The missing gold of the Third Reich (13 photos). The secret of Hitler's gold. How can Russia get Nazi treasures back? Who does it all belong to

What fate befell the mysterious gold of the Third Reich, where the loot was hidden, and why most of it has not yet been found - all these questions are still worrying adventure lovers. The last secret of the Third Reich is the gold of the Nazis. According to intelligence data and the confessions of the Nazis themselves, by 1944 in Germany they already understood that defeat in the war was inevitable. Hitler's headquarters began to prepare for the creation of the Fourth Reich, its underground bases in third world countries and the continuation of the struggle. The Nazis at that time possessed enormous wealth plundered in the conquered countries, and were looking for a way to preserve it in such a way that, in case of defeat, they could use it in further struggle.

The fate of gold

There is a common version that the Nazis allegedly spent all their gold reserves by the end of the war, and Hitler's gold simply does not exist. However, this point of view does not stand up to elementary logic. Even the official figures provided by the banks of neutral Switzerland after the war speak of hundreds of billions of dollars that have passed through them. And how was it possible to squander what was looted throughout Europe and even in North Africa? After all, Reich gold is not only bullion and cash. The Nazis exported works of art, antiques, church valuables, museum collections and private collections from the conquered countries. And the most terrible trophies of the Nazis are the gold dentures of concentration camp prisoners. Auschwitz alone gave the Nazi treasury more than 10 tons of gold.

According to the decision of the Potsdam Conference, the gold reserves of the Third Reich should be divided between the USSR, the USA, France and Britain. Then the Allies created a Trilateral Commission for the return of looted treasures. They worked for a long time, but over the entire period of work, gold worth 60 million dollars was returned. 280 billion were returned by the Swiss banks, but these are the official channels of the movement of Nazi gold, which they used while they were sure of their victory and were preparing to dominate the world. Toward the end of the war, when the Nazi headquarters already understood that defeat was only a matter of time, they began to look for ways to illegally transport and save treasures.

Nazi stocks

It is known that in June 1944 the Nazi leaders Bormann, Goering and Goebbels organized a meeting in Hamburg, which was attended by representatives of major German firms. The issue of funding the Nazi Party in the event of defeat and the need to go underground was discussed. The Nazis understood that the looted gold, which during the war they mainly kept in Swiss banks, would be lost to them in the event of a defeat, so they looked for ways to transfer money across the ocean. There is evidence that the meeting was attended by representatives of the United States, Argentina and Brazil, where many war criminals fled after the defeat. Gold was transported across the ocean in submarines. Only in Argentina, where the Simon Wiesenthal Center was actively working after the war, various valuables worth more than $ 2 billion were sent. Not all the gold ended up in the banks. Treasure seekers to this day continue to search for hidden treasures in Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela.

In Europe, the gold of the Nazis also settled in caches. From the plundered countries, valuables were taken out by echelons, and not all of them arrived at their destination. There are many legends about caches at the bottom of Austrian lakes, in the sea off the coast of Italy, in the Vatican and other places.

The search for gold.

According to official data, about 15% of the looted gold was returned through the efforts of the Trilateral Commission, as well as various independent foundations and Operation Cross, carried out by the USSR, independently of the allies. Why so little, and where did the rest go?

official searches

Most of the loot most likely remained in Swiss safes, contributing to the strengthening and stabilization of their banks. The fact is that the neutral Swiss understood that the Germans were placing stolen jewelry with them, and, wanting to save face, refused to place gold in the form of products and jewelry, so the Nazis had to melt the gold into ingots. The Trilateral Commission, conducting an investigation, stated that it could not identify the origin of the gold, and if so, then there was no one to return it to. It lies with the Swiss - well, let it lie. One can only speculate about who ultimately got it, but due to the Cold War that began in the 1950s, the general increase in tension and the change in parities in the world, the efforts of the Trilateral Commission eventually fizzled out. Various Jewish and international funds periodically continue to remind the Swiss that the Nazi gold is not completely divided, the Swiss periodically agree and return some amounts, but against the background of the total number of stolen valuables, it is not possible to call this something serious.

Treasure hunters

A significant mass of treasures changed their owners at the end of the war. There are many stories about trains full of various valuables that the Nazis wanted to take out of Germany, but which never made it to their destination. Also, both the Allies and our command had special groups that specialized in searching for caches of treasures, which after the war in Germany, Austria and neighboring countries remained quite a lot. But if in Germany the victorious countries could act more freely, then in Austria and France this was already becoming problematic.

There are several versions of why a significant part of the Nazi treasures remain unfound. One of them says that they are still protected. The so-called “black order” of the SS, a deeply conspiratorial and powerful structure, still exists and hatches plans to restore the “Aryan” order. There are versions that add a mystical component to the first: in addition to protection, spells are cast on the hiding places. You can, of course, grin skeptically, but when you study the history of the search for Nazi treasures, you are involuntarily surprised at the number of ridiculous deaths, in general, prepared and understanding what they are doing, people. And the interests of the Nazis in the occult sciences, too, have long ceased to be a secret, it is only unknown what success they managed to achieve in this direction.

And finally, one cannot fail to recall the “economic miracle” of the revival of post-war Germany. It is unlikely that it was entirely based on German scrupulousness and diligence.

): a trace of the treasures of the Third Reich was lost on May 20, 1945 on the Mediterranean coast. Most likely, hundreds of tons of gold were transported from the port of Piran (Yugoslavia) to Italy with the help of submarines subordinate to Hitler's successor, Admiral Doenitz. Then the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia and a group of Croat priests in the Vatican, took up the “transfer”. Crates of SS gold went into the cellars of monasteries in Rome (such as San Girolamo) and Genoa. Nobody was in a hurry. The export of bars and diamonds to Spain and from there to South America took two years. Mafia couriers received from the holy fathers the passports of the International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC. Some of the gold ended up in the Vatican vaults.

"Returned a drop in the sea"

Rumors of Nazi gold smuggling soon reached the ears of the Allies, says Argentine historian Maria Estevez. - On July 12, 1946, the US State Department published a report: Vatican monks are hiding fugitive Nazis, as well as "an unknown amount of valuables." The British Ambassador to the Vatican, Sir Francis Osborne, filed a note with the Vatican to conduct searches in ten monasteries. However, Domenico Tardini, an official of Pope Pius XII, refused to let the military into these facilities. By 1947, Bormann's plan was implemented - SS gold disappeared from Europe. On the submarine U-977 alone, which appeared in Mar del Plata (Argentina) on August 17, 1945, they transported ingots worth 3 (!) Billion US dollars.

... Here it is possible to sum up, but one question arises. Yes, the bulk of the Reichsbank gold disappeared 64 years ago. But does Russia have a chance to get at least some of those bars back? And this is how to look. In December 1945, at a conference in Paris, the Allies established the Trilateral Gold Commission for the return of valuables to the countries of Europe. Until 1997, they managed to return 329 tons of gold - which, of course, is a drop in the ocean.

Bullion was mainly sought in the banks of neutral countries, explains financial consultant Michael Lemmer. - Türkiye and Portugal also kept the gold of the Reich, but refused to let the auditors. There is nothing to say about Argentina. Ingots with a swastika are still often found in the vaults of South America - no one even tried to melt them down.

... In 1995, a scandal erupted - the World Jewish Congress began a lawsuit against a group of Swiss banks (including UBS), accusing the bankers of storing the gold of the Third Reich. A year later, the Swiss Parliament announced the verification of ALL accounts since 1934. Approximately 2.5 billion dollars worth of SS gold was found: many countries (including Israel and the USA) applied for a division of valuables. Russia was not among these countries - apparently, we have too much extra money.

This turned out to be the first sign: now such cases are multiplying all over the world. In December 2008, several elderly Jewish SS concentration camp survivors, with the help of ex-US intelligence officer William Gowan, filed a lawsuit in San Francisco against the Vatican's state bank, demanding an investigation into its role in Nazi gold transfers. The prospects for the trial are rated as "brilliant" by the press. Nothing is heard about participation from Russia either ...

"You can sue the Fuhrer"

Of course, it makes no sense to officially demand the return of "Hitler's ingots," says San Francisco political scientist James Steinwald. - It will only spoil relations with a particular country. A lawsuit should be filed by a group of private individuals, and the leaders of the state, as it were, have nothing to do with it. I think the number of lawsuits will grow. The defendants will be financial institutions in Switzerland, Spain and Argentina. Any person whose family suffered from Hitler can sue the bank that had to do with the gold of the Reich. Is it just the bankers? Think real estate. Entire blocks of villas in the cities of Bariloche (Argentina) and Puerto Montt (Chile) were paid from Bormann's accounts. How many more such examples? Of course, Russian citizens also have the right to privately demand compensation - from those who exported Nazi gold.

True, international lawyers believe that everything is not so smooth. After the Potsdam Conference (where they decided to divide the gold of the Reich into four parts), Stalin refused the share of the USSR in exchange for the assets of banks in Eastern Europe. The United States and Britain pledged to transfer to the USSR the gold of Hitler's satellite countries (Hungary and Slovakia), as well as ALL Soviet valuables. This was never done: say, 15 boxes of gold from the Hungarian dictator Salashi are still stored in the safes of Fort Knox (USA). The USSR received only one thing from the allies - 800 sacks of rubles from the German intelligence depots. Therefore, the agreement is considered invalid. By the way, the allies themselves were aware of this: until the dissolution of the Trilateral Gold Commission, a place was reserved there for Russia. But our country, for unknown reasons, refused to apply for the search for the gold due to it ...

... Lithuania announced a search for its gold in Swedish banks in 1992 and soon received 3,500 kg. Albania - and she found 1.5 tons of gold stolen by Mussolini's army. The Romanians are raising in parliament the question of the ingots that went to Russia in 1916, and enthusiastic specialists from Madrid are looking for the gold reserves of the Republicans in Moscow. The standard situation is that we owe everyone, but nobody owes us. Even if we exclude the values of the German Reichsbank, the total amount of treasures (financial and cultural) stolen by the Nazis from the USSR is enormous. It is hard to say why we remain silent while others act...

List of debtors

Argentina. This country was the main recipient of SS gold in Latin America. The money is invested in banks and real estate.

USA and UK. It is believed that the allies managed to find in the caches of Austria and Germany, valuables worth 50-70 billion current dollars: including the gold of Soviet Jews.

Vatican. Part of Hitler's gold (approximately $10 billion) was placed by Bishop Hudal in the vaults of the State Bank of the Vatican.

Chile. The second country after Argentina to transfer the gold of the Nazis.

Egypt. A "trial" batch of ingots was transported by SS Hauptsturmführer Alois Brunner to Syria. From there she "left" to Cairo. 97-year-old Brunner is still on the wanted list.

There are many myths and all kinds of stories about the legendary Nazi gold. Until now, treasures with gold bars of the Third Reich, or empty vaults are found in Germany. There are several versions of where the Nazi gold disappeared, and where to look for it.

Was there gold?

There is a common version that Nazi Germany completely squandered the loot in the last years of the war. Allegedly, therefore, the gold of the Nazis is a myth. However, it is known for certain that the Nazis were not just preparing for collapse, with the help of looted gold they were going to continue the fight after the end of World War II. That is why Martin Bormann declared gold the emergency reserve of the Reich. And experts estimate this reserve by the end of the war at 400-500 billion dollars.

What did it include? In 1938, the Nazis seized the gold reserves of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Danzing. And later - the gold reserves of Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Poland. Historian Alexander Mosyakin in his book “Robbed Europe” provides data that only 3 wagons of gold were taken out of the bank branches of Soviet Ukraine. To this we must add private banks, thousands of jewelry stores, church valuables, museum collections and the most terrible income of Nazi Germany - jewelry and dental crowns of concentration camp prisoners. Only Auschwitz allowed the Nazis to enrich themselves by 8 tons of gold.

Gold of prisoners of concentration camps

The first negotiations between the Nazis and American intelligence agencies took place in 1943 in Bern. Department VI of the Ausland SD Directorate, headed by Walter Schellenberg, presented the Reichsführer SS Himmler with a report on the secret meeting of Prince Max Egon von Hohenlohe with the head of the OSS USA, Allen Dulles. It is believed that the negotiations ended in nothing, but it is possible that it was then that the Nazis groped for channels through which they were later able to withdraw gold from Europe. The situation escalated in 1944. In autumn, trainloads of stolen gold went from east to west. For example, in Budapest, an echelon of 80 wagons was formed. 38 wagons were stuffed with jewelry from concentration camp prisoners. In December, the train moved along the route Veszprem - Ferteboz - Vienna - Salzburg.

Until the end of March 1945, the train stood on the border with Austria, and then wandered around Austria until May 11, until it fell into the hands of the Americans in the tunnel near Salzburg. The lion's share of the loot went to the United States. Something was returned to Hungary (for example, the crown of St. Stephen), but the Americans kept the ingots for themselves. 38 wagons with jewelry of concentration camp prisoners also "stuck" to the hands of the Americans. In 1948, General Mark Clark refused to return the wagons, citing the fact that the origin of the gold could not be proven. A convenient position, especially considering that Hungary at that moment was under the influence of the Soviet Union. The further fate of gold is unknown.

Disappeared trains

Not only this train disappeared in the mountains of Austria. Gold was exported here from the cellars of the Reichsbank, thousands of tons of gold and platinum, kilograms of diamonds from Belgium and the USSR. On January 31, 1945, at the suggestion of the German Finance Minister Walter Funk, it was decided to evacuate the gold reserves of the Reichsbank. Train No. 277 with 24 wagons of gold left Berlin for Obersalzberg and ... disappeared again. 120 tons of Mussolini's gold, 100 tons of gold of the Croatian dictator Pavelic, 50 tons of platinum of the Cossack SS corps, emeralds of the Slovak dictator Tiso were delivered to the railway stations near the Bad Aussee resort.

Near Lake Altsee, traces of three wagons of gold from Soviet Ukraine are lost. Near the city of Bad Aussee, traces of gold exported from Romania are lost. Also disappeared: a ton of gold chervonets of the Tatar legion of the SS "Idel-Ural", diamonds of the Gauleiter of Upper Austria Eigruber and 200 kg of gold of the Estonian SS men. But it is known for certain that the Nazi Horst Fuldner took $400 million to Argentina. And on August 17, 1945, on the submarine U-977, gold worth $ 3 billion was exported to Argentina. After the war, the Americans found only a fifth of the treasures of the Reich.

Are the bankers to blame?

But maybe all these wagons are fake? And everything is withdrawn through banks? No. In the summer of 1944, the Nazis tried to transfer $10 billion in gold and platinum to Argentina, Peru and Chile through Swiss banks. But it turned out to be technically impossible. There are versions that the Italian mafia is involved in the disappearance of gold. Historian Gerhard Zauner believes that the Vatican Bishop Aloiso Hudal had a hand in this. He was a Nazi sympathizer, had ties to the Camorra, and could help smuggle the gold.

In 1946, this became known to the British, and the Allies even tried to search the monasteries of the Vatican, but they were not allowed to go there. Perhaps the loss of gold was related to the Spanish dictator Franco, the only dictator who remained in power after 1945. It is known that soon after the development of the Marshall Plan, gold marked by the Reichsbank flowed from Spain to the United States as collateral for a loan.

Looking for gold

In August 1945, the Potsdam Conference decided that the gold reserves of Nazi Germany should be divided between the USSR, the USA, Britain and France. In 1946, the Allies created the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Nazi Property. The commission worked for a long time, but found only $60 million worth of gold. Until 1997, 329 tons of gold were found. It is known that Nazi gold was stored in banks in Turkey, Portugal and Argentina, but the bankers refused to share the data.

In 1995, the World Jewish Congress accused Swiss banks of holding Third Reich gold. After checking all the accounts, since 1934, they found Nazi gold worth 2.5 billion dollars. In 1997, Swiss bankers were forced to pay 270 million francs to the Holocaust fund. For some reason, representatives of the USSR were not included in the Trilateral Commission. In 1945, the USSR Ministry of State Security began its own investigation. The operation to search for gold of the Nazis was called the "Cross", its purpose was to find out the history of the movement of not only the gold of the Reich, but also the gold of Tsarist Russia. However, after Stalin's death, Operation Cross was discontinued.

There are many legends and myths about Nazi gold. Until now, treasures with gold bars of the Third Reich, or empty vaults are found in Germany. There are several versions of where the Nazi gold disappeared, and where to look for it.

There is a version that fascist Germany completely squandered the loot in the last years of the war. Allegedly, therefore, the gold of the Nazis is a myth. However, it is known for certain that the Nazis were not just preparing for collapse, with the help of looted gold they were going to continue the fight after the end of World War II. That is why Martin Bormann declared gold the emergency reserve of the Reich. And this reserve by the end of the war, according to the most conservative estimates, amounted to $ 400 - 500 billion.

Martin Bormann (on Hitler's right) on the bridge, April 1941

What did it include? In 1938, the Nazis seized the gold reserves of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Danzig. And later - the gold reserves of Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Poland. Only from the bank branches of Soviet Ukraine, 3 wagons with gold were taken out. To this we must add private banks, thousands of jewelry stores, church valuables, museum collections and the most terrible income of Nazi Germany - jewelry and dental crowns of concentration camp prisoners. Only Auschwitz allowed the Nazis to enrich themselves by 8 tons of gold.

Only Auschwitz allowed the Nazis to enrich themselves by 8 tons of gold

Wedding rings discovered by American soldiers on May 5, 1945 in Buchenwald

The situation escalated in 1944. In autumn, trainloads of stolen gold went from east to west. For example, in Budapest, a train of 80 wagons was formed, 38 of which were filled with jewelry from ghetto residents, most of which had already died in concentration camps by that time. In December, the train moved towards Germany along the route Veszprem - Ferteboz - Vienna - Salzburg.

Until the end of March 1945, the treasure train was in Hungary, in the town of Brennerbanya, on the very border with Austria, and then wandered around Austria until May 11, until it fell into the hands of the Americans in the Tauern tunnel, near the town of Beckstein, not far from Salzburg.

The lion's share of the loot went to the United States. A smaller part, the one that was taken out of banks and museums, that is, state property, soon returned to their homeland. By the end of 1947, the gold reserves of the National Bank and the Trade Bank, a collection of gold coins from the State Mint, paintings from the National Gallery, and valuable exhibits from the Historical and other museums were delivered from Germany to Hungary in three parts. Only the treasures confiscated from the inhabitants of the ghetto did not return - those same 38 wagons.

Perhaps they would have returned over time, but in 1948 the commander of the American occupation zone in Austria, General Mark Clark, refused to return the cars remaining in Austria to Hungary, citing the fact that the origin of their contents could not be proven. A convenient position, especially considering the fact that Hungary at that time was under the influence of the Soviet Union. The further fate of gold is unknown.

General Dwight Eisenhower, accompanied by Generals Omar Bradley and George Patton, inspects art and other treasures looted by the Nazis in Europe and hidden in a salt mine in Germany, 1945

Not only this train disappeared in the mountains of Austria. Gold was exported here from the vaults of the Reichsbank, thousands of tons of gold and platinum, kilograms of diamonds from Belgium and the USSR. On January 31, 1945, at the suggestion of the German Finance Minister Walter Funk, it was decided to evacuate the gold reserves of the Reichsbank. Train No. 277 with 24 wagons of gold left Berlin for Obersalzberg and disappeared again. Near Lake Altsee, traces of three wagons of gold from Soviet Ukraine are lost. One wagon with church gold from Romania - icon settings, crosses and chalices, which the leader of the puppet regime in "exile" Horia Sima took with him - disappeared at the station near the city of Bad Aussee.

Of the 100 tons of Pavelić's stock, only one gold coin was found.

At the Bad Ischl station, traces of Mussolini's stock (120 tons of gold) are lost. 100 tons of gold from Croatian dictator Ante Pavelic was shipped to Graz. Only one gold coin was found from the stock. Also disappeared: 50 tons of platinum from the Cossack SS corps, a ton of gold chervonets of the Tatar legion of the SS "Idel-Ural", diamonds of the Gauleiter of Upper Austria August Aigruber, 200 kg of gold of the Estonian SS.

But it is known for sure that the Nazi Horst Fuldner took $400 million to Argentina. And on August 17, 1945, $3 billion worth of ingots were taken to Argentina on the submarine U-977. After the war, the Americans found only a fifth of the treasures of the Reich.

Horst Fuldner, 1930s

In August 1945, the Potsdam Conference decided that the gold reserves of the Third Reich should be equally divided between Britain, the USA, France and the USSR. In 1946, the Allies created a tripartite commission for the restitution of Nazi property. For some reason, representatives of the USSR were not included in this commission. In 1945, the USSR Ministry of State Security began its own investigation. The operation to search for gold by the Nazis was called the "Cross". Her goal was to find out the history of the movement of not only the gold of the Reich, but also the gold of Tsarist Russia. However, after Stalin's death, Operation Cross was discontinued.

Russia, as the legal successor of the USSR, the Nazis owe $ 100 billion

The Trilateral Commission worked for a long time, but found only $60 million worth of gold. Until 1997, 329 tons of gold were found. It is known that Nazi ingots were stored in banks in Turkey, Portugal and Argentina, but the bankers refused to share the data.

In 1995, the World Jewish Congress accused Swiss banks of holding Third Reich gold. After checking all the accounts, since 1934, $2.5 billion worth of Nazi gold was found. In 1997, Swiss bankers were forced to pay 270 million francs to the Holocaust fund.

Robbed Europe: The Universal Circulation of Treasures Mosyakin Alexander Georgievich

CHAPTER 19 THE GOLD OF THE THIRD REICH

GOLD OF THE THIRD REICH

As we have already said, by the end of the "gold" 1920s, the gold reserves of the Weimar Republic reached 455 tons. But the Great Depression swallowed up almost all of this gold, and the Third Reich got only 58 million dollars in gold, and then, due to gigantic military spending, the Reich's gold and foreign exchange reserves only dwindled. At the beginning of 1938, Germany's gold reserves were estimated at 15.1 tons. To prepare for war, Hitler ordered a sharp increase in gold and foreign exchange reserves. The head of the Reichsbank and the Minister of Economics, Hjalmar Schacht, tried to solve this problem, but under the Nazi ideological guidelines, it was impossible to do this by economic methods. There remained an alternative way - to plunder the occupied European countries and "inferior" peoples. And it gave amazing results.

Already during the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938, Hitler received 78 tons of gold and huge financial assets in the form of real estate and art collections of the "enemies of the Reich". During the annexation of Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939, Hitler got almost the entire gold reserve of this country (24.5 tons) and large cultural and historical values. The Nazis levied indemnity on the Jews, forcing them to "voluntarily" surrender their banking, monetary and jewelry gold in exchange for security and the right to leave the country. It is difficult to say exactly how much gold was confiscated from German Jews before the war, since Jewish "donations" were not separated from those of other German citizens. But, according to available estimates, even before the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" program adopted in early 1942, at least 15 tons of gold were confiscated from German Jews. In the prewar years, the Reichsbank also bought gold from the London and Zurich stock exchanges. As a result, by the beginning of World War II in September 1939, the gold reserves of Nazi Germany were estimated at 192 million dollars - 171 tons, of which 121 tons were misappropriated gold.

The war greatly increased the amount of precious metal looted by the Nazis. The largest gold mining went to them in Belgium - for 223 million dollars (198.2 tons) and the Netherlands - for 193 million dollars (171.6 tons). In 1944, the SS stole the rest of the country's gold reserves from the Bank of Italy, and in early 1945, Otto Skorzeny and the leader of the Hungarian fascists, Ferenc Salashi, took Hungary's gold reserves from Budapest. The Nazis profited in other places, although the main jackpot - France's gold reserves - sailed away from them aboard the battleship Richelieu, first to Dakar and then to the United States.

In Eizenshtat's report, for the first time, it was officially stated that during the war, gold worth from 398 to 414 million dollars (354–368 tons) was exported or sold from Germany to Switzerland through the Reichsbank and the Swiss National Bank. After the May 1997 release of the preliminary version of the report, US officials adjusted these figures. The State Department stated that “during the Second World War, Switzerland bought at least $276 million worth of gold from Germany and most of this gold was looted. Turkey, was also looted." According to the US Treasury Department, "the value of the stolen gold received by Switzerland from Germany was at least $185 million, although $289 million is more likely." The discrepancies in the figures are explained by the fact that American experts in different departments used different primary sources. In addition, not all the necessary documentation turned out to be in the hands of the allies during the war, and most importantly, official Washington did not want to talk about everything. And then official London corrected him. As British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind admitted in September 1996, "According to documents found in the National Archives in Washington, $398 million worth of gold was taken to Switzerland by the Reichsbank." This confirms the assessment given in Aizenshtat's report.

At the London Conference on Nazi Gold, for the first time, several important figures were announced. During the Second World War, the Nazis looted at least $579 million worth of gold - 515 tons, although not all of the gold was exported through German banks. And the report of the Swiss Independent Commission of Experts (SICE), based on primary Swiss and German banking documents, dotted all the "and" dots. The head of this commission, Professor J.-F. Bergier, estimated the total gold transactions of the Hitlerite Reichsbank from September 1, 1939 to June 30, 1945 at 909.2 million dollars (808 tons), of which gold for 475 million dollars (422 tons) was stolen from the national banks of other countries, including :

From Belgian central bank - $225.9 million (200.8 tons);

From De Nederlandsche Bank - $137 million (121.8 tons);

From Banka d'ltalia - $64.8 million (57.6 tons);

From the Hungarian National Bank - $32.2 million (28.6 tons);

From Banque centrale du Luxembourg - $4.8 million (4.3 tons);

From other central banks - $10.1 million (9 tons).

The difference in estimates of the gold reserves of the Netherlands is striking. The above figure of 171.6 tons determines the Dutch gold reserves before the occupation, and the Bergier commission fixes 121.8 tons, which passed through the Reichsbank and Swiss banks. Almost 50 tons of gold disappeared somewhere. Apparently, the Nazis immediately took him to some neutral country or countries, bypassing German banks. Since the Gestapo was engaged in the seizure of gold, it can be assumed that the missing gold of the Netherlands Bank formed the backbone of the SS gold reserve, which Reichsfuehrer Himmler formed through his own channels. The fate of this gold is unknown.

In addition, the Reichsbank received $146 million worth of gold (130 tons) looted from private individuals and legal entities throughout Europe. Including $71.8 million worth of gold confiscated from German citizens and citizens of occupied countries; $71.7 million worth of gold confiscated from entrepreneurs; and gold from the death camps in the account of SS-Sturmbannführer Bruno Melmer at the Swiss National Bank ($2.5 million). A total of 552 tons of gold worth $621 million, and with pre-war gold reserves - 723 tons worth $813 million.

It must be borne in mind here that Melmer's sinister account received gold and other valuables obtained as a result of Operation Reinhard, the Nazi program of exploiting Jewish property and labor and killing millions of Jews in death factories in Eastern Poland. These values and the money received from them were divided into 29 positions: gold bars; gold and silver coins; forks, knives, jewelry; gold and diamond rings; wrist and pocket watches; dental gold; scrap gold, etc. But Melmer's account did not receive gold seized from the victims of the genocide before they were sent to concentration camps, which was sold through the Berlin municipal pawnshop and other pawnshops in Germany and third countries. These and freely available gold items were snapped up by private individuals and banks, including the Reichsbank. During the war, Germany also purchased gold from the exchanges of neutral countries.

The result is the same 808 tons of gold named by the Bergier commission, which passed through transactions through the Reichsbank from September 1939 to June 1945. If we add to them the rest of the gold reserves of the Reichsbank (about 110 tons), exported in April 1945 to Thuringia and the Bavarian Alps, we get about 920 tons of solar metal worth $1.04 billion at the time. This is 60 times more than the gold reserves of Germany on the eve of the Anschluss of Austria! This was the golden "fat" of the war.

And this is only state gold. There was also gold from the NSDAP, the SS and other Nazi organizations that did not belong to the Reichsbank. Part of the gold (a few percent) was kept in German commercial banks. There was also industrial gold, and part of the gold was in the hands of citizens, although it can be ignored, since it did not work in the economy and there was not much of it, since gold was confiscated from the population during the war. At the same time, the gold reserves of Nazi Germany were like running water: gold was daily received by the Reichsbank from various sources, immediately sorted, mixed, melted down and sent to different addresses. The essence of the process was not the accumulation of gold reserves, but its sale in order to purchase strategic raw materials for the military industry and warfare with the proceeds. Therefore, in the spring of 1945, Germany's gold reserves amounted to only a little over 100 tons, everything else was sold.

According to SICE, the lion's share of the Reich's gold - 400.4 tons worth $450.4 million - was exported by the Reichsbank to Switzerland. Of these, $389.2 million worth of gold was deposited with the Swiss National Bank and $61.2 million worth of gold was deposited with Swiss commercial banks. According to Professor Bergier, "all the monetary gold transferred by the Reichsbank to Switzerland since 1942, worth $316 million, must have been stolen."

In addition, the Reichsbank transferred $92.4 million worth of gold to other national banks of "neutral-friendly" countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America; and $51.5 million worth of gold went to branches of foreign banks, mainly in Southeast Europe and Turkey. Part of the gold at the end of the war was invested in the future of Germany and National Socialism (plan "Sunset"). And for greater profit, the Nazi "alchemists" mixed jewelry and dentures from low-grade gold seized in concentration camps with gold stolen from the central banks of the occupied countries, melted down this mixture and sent it abroad in the form of standard ingots. This lowered the quality of gold, but increased the quantity and was profitable. But it's not just about gold.

During the war, Swiss banks lent Germany 2.6 billion Swiss francs. If these loans were issued only against gold, then 755 tons of it would be needed, but only 400 tons were taken out. This means that the remaining 1.22 billion Swiss francs were issued not for gold, but for cultural, historical and other valuables stolen in Europe, which accounted for half of the Swiss money received by Germany.

After all, the Nazis did not just primitively rob. Tens of thousands of works of art and historical artifacts confiscated by them were catalogued, valued and insured, that is, prepared for use as objects of sale or bank collateral. These were highly liquid financial assets that required proper valuation. Erich Koch knew the value of the treasures he stole - 50 million US dollars, which he announced while sitting in a Polish prison. Other Nazi bosses also knew this, who used the stolen valuables, pawning them in banks in third countries or selling them for hard currency. The Swiss franc was the universal currency during the war, and quiet Switzerland turned into a world center for smuggling, bank collateral, exchange and sale of cultural property stolen by the Nazis. Here is what the Netherlands State Institute for War Documents has to say about this in a special report on Nazi art smuggling:

Transportation of stolen works of art and other especially valuable things was a favorite business of smugglers of the Third Reich. Paintings and other art objects were easy to move, easy to hide, they could be changed into many things needed in the war and sold in markets far from the German sphere of influence. It was especially safe to transport precious metals and stones, as well as works of art, under the guise of diplomatic baggage. The term "luggage" should not be misleading, since its dimensions could vary from a small handbag to a large container.

Military booty, hitting the German embassies in neutral countries, could diverge from there around the world. According to reports from American and British intelligence, the Germans used not only diplomatic mail, but also any other means to export looted works of art. By exporting and selling gold, silver, platinum and valuable works of art, the Nazis could accumulate foreign currency in neutral countries. Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Latin American countries and especially Switzerland became recipients of looted property.

The looted works of art were used not only for sale, but also for exchange. The Nazis adored the work of the old German, Dutch, Flemish, French and Italian masters. Pictures of these categories were sent to the Reich. They were intended for the Fuhrer Museum in Linz or for the collection of Goering and other Nazi bosses. Art objects were also donated to museums located within the Nazi empire. And the looted works of "degenerate" artists such as Degas, Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh or Picasso, reached Bern in the diplomatic baggage, where this "decayed art" was sold or exchanged for often second-rate paintings by German masters, much loved by Nazi collectors. In this way, they not only acquired things ideologically close to them, but also sold the paintings of "degenerates" at high prices on the Swiss art market.

German art smuggling can be divided into three categories: some agents worked for the government in Berlin; others served the private interests of Nazi bosses who wanted to maintain their financial well-being in the event of Germany's defeat in the war; still others (German diplomats) worked for themselves at the end of the war. In August 1945, paintings smuggled out of Germany were found in the diplomatic luggage of the German trade attache Helmut Bayer, who lived at 6 Florastr., Muri, near Beme.

Looted works of art were acquired by many Swiss collectors, as well as museums in Switzerland. Emil Bührle, a military manufacturer from Orlikon, who produced military materials and technical developments for the German army, was one of them. Not only entrepreneurs, but also ordinary Swiss citizens actively participated in this. A significant part of the trophies was transported from Switzerland to Spain and Portugal, where they were then sold or transported to Latin America, as well as to the USA. In early December 1941, shortly after the American ship Excalibur left the port of Lisbon, a collection of 500 drawings stolen by the Nazis was discovered on board. The looted art was also sent to the Swedish capital.

The value and quantity of looted artworks smuggled by the Nazis in diplomatic baggage cannot, in most cases, be adequately determined. Indeed, according to international law, diplomatic baggage is immune from inspections. Through this diplomatic disguise, looted art on its way to Latin America could easily override Allied control of the sea. In addition, the Allied naval blockade was intended to check the range of cargo and tonnage of ships, and not to smuggle works of art, which was cleverly used by well-organized gangs of smugglers. Another frequently used means of transporting secret cargo was German submarines.

Therefore, it is difficult to name the exact number of looted works of art smuggled into neutral countries of Europe and the Western Hemisphere, but it is very high. According to an American government report of December 1945, "The Swiss traffic in looted art was enormous, and there is every reason to believe that German art and looted art is now lying for later use in bank vaults, depositories, or in private deposits of persons of the German , Swiss and other nationalities.The total value of this valuable property is estimated from 29 to 46 million dollars (of that time. - A. M.)". The Daily Telegraph on September 21, 1996, estimated the volume of looted works of art taken to Switzerland in diplomatic baggage at 15 billion pounds sterling (in current terms). And although it is difficult to determine the number of art objects transported to the Alpine Republic during the war, it is known that since the end of 1945, only about 75 stolen paintings were found in Switzerland.

The £15bn reported amount of smuggling is the minimum. According to American experts who studied this issue immediately after the war, from 1939 to 1945, various property, currency, securities, jewelry, collateral and other valuables were exported from Germany to Switzerland in the amount of 1.77 to 3.5 billion Swiss francs. . And calculations made in the late 1990s by experts from Jewish organizations gave figures from 15.5 to 65.3 billion pounds. The scale and quality of the transactions carried out by the Nazis in the Swiss art market can be illustrated by the following examples. Picasso's "Acrobat and Harlequin" (1905), exported from Germany to Switzerland as "degenerate art", was sold in 1939 at the Fischer Gallery in Lucerne for 80,000 Swiss francs (4,000 pounds), and in 1989 at Christie's in London, she went for 20.9 million pounds. During the war, four works by the father and son of the Cranachs were exchanged in Switzerland for 25 Impressionist paintings.

The main protagonist of barter and smuggling transactions was Hermann Göring. His first documented exchange took place in July 1941. Then Goering exchanged five paintings by Corot stolen by him in France, five paintings and pastels by Degas, three paintings by Sisley, two paintings by Van Gogh, as well as paintings by Daubigny, Daumier, Manet, Renoir, a sculpture by Rodin and three unknown works by modern masters for five paintings by Cranachs, a triptych by a 15th-century Frankfurt master; and a German wooden sculpture made around 1500. On another occasion, Goering's art agent Walter Hofer exchanged 23 works by French artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries for Rembrandt's "Portrait of an Elderly Man with a Beard" (c. 1660) and two Flemish tapestries of the 16th century. Goering's barter package included: four works by Corot, four by Degas, four by Renoir, three by Seurat, two paintings by Ingres and Manet, one each by Courbet, Daumier, Sisley and Van Gogh. Sixteen of them came from the Parisian collection of Paul Rosenberg.

A US Department of State special report issued in August 1945 stated: “Many Nazis, their art dealers and buyers visited Switzerland throughout the war. Most of them were involved in the traffic of looted art. objects of art settled there with various individuals and legal entities. Therefore, Switzerland, like the United States, is still the main supplier of works by the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Cubists, Fauvists and other "degenerate" artists to the world antique market. The owners of these masterpieces and their sellers to this day make multi-million dollar profits, since it is usually impossible to establish the fact of the illegal seizure of these things. Commenting on this, the chairman of the Holocaust Education Trust, the British Lord Greville Jenner, stated: "Art stolen by the Nazis, like in the bottomless cave of Aladdin, flowed to Switzerland. Later it was smuggled out to other countries by Nazi war criminals."

In addition to Switzerland, there were several other routes for the export of looted valuables. One ran from Germany through Switzerland and Austria to Italy, where before the overthrow of Mussolini at the end of July 1943, gold and art were exported. For this, two alpine windows were used: the Saint Gotthard Pass, which connects Switzerland with northern Italy by a railway tunnel and highway, and the Brenner Pass, connecting the Austrian resort town of Innsbruck with the northern Italian resort town of Bolzano. From pre-war times, these transport arteries linking the Northern and Southern Alps had special "St. Gotthard" and "Brenner" passports, the owners of which could freely transport any goods through these points. Transit through St. Gotthard was regulated by an agreement signed in 1909 by Germany, Switzerland and Italy. A similar agreement existed for the Brenner Pass, although after the Anschluss of Austria, the Nazis could use it without interference. These alpine windows were actively used by Goering, Himmler, Müller and other high officials of the Reich, taking the stolen goods to the Apennines. Then valuable cargo from Italy was transported to the Iberian Peninsula, and from there on the ships of formally neutral Spain and Portugal they were sent overseas.

The second route, which operated until August 1944, ran from Germany through its allied countries - Romania and Bulgaria - to Turkey. The third route went from Germany through Denmark to Scandinavia. The stolen valuables were also exported to Japan, North Africa and the Middle East. And after the landing of the Allied troops in Normandy, another route was intensively earned, which ran from the Paris headquarters of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg to Switzerland. In July 1944, more than 200 cases of the transfer of art treasures looted by Rosenberg from France to the Alpine country were recorded. Transports with first-class works of art, one after another, arrived at the Swiss border. The fate of these spoils of war is unknown. The insatiable womb of the quietest Switzerland has swallowed them up. But there were several such wombs.

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