Bower, Tom. Nazi Gold. New York: HarperPerennial, 1998. 404 pages.

Tom Bower has written a number of books about the Nazi era and its aftermath, so this one can be considered an expert account of how Swiss bankers and bureaucrats behaved before and after World War II. The bottom line is that for the Swiss, profits came before Jews. During the war Swiss bankers routinely expropriated Jewish deposits, and accepted gold bullion looted by Germany from the treasuries of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, and Holland. Other neutral nations refused to accept the gold. Jews were even pushed back from the Swiss border to the waiting Gestapo.

The history of Allied efforts to change Swiss banking behavior was marked by countless fine-print shenanigans and outright manipulations over many years. It was only in 1995 that Switzerland began to feel serious pressure, first from Edgar Bronfman of the World Jewish Congress, and then from Alfonse D'Amato, a Republican Senator from New York. Even as late as 1997, there was some intrigue. Night watchman Christoph Meili had to flee Switzerland in the wake of death threats and take up residence in the U.S., after he saw the film "Schindler's List" and decided to rescue Holocaust-era documents from the shredder room at Union Bank in Zurich. Finally in 1998, a $1.2 billion settlement was reached between Jewish groups, Holocaust survivors, and the Swiss banks.
ISBN 0-06-109982-1

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