Hitler's Secret Bankers

by Adam LeBor

There were no death certificates issued at Auschwitz. But Swiss bankers still demand them before handing over the assets of account holders killed in the Holocaust to their surviving relatives. The Jews of eastern Europe--and many in the west--entrusted their families' wealth to what they hoped would be a safe haven, the banks of Switzerland. Even if they died, their money would eventually be recovered by their surviving relatives, they believed. They were wrong. Millions of dollars, deposited decades ago in good faith by Jews who were to die in the Nazi genocide, are still in the vaults, earning interest and providing working capital for Swiss banks, say Jewish organizations and Holocaust survivors.But the Swiss Bankers' role as financiers to the Third Reich goes far beyond the dispute over dormant accounts. Based on newly declassified documents and archival research in Washington, London, and Jerusalem, Hitler's Secret Bankers reveals the full, hitherto unknown extent of Swiss economic collaboration with the Nazis. Swiss Banks were the key foreign-currency providers of the Nazi war machine, and the Spanish pesetas and Portuguese escudos they provided paid for vital war materiel such as chrome and aluminum.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Economics, Holocaust

432 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2020

About the author

Adam LeBor was born in London and read Arabic, international history and politics at Leeds University, graduating in 1983, and also studied Arabic at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He worked for several British newspapers before becoming a foreign correspondent in 1991. He has reported from thirty countries, including Israel and Palestine, and covered the Yugoslav wars for The Times of London and The Independent. Currently Central Europe correspondent for The Times of London, he also writes for the Sunday Times, The Econdomist, Literary Review, Condé Nast Traveller, the Jewish Chronicle, New Statesman and Harry's Place in Britain, and contributes to The Nation and the New York Times in the States. He is the author of seven books, including the best-selling Hitler's Secret Bankers, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. His books have been published in nine languages.

Reviews

[Michael Tucker]

Honestly, I read this book for two reasons. The first, I’ve always been fascinated by the machinations of men, women, and governments when it comes to very large sums of money. Amazing how quickly ideologies go out the window. The second reason I read it, frankly, was boredom. I was in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, and this book was one of the few I could get at the library.

Okay, that said, if you’re interested in banking secrecy and private/state venality, this is the book for you. In it, Mr. Lebor shows all too clearly how the Gnomes of Zurich, and elsewhere, worked hand in glove with the Nazis to ship their ill-gotten gains out of Germany and into relatively safe havens, where they planned to get at it again after the war.

This was, says the book a pretty gruesome business, with the bankers accepting money, art work, and gold (some of it taken from the teeth of the dead) which had been confiscated (i.e. stolen) from Jews all over occupied Europe.

Of course, during and just before the war, European Jews were also establishing secret accounts at Swiss banks. They knew that the Nazis were all too likely to appropriate their possessions. And so they went to the Swiss banks where, they thought, they or their children would be able to get at the money later.

Except, of course, the bankers were not eager to release the funds once the war was over. And they developed a number of cunning, and grotesque, ploys by which they could refuse to do so. For instance, when the heirs of Jews killed in the camps presented themselves at the banks in an attempt to obtain the money that had been left to them by their parents or grandparents, the bank would ask for the death certificate of the depositor. Except, of course, Auschwitz et al did not issue death certificates. They simply gassed and burned.

Thus, this book is a work of history and journalism, but it is also a blazing moral indictment of the Swiss elites, and the banking system they created.

Well worth a read.

*

Oh, one post script. Lebor also writes about the “Red House Meeting.” This was, it is said, a meeting at the Maison Rouge Hotel (get it? Red House) in Strasbourg of Nazi officials and German industrialists very near the end of the war. Supposedly, the Nazis laid out plans by which the businessmen would receive money and property that had been seized by the Party at some time or another. They -- the businessmen -- were to take care of those resources while the Party went underground. Then, at some unspecified point in the future, the Party would re-surface and create a Fourth Reich--using, of course, the funds and factories which the businessmen had been shepherding all this time.

Such plans may really have existed. There have been reports of them that go back years. As early as 1944, Curt Riess was warning against such a stealth Reich in his book, The Nazis Go Underground.

But I’ve always wondered, if there was a Red House meeting, can you imagine the looks on the faces of the bankers and industrialists when they heard the plans of the Nazis? You could almost hear them thinking, “You have proved yourself incompetent. You got us into a war we could not win and already Allied and Soviet tanks are moving across Europe. And that’s your fault.

“And now you expect us to take this money, some of which you stole from us in the first place, and hold it in trust for you for heaven only knows how long? And then to surrender it to you on demand?

“And, further, to surrender it when you will no longer command an army or the Gestapo to enforce your will?

“Frankly, you can go kiss my...”

Well, you get the point.

~mjt

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Switzerland was considered a beacon of neutrality during World War II, for better or worse. This book digs a little deeper into Swiss activities during World War II, and some of the things that were uncovered in the post war years certainly damaged that reputation of neutrality. Swiss banks had plenty to do with the Nazi regime. Stolen money and property from targeted demographics were placed in Swiss bank accounts. Artwork that was stolen were also hidden away in bank vaults in Switzerland. Many Nazi's themselves had personal bank accounts in Switzerland, as well as money that belonged to the Nazi Party as a whole. Royalties from Hitler's book Mein Kampf were deposited into Swiss bank accounts. (Additionally, they happily accepted money transfers from Jewish people, but did not want Jewish people moving there to live. They even marked their papers with a J so everyone would know when they saw their documents....doesn't that sound familiar.)

I watched something not long ago about stolen art work that was kept in Swiss vaults that they swear is not there and never was...and I really had a hard time buying that. On top of their strange statements, they were very reluctant to even speak about it and certainly did not want any filming to be done. There are dormant bank accounts filled with items and money stolen from victims of the Holocaust, and the banks will not release it to next of kin without a death certificate...as though the people thrown into gas chambers and crematoriums, entire families at a time, had death certificates made up. (Some did, especially in the earlier years of war, but absolutely not all.) Some of those bank accounts were taken by the Swiss and given to Swiss nationals who had their assets taken by the Communists.

I think this book takes a good look at Swiss activities and shines a light on some shady doings both during and after the war years. I imagine it would be quite difficult to be a European country in the middle of a global conflict, especially with a bunch of your neighbors. People are always out to get ahead and make money, and they do not care nearly as much as they should about what is right. Every country is likely guilty of that, and there is always something shady going on in the government that the common person doesn't know about. I think it is a shame that this isn't discussed nearly enough, because these next of kins deserve what is rightfully theirs, stolen things should be returned. If there are no survivors, then it should be released to help care for Holocaust survivors or to upkeep memorials, etc. Anyone that is interested in World War II should really check this book out and do some research into this subject. It is wild to think that people are still behaving like this to cover their behinds 80 years after the fact.

[Pirate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swiss plus banks might sound turgid reading but not when it is in the hands of Adam LeBor. This is sparkling writing spins along at a terrific rate of knots and exposes the likes of Credit Suisse and RBS as the charlatans that they are. LeBor mixes perfectly tales of individual angst at the barriers placed before the families of Holocaust victims with the horrific attitude of the Swiss state to even accepting Jewish refugees -- thanks to their pressure the Nazis implemented stamping a J on German Jews and Austrian Jews passports so they could be turned back from the border. As he points out the authorities disgusting treatment of the Jews was in contrast to Swiss popular feeling and indeed the media. Woe betide too if as an official you possessed human feelings and contravened the Swiss laws like Paul Grueninger. Whilst the State continued to trade with the Nazis during WWII and the banks gleefully accepted looted gold -- Belgium's entire reserve having been placed in French colonial West Africa was then sent by Vichy France to Germany -- and Swiss companies provided the Germans with much needed parts for weapons as well as foreign currency Grueninger altered 3600 Jews papers so they escaped being sent back due to the border being closed by government order in 1938. 1000 others were less fortunate in 1942 as they were pushed back across into Vichy France. Grueninger -- who as Lebor remarks did exactly the opposite to the Nazi war criminals defence 'following orders' -- was suspended and then found guilty of insubordination and fined, could barely find a job and died a pauper in the 1971. There are other stories of equal iniquity and Lebor exposes as worthless the defence of the Swiss that they feared being invaded. Another man with a conscience UBS security guard Christoph Meili saved some records from being shredded in 1997 and was fired 'just how important the documents were will never be known, as they are gone forever.' Amazing though the speed with which the banks and the Government reacted when threatened with having their license taken away they found $70 million to fund victims families 'a small price for Swiss banks to pay to prevent a move that would have cost them hundreds of millions of dollars.' In the end though as Lebor points out 'who remembers the individual Holocaust survivors in whose name so many claim to be acting?.....a rightly excoriating appraisal of the Swiss ...Harry Lime in The Third Man compares the Borgias and their tales of wars and murder etc favourably with the Swiss and their record of neutrality producing ...the cuckoo clock...well Graham Greene was right the Borgias also oversaw the Renaissance but if he were to have updated his fine book he would have had to add a less flippant and very bitter addendum to Lime's line.

[Aitor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Llibre escrit arrel d'un cúmul de situacions que ha afavorit que surti la informació, que durant mes de 50 anys havia estat amagada (inclús eliminada) de forma deliverada.

S'ha fet negoci amb els morts i no s'ha tingut en compte als hereus, inclús menyspreat.

La tristesa que emana el llibre al veure que a la segona guerra mundial no hi va haver un bàndol perdedor (com hem cregut sempre) sinó la població mascarada i la continuació del mateix poder que hi havia uns mesos abans, fent el paperina per tota Europa Occidental i les dictadures comunistes a Europa de l'est.

Crec que tot el que s'ha pogut prendre a les famílies durant aquests anys d'error mai podran fer suficient per enmendar-ho.

[Al Sutherland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned about this book today (28Feb23) and I am now on the list of those waiting to read it. For those interested in how corporations perceive wars as financial opportunities, devoid of moral or national loyalty considerations, I suggest reading "Trading With The Enemy" (....Higham).

[Vaibhav Sharma]

Good

[Andrew Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is no doubt, that any country bordering such a calamity would find it impossible to remain "neutral" and certainly the Swiss were not. This book is an eye opener in terms of the financial racketeering, and the personal accounts of how Jews befell foul of the Swiss, it makes for a shocking read.

It is no secret, the Swiss Bank hides billions from many today, even the IRS (US tax department), but it was the actions of the Swiss, both individuals and the ruling powers (both political and business) that was by no means "neutral".

The first half of the book is the financial framework of how it worked, the second half spends a lot of time on the account of the holocaust... a little depressing.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent research, in a noble cause. A detailed expose at how the Swiss banking system actively cooperated with Nazi Germany, aiding the war effort, in exchange for $. The point is made that the German economy may have collapsed in 1943, after the defeats on the Russian front, without the loot, funneled through Switzerland, which paid for the war.

"... but he was a typical banker, and wasn't worried about moral considerations."