Switzerland, of money. eration factor” for the increase in “Hitler’s banker” and said the “This was essentially the bank- ibhorred?” According to Moon, see page 13 MOON, ing community who were in the 0 ‘I best position to earn profits off of all the looted assets and the looted Department of Public Safety recognized gold that was coming from Nazi A .New York Post article ranked Tufts among ;he safest Universities Germany,” Zabludoff said. He said the Swiss had a large by JORDAN SOLOMON “When individuals repoi crimes to us, they successful programs that we have is what we economic incentive in restricting Daily Editorial Board make the statistics. There’s no reason for us to call a‘liaisonprogram’with ourresidencehall access to the dormant accounts. According to a recent article in the New try to hide these things for a variety ofreasons, staff. We have University police officers who “Switzerland is the only country -YorkPost,Tufts’ securitydepartmentisamong not least of which is that you would certainly are assigned to residence hall duty teams, and where banks actually take over the most reliable, making Tufts one of the lose credibility with your community if you when those teams meet, it allows us to develop dormant accounts,” he said. safest universities in the weren’t forthcoming- with a more one-on-one relationship with the folks Zabludoff estimated that the country. those statistics. who live on campus; they get to know the accounts cited in accordance with Earlierthis year, an orga- “Secondly,” King officer more as an individual rather than just the $1.25 billion monetary settle- nization called “Security on continued, “if you weren’t that uniform.” ment this past year are only “about Cam pus ” pres en t e d t h e forthcoming in your report, King also credits the rest of the Tufts com- one third of all the accounts.” Department Tufts of Public therearesomepenalties that munity for contributing to the school’s suc- He said the figure of$] .25 bil- Safety with the Jeanne the Department of Educa- cess in this area. “I think that in order for any lion was a reasonably fair settle- Cleary Campus Safety tion could place against the public safety operation to be successful it has ment.

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