Nazi Gold: The Sensational Story of the World's Greatest Robbery - And the Greatest Criminal Cover-Up

by Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting

Book Overview

Nazi Gold is the real-life story of the theft of a fabulous treasure--the German national gold and foreign currency reserves, which disappeared in transit following the collapse of the Nazi regime in 1945. The authors' quest led them to a murky, dangerous, post-war world of racketeering, corruption, and gang warfare. Their reporting, matching eyewitness testimony with recently declassified Top Secret documents from the US Archives, lays bare...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1840187859
• ISBN13: 9781840187854
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.0" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Everything You Know is Wrong

After years of researching their subject throughout the world, Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting first published this book in 1984. Their research began in response to a very simple question. What happened to the German National Gold Reserves after World War II? The answer proves shocking.Aside from bringing the reader into the fascinating world of Postwar Black Marketeering and corruption,the book relates how a veritable Aladin's Cave of treasure disapeared into the pockets of Crooked S. S. men, K. G. B. stooges, and members of the United States Military, whose occupation of Germany was corrupt from top to bottom. This book remains a timeless reminder that no matter what uniform we wear, we're all dirty as Hell.

A Good History Book!

This book proved to be a good source for events thar occured during the end of World War II. You are given details of how ineffective the Allied leadership was in locating the gold thatwas plundered by the Nazis from the Jews.There are actual cases of Allied personnel helping the Nazis. You are also shown the trade that developed in the shipping of other products such ascigarettes,plutonium,and other products after the end of World War II. All in all a good coverage of events as they unfolded after World War II had ended. You should find this book to bevery interesting.

Nazi Gold disappeared after the war

The authors demonstrate how the Nazi gold seized by the US after the war disappeared without a trace. Quite unexpected. The Authors are historians.

Nazi Gold - The Postwar Opportunists and their Loot

The title of the book "Nazi Gold" was only one of the subjects examined in the book. This would disappoint those only interested in the fate of Nazi Gold alone. However there are plenty of later books dealing specifically with Nazi Gold. In this book war plunder and loot of all types are described including, Black markets, Uranium, Radium, Platinum, Currency laundering, stolen National Treasures, Art, cigarettes, vehicles, business ownership, Mistresses & Prostitutes, forged papers, Narcotics etc.After reading many similar books, I would say that this is one of the better books relating to the occupation life at the end of the war and focused upon activities in the American sector between 1945 and 1949. This particular version is less pleasant and a balance against the glossy version seen in the popular history books about the same time period.When I read this book, I knew that most of the real Nazi plunder had already left Germany by 1945. This book more specifically addresses the fate of the millions that remained and were both hidden and scattered during 1945 and after.The authors are British and therefore, while focused upon American wrong doing, seemed biased and tended to ignore wrongdoing in the other Allied sectors. Though they did give a few examples of other Allied thefts.The book examines the social, political, organizational, and economic conflict atmosphere in the American zone during occupation, that led to various thefts and cover-ups. The geographic area of emphasis seems to be the areas near the Swiss, Italian border. The Authors make a point that this area was the most corrupt area of American occupation with a natural geography for hiding and smuggling.The American corruption was so widespread and open that it undermined the integrity of the occupation of a defeated nation and could have provided additional cause for German desires toward ultimate reprisal, much as the corrupt Northern carpetbagging aftermath of the South after the American Civil War. The corruption weakened the case for remorse, reflection and restitution from the German people. One can see that corruption of the first order was in play to such an extent that many Nazi war criminals were able to escape, often with much of their Nazi loot. Many of the American officers were compromised and cooperated secretly with the Germans up to the highest levels of American occupation governance. Some of the American officers were also surprisingly former German Citizens. Americans were vulnerable to bribes of loot and women with some American officers that even took in former high level Nazi Mistresses who were also acting as compromising agents.The book is filled with circumlocutions and sidetracks. However it appears that the Authors were afraid to state certain things directly and therefore cleverly hid the truth along the tangental paths. For example, describing an important figure early, then reintroducing them later, when most would have forgotten. General Patton'