Secrets of War Season 1, Ep 5: Nazi Gold

next on secrets of war it was a tremendous booty prized by Hitler as much as territory the priceless art personal assets and national Treasuries of an entire continent the organized plunder of these riches would become the most enormous heist in the history of warfare the trail of the spoils of war and Nazi gold is next on secrets of war [Music] in every war endured by mankind there's been an economic plunder war booty no plunder however was as great or as well organised as that executed by Nazi Germany during World War two from the moment he was democratically elected in 1933 Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party lieutenants used their power to personally enrich themselves Hitler ruled Germany with absolute power enabling the Nazi regime to destroy its enemies and expropriate their property their system of organized pillage became the harbinger of the Third Reich and set the stage for the further plunder and subsequent genocide of the Jews and others across Europe [Music] Heinrich Himmler's SS created a system of economic benefits for the leaders of the regime the activities of the SS were to be self-financing the main source of its revenue was to be the property of the enemies of the Third Reich the fruits of their forced labor and the proceeds from their eventual murder despite the real and imminent threat of severe punishment some Germans many of them Jews some anti-nazi industrialists and some opposition politicians traveled to Swiss banks to hide and protect their assets from expropriation by the Nazis [Music] Swiss bankers played a role not not just talking about the Swiss National Bank commercial banks knew full well which of their clients with certain Jewish last names had sizeable assets and sometimes there would be a situation where a very nervous client would come in with two very stocky gentleman in the ill-fitting suits and these would be SS officers or guards and they would quickly hastily arranged with draw up assets and often what was happening was a just sheer extortion to commit such violations of German law Hitler needed accomplices in Switzerland's banking community Tskhinvali what we see in the evolution of economic relations between Germany and Switzerland during the 1930s and 1940s is that Germany was traditionally Switzerland's most important economic partner for example dog Swiss financial institutions had long been closely tied to the German economy [Music] they've granted Germany more loans than financial institutions in other Western countries with the rise of Bolshevism in the 1920s and 30s Swiss banks became increasingly attractive to German clients as a place to make deposits while the Swiss sought to expand their loan business throughout Europe the relationship with Germany grew before Frances defeat Switzerland's relations with its neighbors were relatively balanced although economically speaking Germany's weight has always been more important than the other powers authorities or three sauce the expropriated properties of Jews and other enemies of the Third Reich were not used solely for the public purse but also to line the pockets of the Nazi elite professor Jean Ziegler is an outspoken often controversial member of the Swiss Parliament and putting away they became billionaires you know through the world I mean they it was really a gangster logic you know they were not only murdered it was a regime of organized crime you know it was not only stocks bonds jewelry and gems that were stolen from the victims of the Reich there were also works of art the Germans used Swiss art dealers to help unload their ill-gotten gains in particular Swiss dealers were retained to sell what the Nazis termed degenerate art for the German in the German ideology everything that wasn't classical was a definite art but as they were gangsters before everything more than ideologist see you were well the value that it had on the small international market that was Switzerland and so the sold many thing throws with Allah paris-based author Hector Feliciano has dedicated himself to the search for missing French art in their hand such a an enormous taste for art that he wanted and he planned it during the war he wanted to create to develop big Museum in Linz which was the city where he had been raised as an adolescent and he wanted to create this enormous museum that would be a museum of European art the museum was supposed to let's say restructure all of art history into the Germanic point of view while Hitler concentrated on his Museum which was never built he had other plans for the rest of Europe the looting the Nazis had committed in Germany Austria and Czechoslovakia prior to the start of the war had been quite profitable soon all of Europe would be ripe for the picking in September 1939 Germany invaded for world war two had begun the face of Europe in the history of the world would be changed forever with the total war that was to raged throughout Europe came a shockingly systematic economic plunder occupation and the waging of war first money and Hitler was in need of further capital to expand his Reich it had two problems even on the highs of his power he was dependent on the world market for the strategic Roma theater for the Wehrmacht for the SS he had to buy petrol chrome from countries outside his fair of influence he needed money convertible money so he stole gold in eleven occupied countries even before world war ii broke out hitler had targeted the gold reserves of the countries his army eventually occupied officials of the Reichsbank Germany's central bank quickly followed the troops into Austria and Czechoslovakia to deplete their national Treasuries once war broke out the gold belonging to the rest of Europe's central banks was in Hitler's sights there were plenty of riches available for the Third Reich to finance its warmth stealing the gold was only the first part then the Nazis had to launder it what the Swiss did was not only lend money and trade credits to the Nazis and their various puppet regimes but actually assisted in the looting of national Treasuries which means that the central banks of the various countries that were occupied by the Nazi forces be it Czechoslovakia Poland Luxembourg Belgium and the list goes on the Reichsbank would quickly follow the verm acht the german army into a town or the the capital city and quickly go to the central bank and hopefully they would find the national reserves the gold reserves and would simply glued it and send it off to to the Reichsbank it was not just the goal of Europe's national Treasuries that made its way to the Reichsbank Jewish communities in eastern territories were liquidated anything and everything belonging to these people was somehow turned into currency concentration camp victims were robbed of their dignity their lives and eventually their body parts as long as the Nazis could find a way to use them from slave labor and munitions factories to human hair used in the manufacture submarine boots the Nazis sought profit I mean so many people behaved with such an incredibly disgusting way one wouldn't have known what was this kind of mercantile approach of death that the German had they had in mind to exploit to the end all the earnings one could say that one of the reasons why the persecuted the Jewish was to take what they had they were gangsters and like the most organized gangsters that you can take Kevin Goering was a gangster with an army of gangsters under him he stole the gold in the concentration camps the truth the gold fillings the the jewelry and all this part of this gold came to Berlin smelter it they found it again marked by the swatch the swatches car and sent to Switzerland by the spring of 1940 the Third Reich had set its sights on the Western Front after the Low Countries France fell quickly they come into Paris in the summer of 1940 and in the first few days they had already have a list of some of the Jewish art dealers that were the most important in Paris we have to remember that Paris was the center of the art world at the time there was New York and London did not exist so we see this enormous market with great collectors great art dealers and the Nazis they arrived and immediately in two or three days they take over about fifteen or sixteen galleries this is a poem used to be the depot of all looted art that the Nazis used okay the trucks with undiluted artwork would come through here then go up and go there and then they would deliver all of the rod work and agenda form inside there was a staff of some 60 people with art historians are expert photographers and there they would take all of these out and start in the doing in the doors some of it would go to Germany and some of it would just be taken to Switzerland where it would be sold [Music] in wartime France under the Vichy regime there were plenty of government officials and art dealers eager to do business with the Third Reich we have to know that the Paracel market being the biggest one in the world with the war all the international clientele the British the Americans were cut off so in fact the Germans came to replace the former clients and the art dealers who were there they wanted to sell they wanted to collaborate they were very eager to collaborate so a lot of them they realize that all these looted collections are coming into the market and they say if I don't sell it someone else will okay and there is no ideology there is no moral there despite the complicity of many art dealers gallery owners agents and government officials there were some heroic acts to save our treasures from the Nazis but there were some of these servants let's say of the Rothschilds who managed to hide some of your and disease there were even some let's say who did who did some for even very complicated procedures in order to save it one of the Rothschilds mansions was taken over by one of curling's deputy general general Hansen and the valley of the Rothschild remained in the house working for Hansen in order to save part of the objects so what he did was he had a cousin who was a firefighter so he calls his cousin and they sort of create a fake fire in one of the entrances [Music] there were two entrances to the Rothschild house the German soldiers posted at the house tried to extinguish the fire along with the firemen meanwhile the valet and his cousin carried pieces of priceless silverware and other artifacts of the other door [Music] in spite of these heroics the pillaging went on unabated David go to great lengths to grab a piece of art that Goering wanted or that Goebbels wanted her that Hitler wanted they knew no rules they felt it was their right to take what they could take and people like Field Marshal Goering was simply insatiable when it came to her Goering was very much interested because he wanted to expand his own personal collection during the war he has the Finance Ministry whether he can have foreign money foreign currency they tell him we are in the middle of the war we cannot give it to you so he has the idea of using all of this looted art at the Japan and then they start selling it or bartering it you would also get in order to get into Switzerland in order to get all this art into fit and our part of it into Switzerland they would use the diplomatic pouch in order to avoid customs [Music] Switzerland status as a neutral country was respected and upheld throughout the war so the Swiss banks not only laundered it the stolen money from the Nazi crimes indicate the day April launched the war there are very clear documents by about the fook the the Minister of Economy of the Russian president of the rice Bank who says is out the Swiss bankers we could not hold out more than two months why then did the Swiss allow themselves to become so involved with so many illegal activities of the Nazi regime the first reason was the constant threat of invasion from the time Hitler moved into the SARM into Austria and then into Czechoslovakia in March 1939 the Swiss feared that the german-speaking part of their country would be the next target for annexation [Music] in the year following these occupations there was a great deal of planning by the Nazi High Command for the full-scale invasion of Switzerland every evening when I went to bed during war I asked myself what happened tomorrow morning at C o clock shall we be invaded in the early morning of the 25th of June 1940 a few hours after the Armistice between Germany and France went into effect orders from the German army High Command went out to prepare an invasion of Switzerland a top-secret plan called for the quick defeat of any Swiss resistance in the partition of the country with Italy Germany would take the northern four-fifths of the land and Mussolini would occupy the remaining area south a line running east from Lake Geneva [Music] however Operation Christmas tree never took form as the German war machine focused on other areas of Europe it was late summer 1940 and Hitler had other priorities remember that Switzerland was a landlocked country completely dependent on the surrounding countries for the provision of fuel and other essential supplies in the end Hitler decided that it would cost too much to to invade and to occupy the country and in the end he got most of what he wanted anyway by applying the kind of pressure that Germany was August II in a position to to apply still the threat of invasion never went away the German press officially reminded Switzerland in 1942 that she was originally part of the Reich Hitler called the neutral country a pimple on the face of Europe despite Hitler's saber-rattling most Swiss people were fully committed to their neutrality and prepared to fight for it Switzerland was a mountainous country with plenty of bases from which to launch guerrilla attacks it would not be easy to conquer following the defeat of France in June 1940 the popularly elected Swiss General only guize on called his senior officers together to plan a defensive strategy against the Nazi invasion the Swiss could blow up the st. Guittard in simplon tunnels as a defensive move this would close off the main transit route for the Germans supplies and arms to Italy it would require an army of engineers to rebuild the tunnels a difficult feat at any time especially when under attack by roving guerrillas the remaining Swiss Army could then retreat to their mountain strongholds these natural fortresses would be next to impossible to bomb even by the mighty desslok the defense was a general military service with almonds the defense was principally in the Alps because the landscape of the Alps is very good for defense that is makes the difference with Holland Holland is flat and that is difficult to to defend the combatant Switzerland that is also a tradition despite this defensive strategy and Nazi invasion would have eventually proved too much for general reasons forces the Swiss I believe in their day said that we are no match for the Nazis no match for the German army AF and if they don't like what we do we'll be victims like all the rest of Europe Hitler continued to be troubled by Switzerland's persistent neutrality in 1943 with the German armies on the defensive Hitler closed ranks on those areas he firmly control Switzerland remained the thorn in his side the Germans were afraid that once the Allies invaded Europe Switzerland would allow them free passage through the Swiss territory as a result German army intelligence was reviewing plans for a preventive occupation but Himmler and his SS were also keen to occupy Switzerland Hitler's generals and economic advisors won the day by arguing against such a move many of them had fortunes locked away in Swiss banks a violation of German law and they wanted to keep them secret this precarious strategic situation gave new meaning to Swiss neutrality there was a myth of Swiss neutrality before the war and it continued after the war and I think the Swiss themselves forced it the retention of that myth they tried their very best to stay out of controversial issues the historical roots of Swiss neutrality can be traced to Swiss internal policy in the 16th century regional leaders were admitted into the Swiss Confederacy only after they had made a pledge of strict neutrality in the event of disputes between Confederate states in 1511 the Swiss opted to appease France and Austria by staying neutral in their disputes there is a big big lie the lie of neutrality first of all the Second World War was not just any war it was not just one of thousands of other conflicts in the long long history of our continent it was a crime against humanity it was the fight between civilization and barbers and the heat was not just chief of state or general making war to some other country he was the incarnation of evil he was a mass murderer it was a criminal regime from the top to the base so to be neutral in such a case to then humanity is fighting for its survival this attitude is criminal it's it's totally intolerable past Paco peace dear I don't think that we could say that the whole country got richer it has had the great privilege to avoid being invaded to live relatively normally compared to its neighbours the Swiss banks they make an immense amount of money out of this relationship mr. eyes and the planetary power of the Swiss banks which you can see today comes from the days of the Second World War so they had this immensely profitable business relation with Berlin so when the rice he hides out don't ask something from their business friends they were very inclined to give it as to keep up business the Allies also colluded in the matter that by pretending that Switzerland was truly neutral for one simple reason it was useful for them as well indeed Switzerland did provide a useful site for diplomatic exchanges intelligence gathering and financial dealings among allies axis and neutrals [Music] allan dulles led the European Office of Strategic Services in Europe the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency in Barren his Swiss office was the main source of information for the Allies in Europe [Music] another clear asset for the allies was their reliance on the Swiss operated International Committee of the Red Cross to protect Allied airmen who were shot down over Central Europe German espionage networks in Switzerland were quite elaborate in their organization the Nazis used German residents of Switzerland for their espionage work and the Swiss could do little to deter such activities for fear of provoking and antagonizing Germany moreover during these unsettling times for Switzerland Swiss banks provided necessary financial intermediation for the Allies the julius baer bank was a small private bank owned by a Jewish family it assists at the OSS by arranging for the foreign exchange the organisation required for many of its operations the Allies were themselves doing business in Switzerland let's remember that Allan Dulles sitting in Bern was able through Swiss banks to finance the French Resistance such acts point to the anti-nazi sentiment that prevailed among the Swiss people I think that 99% of the Swiss were against Italy the resistance against Nazi Germany in Switzerland the grassroot resistance was rather stronger in Switzerland and in any other country or for a very simple historic effect it is that Switzerland has been created against the German Empire Switzerland was not alone in doing business with the Germans other neutral countries cooperated with Hitler most significantly Vichy France turkey bought Nazi gold as did Sweden Francisco Franco's Spain considered entering the war on the side of the Axis powers but could not reach a deal with Hitler on Spain's access to the spoils of war following an axis victory instead Franco aided Germany by buying stolen gold from Europe's national Treasuries via Switzerland Juan Antonio Salazar's Portugal also enjoyed economic gain by doing business for the Nazis via Switzerland and Juan perón's Argentina which became a haven for Nazis after the war buzzed with rumors of u-boats delivering gold of the port apart a Plata what these central banks in Spain Portugal Sweden or Turkey Wood says we don't want to deal directly with the Reichsbank so the Swiss National Bank the Central Bank of Switzerland would be the Clearing House then selling gold to various third parties as the tide of the war turned against the Germans following their failed siege of Stalingrad the voracious appetite for capital and property continued as Hitler's feast was coming to an end he was still obsessed with the stolen art treasures what is really interesting is that let's say in the middle of the war in the middle of defeat in the middle of persecution in the middle of being vanquished and being also completely disheveled psychologically when he writes his Testament his will at the end of the war he still talks over this collection the word become a second priority to Hitler in the SS with their armies in retreat the Nazis accelerated their quest the spoils of war there were plenty of Swiss financial intermediaries willing to assist in laundering and hiding the fruits of Nazi pillaging [Music] Switzerland was providing government trade credits to the Reich what it manufactured war material for the German military we went on this production production trailer King and the furnishing that I missed locomotives with arms with precision instruments with optical instruments and kept on going the war the entry of the United States into the war and the failure of Germany to obtain a decisive victory over the Soviet Union put increasing pressure on Switzerland to appear more neutral and it had become but this image was difficult to change since German forces still surrounded Switzerland in certain Swiss banks continued to launder looted gold and accept secret deposits by Nazi leaders before the United States entered the war its Department of Treasury issued a policy to curb Swiss economic support in the Third Reich in 1941 [Music] Swiss firms suspected of doing business for the Nazis were blacklist and their Swiss assets were frozen in the US it's important to underscore that unlike the case with other neutrals who began to sense around the end of 1942 in the beginning of 1943 the Battle of Stalingrad is a is a commonly identified landmark the other neutrals began to assess that Germany might not win the war after all and began to pull back from their relationship with the Germans the Swiss were reluctant and they continued on on into 1943 despite the spectacular Allied victories in North Africa which ought to have been a signal despite the collapse of Mussolini in Italy which ought to have been a signal on and on they continued and they were doing very well the US was determined to put an end to the trafficking of looted gold by the neutrals and signed international treaties and declarations with its allies to ensure that title to any property gold or other assets obtained through economic plunder would not be recognized after the war agents of the US Department of the Treasury vigorously conducted a worldwide hunt known as Operation safe haven to uncover control and prevent the sale and disappearance of German property and valuables once the war finally came to an end a dark suspicions remained that the remnants of the Nazi leadership would use secret funds deposited in neutral countries as a means of establishing a fourth reich that was the central concern in 1945 to make sure that nazi germany wouldn't revive with the aid of resources that were deposited in Swiss banks so there was at the 10th of August 1944 this mysterious confidence the SS converted in Strasbourg to prepare the resurrection of a fourth rise with or without it and to assure the flight of the principal leaders of the principle Clemens the loot pillaged by the Nazis over five years of war and twelve years of dictatorship whereas now spread throughout Europe some even traveled as far as South America as the Allies captured the retreating German military forces caches of gold were found across Germany and Austria uncovered were gems artwork jewelry gold fillings industrial patents and other assets stolen by the Nazis [Music] in the closing days of the war American troops discovered gold reserves in the salt mines of Merkers and in the Buchenwald concentration camp the gold from Macker and other Nazi sources was valued at 200 million dollars [Music] the US Britain and France formed a commission to evaluate how to redistribute gold back to those countries whose central banks had been looted but where was the balance the gold stolen from the temp central banks of Europe estimated to be worth some 621 million u.s. dollars at the time the focus turned to Switzerland the Allies could not agree on a common strategy to deal with a Swiss the UK and France needed trade credits and national loans to jumpstart the respective post-war economies the u.s. was concerned that the rest of Europe lying in ruins could fall prey to her communist takeover there was even concern that Switzerland would begin buying Siberian gold from Moscow bringing them within the Communist sphere of influence in addition the American government was shifting politically lumen was empowered and the Cold War was just starting in March 46 Switzerland was invited very strongly to Washington as the accomplice of Italy it was Ted since one year and then the Allies they said now you have to render account you have to explain your behavior and give back what stole money that is in your bank won't especially the Nazi gold they negotiated 68 days up till May 46 and daily life like a ritual said they lighted the most cynical and said what should be a reparation Swiss reparations we don't want to do it we ever knew to be our Neutral we never were allied to any one of the parties in the conflict why should we give reparation and so on and sold the Washington agreement between the US UK and France on behalf of all the Allies and Switzerland was signed in May 1946 the government of Switzerland agreed to return 250 million Swiss francs approximately 52 million dollars worth of gold to the Allies to distribute to the central banks that were looted by the Nazis in exchange all national claims against Switzerland were to be dropped and no further claims would be pressed [Music] strangely the Washington Accord never attributed guilt or liability to the Swiss instead it stated that Switzerland was merely making a financial contribution to the economic reconstruction of Europe after the war when they had all of this information from safe haven the allies chose to largely ignore a lot of it when they were hammering out treaties with with Switzerland the Washington Accord is the most important of that and they chose not to press Switzerland even though they had all this information because by the end of the war Britain and France knew that they needed Swiss banks in order to restart their economies which was shattered as a result of the war and so they put a lot of pressure on the United States not to use the safe haven documentation to punish Switzerland essentially it allowed the Swiss to get away with murder the books of the Swiss National Bank and the Switzerland based Bank of International Settlements another Bank associated with laundering Nazi gold were never opened to the Allies to this day only a few Swiss bankers know how much stolen gold was laundered through Switzerland the money in Switzerland returned to the allies did not involve money that had been expropriated from individuals there was a side letter to the Washington Accord saying that Switzerland would have to do its utmost to get the money that had deposited in its banks back to those people those individuals who had made those deposits before and during the war except that nothing happened four years after the war little was done for individuals seeking restitution for their lost assets homes personal belongings and artwork [Music] the world had just entered the nuclear age and the Allies were contending with a new kind of war with the Soviets their former comrades-in-arms the map of Europe was quickly being divided between the two power blocks the Allies showed little interest in assisting individuals so it was no surprise that the Swiss government in their commercial banks followed suit Switzerland didn't really pay attention to individual claims I mean you've got people he's got Holocaust survivors going back to Switzerland with little documentation knowing that their families perhaps had Swiss bank accounts and Swiss banking officials being incredibly nasty and asking them in a very legalistic way well we need a death certificate and their response was always well I wish we didn't issue death certificates claims for personal assets after the war became a bureaucratic nightmare even if the descendant of a Holocaust victim could produce what we call a declaration of disappearance the banking clerk could ask now prove me that you are to only hide that you are the only hired and as the SS monster killed whole families whole village is how with cities the second proof you could never produce it you could never produce and this is a denial of justice produced by the banking secrecy because now the banks are turning the banking secrecy against the client which is a very perverse way of applying an existing law the Swiss government and the country's financial institutions struggled to come to grips with the newly focused attention on their country's banking practices during and following the war in addition the return of artwork stolen by the Nazis during their occupation of France had been no easy matter [Music] with post-war Europe on the verge of mass starvation the Allies did not put the return of art plundered by the Nazis on their list of post-war priorities [Music] the Allies did start tracking the disart and they started knowing about it very slowly during the war but in fact they use the dimensional and proportions of an only after 44 45 once Paris is liberated and they realize everything that had been stolen the official policy in France there was a denial phase many of these people felt that the 50 years that 4050 years after the war they could talk some of them even told me you know I was just so happy after the war to have survived that I didn't even dare ask for material things but now they realize that art is not only a material thing it goes beyond that and they're trying to recover it [Music] only since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union have there been worldwide efforts to expose the lack of individual justice and address restitution of economic crimes that occurred during World War two [Music] with the passing of the 50th anniversary at the end of the war there's been renewed interest in the whereabouts of individual assets sparking a number of enquiries and discoveries across Europe [Music] in 1995 the Austrian government returned artworks stolen by the Nazis for which there were no heirs for over five decades the works had been stored at a monastery in auerbach collecting dust [Music] ownership of the art was transferred to the Austrian Jewish community which with christie's organized an auction in vienna in October of 1996 to raise money for a variety of charities and Holocaust education trusts [Music] the Swiss banks however have been slower in dealing with their nation's activities during the Second World War when the US government Declassified a number of military intelligence documents concerning the role of Switzerland the Swiss National Bank and its commercial banks and financial intermediaries the American press began to take a keen interest in the issue so did World Jewish Congress president Edgar Bronfman senior and US Senator Alphonse D'Amato chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Bronfman senior and Senator D'Amato accused the Swiss government and Swiss banking industry of profiting from the Holocaust and withholding bank accounts worth an estimated seven billion dollars from their rightful owners [Music] others believe that these estimates were inflated I would be extremely suspicious of anyone who assumes that we can have an accurate accounting now of the quote billions of dollars or Swiss francs in assets stolen from Jews or stolen from occupied countries or for that matter anyone who assumes that we can have an accurate inventory of works of art that were taken I think that Jewish people having brought money to Switzerland seeing the invasion of European country by the Nazi they decided to bring it to England or to the US that's a leaf that so these are the reasons why I suppose any people suppose that all the sons involves are not very important regardless of the estimated value of the dormant bank accounts political events continued to drive the issue the Swiss Parliament launched its own inquiry in December 1996 [Music] a commission of experts was appointed to review mountains of archival material to determine Switzerland's role in the laundering and Nazi gold and looted property it happens very rarely that Parliament adopts a law by unanimity this has been the case in both chambers so our Commission has I think a very solid political basis in Switzerland I think from the moment on where this Commission has been established by the Parliament private persons and private enterprises corporate enterprises have understood the message and stake until now they cooperatively very willingness with us it is very difficult to assess Switzerland's acting margin at the time I think it depended a lot with time according to me this margin was very limited during the summer of 1940 and although I think that Switzerland could have of course it is easy to say it it could have been more open more critical despite everything at least during the second part of the war it has tried to slightly limit its economic allowances but I think it could have done more and above all and it's a big point for me it could have politically done more regarding the welcoming of Jewish refugees during world war 2 here it had an acting margin that seems quite obvious to me and it could have done better in this field we cannot be the red cross country that gives of itself a generous idea if at the same time our attitude is as closed as it was at that time [Music] the entire affair became a public relations nightmare for Switzerland they are sitting on this country impenetrable to to any moral argument you know they say we're our people apart we are neutral we don't do not care about the walls around us the conflicts around us the misery around us be to business everybody beat mr. Hitler be and this institutionalized blindness is the biggest problem of Switzerland today questions also remain about the whereabouts of thousands of the world's great pieces of art we have to remember that they're still about 20% of all the art looted in France that's still missing so I believe that part of it must be somewhere in Switzerland but that if we are patient enough it will come up what is interesting is that many of these artworks make much of this artwork once it was looted and disappeared it disappeared for a few years but then of course it naturally came to North America to the United States especially because that was where the market was a lot of these looted paintings they all come from France because France was the biggest looted place and so a lot of them you can really trace them from the place where they were looted down to the jetty pond then to Switzerland and then to the United States are there any legitimate rules about what spoils of war illegitimate that's a kind of questions basically an oxymoron because you're dealing with war which at its essence is an immoral enterprise of course its objective is to kill as many people as you can possibly do and whether they're soldiers or civilians that difference which formerly was observed some degrees now generally no longer observed I do know that the Nazis are worth noting let's remember that these assets were stolen in a time in which there were desperate people making desperate arrangements and in which that there were at the same time some of the most brilliant minds in the banking world turning their energies and their talent to covering up now assuming now that we can go back and provide an accurate and accounting I think this is this is highly dubious considering the amount of time that has passed since World War two the true economic loss is certainly hard to grasp recovery of the valuable assets stolen from individual REO appeals by the Third Reich is scarcely guaranteed [Music] moreover simply attributing a monetary figure to this restitution would probably be an injustice to the victims of Nazism [Music] the chilling methods the Nazi regime employed to rob Europe and its people artwork money property and other assets have become more clear but the precise amount of Nazi gold and their assorted spoils of war and they remain a mystery forever [Music] you

Channel: Secrets of War - Full Episodes

Views: 32,693

Rating: 4.7098446 out of 5

Keywords: Charlton Heston, War, WWII, World War, World War II, Third Reich, Hitler, Nazi, Germany, Allies, Heist, Non-fiction, Documentary, Series, FilmRise

Id: KK7achaRuhI

Length: 52min 2sec (3122 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 20 2016