The Swiss, the Gold, and the Dead: How Swiss Bankers Helped Finance the Nazi War Machine

by Jean Zeigler and Jean Ziegler

Book Overview

Recent startling revelations that Switzerland helped to bankroll Nazi Germany's war effort, and Swiss intransigence in the face of redress claims by Holocaust survivors, have shaken Switerland's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140278583
• ISBN13: 9780140278583
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

The disgusting truth revealed!!!

I've had the shame of living 10 years in Switzerland and what do swiss people think of the period 1939-1945? Hitler didn't attack them because he was afraid of their powerfull army ready to sacrifice itself(don't laugh too hard), they saved a lot of jews at the border and they aren't hypocrits nor dishonest (as Americans are) to the point of stealing the Jews money! This is apealing!!And these poor people really think this is the truth!!I really apreciate this book. It tells the hole truth, chapter by chapter, about how the Swiss helped Hitler. They got the idea of the yellow star on Jews' passports, they surrenderd the Jews who tried to pass the border to the Germans and they did know about the camps!!!! As other countries resisted with courage and the few neutral countries refused nazi gold from Jews, the Swiss took it promptly. If they hadn't, the war would have stopped in 1943 at least, because how could Hitler have won the war without money? Add to this fact that nearly all swiss industries were working to give more weapons and material to the Germans. The few courageous Swisses who resisted were killed or put into prison!When Jews tried to take their money back, the Swiss refused simply!! This money is still in swiss banks. When they were put on trial by Americans, the swiss reacted as usual: everybody became anti-american and they still are!I really want to thank Jean Ziegler, the courageous Swiss who wrote this book.IF YOU WANT TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT THIS SUBJECT, BUY THIS BOOK!!!

must be read!!

this a very complete book about the Swiss's" neutrality", they were Hitler's allied. if the were not, the war would finish in 1943!!!but the Swiss are slack and Hitler gave them money...I've lived 2 years in Switzerland, and there the people often criticise the Americans, they would have to read this book.read Ziegler's others book.

Bitter Truths that Destroy Swiss Integrity-Neutrality Myths

The bitter response of the Swiss to this book, as represented by a couple of the reviewers, reminds me of the delusional angry responses of Jews everywhere when it has been proven that the USS Liberty, flying the American flag, was deliberately attacked by Israeli air and sea forces with the intent of sinking it and killing every American on board and then blaming it on the Arabs. [It did occur to me that this book might be financed by the World Jewish Congress, for it does an incredibly good job of softening up the Swiss banks for larger faster settlements and the reduction of the obstacles they have been placing in the way of the holocaust heirs.]This is a good book, with good notes and a good index, and there is no denying the power of its retrospective examination of Swiss misbehavior. Three aspects of this book stood out for me:1) The glorification of secrecy as an end in itself, justifying almost any position--in substituting secrecy for morality the Swiss have aided and abetted war crimes, not just by the Nazis, but by many other evil people and organizations.2) The lesser known aspect of Swiss misbehavior in rejecting hundreds of thousands of refugees, condemning them to certain death, while also bank-rolling and arming Hitler, essentially rescuing Germany from certain defeat in the early days, while prolonging the war toward the end.3) The fact that today Switzerland continues to be the financial haven of choice for dictators and genocidal war-mongers of all sorts.I happen to like Switzerland and admire the Swiss, but this book is a good spanking and it will be a test of their character as well as their "situational awareness" to see if in the aftermath of 9-11 they recognize the possibility that some forms of money should not be laundered, some forms of client should not be served--as one famous plastic surgeon once said, "you make your money on the ones you do, you make your reputation on the ones you do not."

compelling reading

Thi is a very good book, hard to put down. Although at times structurally rather muddled, the author deals honestly with a subject which most Swiss would rather forget. To judge from the mostly negative reviews on this site, it is hard to this day to have an unemotional debate on the complicity of many european countries with the Nazi regime. Not only the Swiss were guilty, almost all European countries had their collaborators, with the possible exception of the Poles. My own country, England, had its collaborators in the occupied channel islands. Sometimes the truth hurts; that does not mean we should not confront it.

Role of Bank for International Settlements in World War II

According Jean Ziegler, Professor of Sociology at Geneva University, Swiss bankers fenced and laundered the gold stocks stolen from central banks in Nazi-occupied countries. It was they who financed Hitler's wars of conquest. Had the Swiss ruling class evinced any remorse at the close of the war - had its members apologized for their transgressions and quietly left the stage - he should never have written this book. I was interested in how he would handle the wartime activities of the BIS located in Basel. He recognized "the thoroughly dubious role of the BIS, in which Nazi and Allied bankers worked together throughout the war. Deputy Managing Director Paul Hechler's letters from Basel to Emil Puhl,vice president of the Reichsbank, always concluded with the words, 'Heil Hitler.' " An American, Thomas H. McKittrick, served as President of the BIS from 1940-1946. Morgenthau tried to have him removed without success. Resolution 5 of the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944 called for the elimination of the BIS because of their financing of the Nazis' wars of aggression. When I attended the 50th anniversary of the agreement I asked Edward Bernstein why resolution 5 was never carried out. It seems that the BIS came to the aid of Britain after the war and the British representative to the IMF approached Bernstein and asked whether they might forget resolution 5, to which Bernstein agreed.