> Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 11:14:23 +0200 > Subject: Bankers Knew About Gold, Swiss Critic Says > > Mercredi 5 Mars 1997 - International Herald Tribune - par > INTERVIEW, Jean Ziegler > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > Bankers Knew About Gold, Swiss Critic Says > > Q & A Jean Ziegler, member of Parliament Jean Ziegler, a Socialist member > of the Swiss Parliament and a professor of Sociology at the University of > Geneva, has been a critic of the Swiss banking system and what he calls the > country's "petrif'ied" concept of neutrality. He favors abolishing bank > secrecy law;s and is the author of a forthcoming book, ?Switzerland, the > Gold and the Dead.? In Geneva, Mr. Ziegler spoke with Robert Kroon for the > International Herald Tribune. Q. In your forthcoming book you claim that > World War II would have ended a year earlier if Switzerland had not > sustained the Third Reich?s wartime economy. Isn?t that a bit of an > overstatement? A. Absolutely not. I got access to some fascinating wartime > archives from the Nazi Foreign Ministry at Wilhelmstrasse, which survived > the destruction of Berlin. A 1943 document, signed by Foreign Minister > Joachim von Ribbentrop and Walter Funk, Hitler?s economics chief, > unequivocally states that without Switzerland?s help, the economy would > collapse within two months. This refers to Switzerland as a laundering > place for hundreds of tons of gold stolen from Poland, Czechoslovakia and > later Holland, Belgium and the concentration camp victims. The Nazis > desperately needed Swiss francs to buy raw materials for their war industry > and in those days nobody wanted Reichsmarks. Hitler was very pleased with > our so-called neutrality. Q. The Swiss Central Bank has said the ingots > were stamped with Reichsbank markings, so they were not aware of the > origins. Does that make sense to you? A. This is utter nonsense. In 1939 > the Reichsbank president, Hjalmar Schacht, was fired for warning Hitler > that Germany?s gold reserves were depleted and the country was facing > bankruptcy. This was no secret to central bankers anywhere, least of all in > Bern. The first ship ments of Polish gold carried false Reichsbank stamps, > but the laundering operation went so smoothly that after 1940 the Nazis no > longer bothered about such technicalities. Part of the 150 tons of ingots > looted from the Netherlands arrived in Bern in its original state, or with > French and American markings, because the Dutch Central Bank also held > monetary gold from those countries. The Americans knew about all this > through Allen Dulles, their spymaster in Bern. He had been a savvy Wall > Street lawyer and cultivated excellent connections with Swiss bankers and > politicians. The Allies warned us in 1943 that Switzerland would be held > accountable after the war for its Nazi gold dealings, but they never > stopped. Q. Wasn?t this the price Switzerland had to pay for keeping the > Germans out? A. We might have been annexed if we hadn?t played ball. But at > least, our wartime rulers should have come clean after the war. They should > have accounted for their collaboration with Hitler and for delivering tens > of thousands of Jewish refugees to the SS. Q. Quite a few Swiss politicians > think a sudden confrontation with the past may shake the nation out of what > some see as a state of complacency. A. I doubt it. The banks have opened > their books to the Volcker Commission and put up a fund for Holocaust > victims. Calling that a humanitarian gesture is sheer hypocrisy. It was the > result of international pressure and not a long-overdue admission. Perhaps > you cannot blame the Swiss for feeling like God?s chosen people, because we > have had no foreign invaders since Napoleon. But in almost 200 years of > peace our democracy has become petrified. We stand isolated, because > neutrality is thoroughly irrelevant in today?s world. Switzerland should > join the United Nations and the European Union. We must become part of the > European family and accept its common laws. History has caught up with us > but, unfortunately, too many Swiss still believe this crisis will blow over > and then we?ll again live happily forever after.
