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INDEPENDENT COMMISSION OF EXPERTS
SWITZERLAND - WORLD WAR II
Switzerland
and Gold Transactions in the Second World War: Interim Report
Victim
gold: new figures and new findings
Bern/Zurich, 25 May 1998. The Independent
Commission of Experts: Switzerland - Second World War made public its
interim report on "Switzerland and gold Transactions in the Second
World War" on Monday, in Zurich. The report reveals new, important
findings concerning, for instance, shipments of victim gold by the German
Reichsbank to Switzerland.
On the basis of documents which were discovered
in the United States in 1997, the Commission has obtained new figures
for the amount of gold coming from concentration and extermination camps
which arrived in Switzerland via the German central bank. The amount of
gold comprised in the shipments of SS Captain Bruno Melmer which the German
central bank delivered to its deposit account at the SNB in Bern came
to 119.5 kilograms of fine gold. This corresponded to a sum of 134,428
US dollars or the equivalent of 581,899 Swiss francs. The other recipients
of this gold were the Deutsche Bank, the Dresdner Bank, the Degussa company,
and the Consorzio Esportazioni Aeronautiche. The answer to the question
of who subsequently acquired the victim gold that the German Reichsbank
sent to its deposit account at the SNB in Bern, remains unknown. The question
of whether victim gold was moved to Switzerland via other channels also
remains unanswered.
There are no indications that the directors
of the SNB were aware of the origin of this gold which, in appearance,
was no different from that of other deliveries. As of 1941, the board
of governors became increasingly aware that Jews and other persecuted
groups were being robbed, and in 1943, at the latest, the SNB had knowledge
of the systematic extermination of victims of the Nazi regime. Nonetheless,
SNB decision-makers neglected taking measures to distinguish looted gold
from the other gold holdings of the Reichsbank.
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