Swiss Bank Confirms Nazi Gold Dealings

In its first comprehensive study of transactions during World War II, the Swiss National Bank confirmed Thursday that it helped other neutral European countries buy millions of dollars worth of Nazi gold.

The study confirmed that the bank bought 1.7 billion Swiss francs - then about $425 million - worth of gold from the Nazis between 1940 and 1945, and passed about 500 million francs worth onto other countries.

Portugal bought the most, followed by Sweden, the bank said.

The central bank said new computer tracking of its wartime transactions made it possible to go into detail on the dealings for the first time. The information has been available to scholars since the early 1980s, but this is the first systematic summary of the transactions, it said.