Report: Neutral nations’ trade kept Nazi war machine going
Nazi gold graphic
Spain, Turkey respond to U.S. details on use of looted gold
June 2, 1998
Web posted at: 1:42 p.m. EDT (1742 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Neutral nations, while also doing legal business with World War II Allied forces, played a key role in keeping Nazi Germany’s war machine running by doing business worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a new U.S. government report.
The report – presented Tuesday by Undersecretary of State for Economics Stuart Eizenstat – concludes that although Switzerland was Nazi Germany’s main banker, other neutral nations like Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Argentina provided Nazi Germany with goods and tools.
Although the neutral countries’ trade with Germany between 1939 and the end of the war in 1945 has never been a secret, the new report details what Nazi Germany bought with the gold which German troops looted from the central banks of occupied nations and confiscated from Holocaust victims.
“The cumulative trade of the World War II European neutral countries helped to sustain the Nazi war effort by supplying key materials to Germany essential to their conduct of the war,” Eizenstat said.
In many cases, the neutral nations, which also traded with the Allies and said they feared a Nazi invasion if they cut off German supplies, continued helping the Nazis until near the end of the war.
“In many cases well past the point where, from the Allied perspective at the time, there was a genuine threat of German attack,” Eizenstat added.
Neutral nations traded with Nazis, aided refugees
Despite the record of economic Nazi succor, the U.S. report said, the neutral nations at the same time helped refugees escape almost certain death in concentration camps where 6 million Jews were exterminated.
Spain helped 30,000-40,000 refugees; Portugal allowed 5,000 to pass through to America; Sweden saved 7,000 Danish Jews and 20,000-30,000 in Hungary; Turkey helped 100,000 flee; and Argentina accepted 25,000-45,000 Jews, the most of any Western nation during the war.
The United States accepted only 21,000 Jewish refugees during the war, without significantly raising or even filling quotas.
“America’s response to the early stages of the slaughter of European Jews was largely one of indifference,” said Eizenstat, who heads the U.S. government team reassessing wartime actions.
Key war material sold to Germany
According to the report:
* Sweden, one of Germany's largest World War II trading partners, supplied iron ore and ball bearings.
* Portugal and Spain provided nearly all of Germany's tungsten, used to produce weapons-grade steel.
* In some years, Turkey provided 100 percent of Germany's chromite, used to harden steel to make armor.
* Argentina also did business in wartime goods but was most helpful as a Nazi sympathizer.
In all, those five neutral countries handled $500 million in assets for the German government and its citizens during the war and dealt in $300 million in looted gold, the report said. That would be $7 billion in today’s dollars.
Assets included those from war trade and from private individuals and companies that held foreign bank accounts.
In this context, Eizenstat welcomed the recently published findings of a Swiss government report which said that Switzerland’s central bank – the biggest buyer of gold from Nazi Germany – made no effort until late in the war to ensure it was not getting gold stolen from Holocaust victims.
Spain rejects U.S. accusation
Spain denied the allegations that the country, then led by dictator Gen. Francisco Franco, sold war material to Adolf Hitler in exchange for gold stolen from Jewish victims.
“Spain did not launder Nazi gold stolen or looted from the Jews,” Foreign Minister Abel Matutes said in response to the Eizenstat report.
Matutes said Spain stood by its investigation into the issue that confirmed the country acted correctly in its business dealings with Nazi Germany.
Turkey to investigate claims
Turkey said Tuesday it was ready to investigate allegations that it received wealth looted from Jews during World War II in payment for war supplies to the Nazis.
A recent U.S. government report, which was part of the report presented by Eizenstat Tuesday, concluded that $300 million in looted gold, estimated to be worth $2.6 billion today, was routed through Switzerland to pay Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey for German supplies and armaments.
“Turkey has nothing to hide,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Necati Utkan told reporters.
He said a commission headed by a state minister would investigate.
Correspondent Jerrold Kessel and the Associated Press contributed to this report.