Swiss Exploited War, Author Says Banks Conspired, Profited From Nazi Action, Book Claims

Switzerland’s own archives reveal a 50-year conspiracy by Swiss bankers to hide Nazi loot, steal deposits from European Jews and prevent Holocaust victims from receiving adequate reparations, the author of a new book says.

“Switzerland since the war has been paraded as a small humanitarian country, and nobody has ever exposed that its wealth is based on profiting from crime,” Tom Bower said in an interview. “The Swiss dishonestly profited from the misery of Europe.”

Using material from the U.S., British, French and Swiss national archives, the British journalist traces how the Swiss banks and the Swiss government exploited World War II for financial advantage.

The book, titled “Nazi Gold” in the United States and “Blood Money” in Britain, will be published in early April. It is being serialized in The Sunday Times of London.

The book says the declared deposits in Swiss banks rocketed from $332 million Swiss francs in 1941 to $846 million Swiss francs in 1946, and its gold reserves doubled from $503 million to $1.04 billion. Yet, the Swiss denied that German treasure trove was hidden in their country.

Bower was asked to write about the Swiss-Nazi connection by the staff of U.S. Sen. Alphonse D’Amato, the New York Republican whose hearings last year helped put Swiss dealings with the Nazis in the world spotlight.

Bower said that in 1944 a group of U.S. Treasury officials tried to gain control over the billions of dollars the Germans stole from Nazi-occupied countries and Jews sent to concentration camps and gas chambers.

But their campaign, code named Safehaven, was sabotaged.

According to documents quoted in the book, successive leaders of the Swiss Bankers Association hid behind bank secrecy laws and stone-walled demands from foreign governments, Jewish groups and Holocaust survivors to locate and return the assets of Holocaust victims.

Jewish organizations claim Swiss banks owe the heirs of Nazi victims up to $7 billion in assets and interest that went unclaimed after the war.