"Of course Sir, come this way."
"Can I ask you a favor?" pleaded Kamal.
"Of course Sir, anything you request."
"Please never call me Mr. Pashwari or Sir again. That was my father. Kamal is my name. Please call me that, particularly now that we are in business together!"
"Of course Sir, Kamal it is!"
They once again descended into the bowels of the building and emerged inside the massive vault.
"Do you need your box Kamal?" asked the banker.
"No thank you Juergen. Not this time. I wanted to talk to you in private about a business proposition."
"Just a moment then," Juergen walked over to the wall. He opened a panel and flicked a switch.
"Everything down here is sound recorded, I have disabled the device."
"Excellent. My idea concerns our last conversation down here when you explained all the abandoned deposit boxes. I think we should open the boxes and invest the contents. If someone comes to claim a box later, we can pay them interest as well on their investment."
"Absolutely not Sir, I mean Kamal. That would contravene Swiss banking practices" said Juergen indignantly. "Our laws are very strict."
"Perhaps, but I was considering that we could split the proceeds from the unclaimed boxes."
Juergen thought for a few moments "Perhaps this is something that could be considered further."
"You must know which boxes are accessed regularly. Let’s just start with the oldest ones and see what we find inside" Kamal suggested deviously.
"I will be back soon. Let me printout a list, I am not sure how many that would be."
Juergen went upstairs for a couple of minutes and came back with some papers.
"I switched off the cameras as well."
"There are forty seven boxes that have not been opened since 1945. One hundred and twenty three have not been opened in the last twenty years."
"Can we open the boxes?" asked Kamal.
"It is impossible. There needs to be two keys. I have the bank key but not the individual keys to open the boxes themselves."
"What happens when the owner of a box loses their key?"
"I have a locksmith who comes to open the box. We charge the client one thousand Swiss Francs for the service. We are only charged a small fee. The locksmith has a gun like instrument. He puts it in the lock and pulls the trigger and the lock opens up in seconds" Juergen explained.
Kamal opened the small briefcase that he again carried.
"Does it look like this?" asked Kamal producing the tool that Juergen had just described.
"How did you get one of those, I understand they are a controlled item?"
"Money can buy anything" said Kamal smugly.
Juergen looked up the oldest box number on the list. They located the box and together they cautiously opened the flap. Juergen used his key. Kamal inserted the lock gun and pulled the trigger. He jiggled it around a bit then turned and the lock popped open. He pulled the box clear and put it carefully on the table.
Inside were some ancient looking stock certificates in long extinct companies. In addition there were some quite heavy gold bars with the swastika mark on them. And, there was a very old book also with swastika insignia showing a submarine symbol and labeled "U-140". Juergen’s printout named the owner as a senior German Nazi SS officer called Karl Frederix.
"What do you make of these" Kamal asked Juergen.
"The gold bars are obviously valuable. We have a gold expert upstairs. Why don’t I go and get Thomas Stein?"
"Yes, that would be a good idea. But first, what is this old book?"
Miltser picked it up and opened the cover. "Do you understand German Kamal?" he asked.
"Ya, but I am rusty. What does it say?"
Miltser read for a few seconds longer before answering, "this seems to be the ships log from a Nazi submarine. It mysteriously stops in August 1943. I don’t understand, because if the U-boat was sunk, the log would have been lost."
"Let me read some more while you go and find your gold man. I will put the rest of the stuff away while you go fetch him." suggested Kamal.
Juergen came back soon afterwards followed by a short pudgy little man with horn rimmed glasses.
"Thomas, this is Mister Pashwari. He is one of the largest investors in our bank" said Juergen.
"I am pleased to meet you Mister Pashwari" said Thomas extending his hand.
"Juergen has told me you are doing an excellent job handling our gold investments."
"Thank you Sir. I have made the study of precious metals my life’s work."
"I am glad to hear that Thomas. Perhaps you can help me out. I have inherited some things from a relative of mine who passed away recently."
"I am sorry to hear that Sir" said Thomas reverently.
"What can you tell me about this?" asked Kamal as he removed the gold bar from his briefcase and handed it to Thomas.
Thomas took a quick look and then passed it back almost immediately, a look of horror on his face.
"Mister Pashwari, I can’t help you I am afraid" announced Thomas.
"What is the problem Thomas?" asked Juergen.
"You must have noticed the German swastika insignia cast into the ingot."
"Is that a problem?" queried Kamal.
"Well, not exactly. This ingot was cast by the German central bank, the Reichsbank sometime during World War II. The problem is the marking on the back. That A letter inside a circle indicates that the gold to cast the ingot came from Auschwitz, the extermination camp in Poland. Some of the gold was looted from Jews before they were slaughtered in the gas chambers. The rest of the gold came from gold fillings that were removed from the teeth of the corpses. I am Jewish, and I find the whole thing most offensive. There is a rumor that tons of these gold bars were produced. But very little has ever surfaced. Perhaps they were melted down and recast so they were easier to sell."
"I understand Thomas. What should I do with the ingot?" asked Kamal.
"I believe that these are extremely valuable with private collectors, but the correct course of action is to turn it over to the Jewish world conference. They will distribute the proceeds to families of the Holocaust victims."
"Then I will do as you suggest. I appreciate your guidance" said Kamal before Thomas departed.
"Let’s keep opening the boxes and see what else we locate" said Kamal to Juergen.
The next few boxes contained little of value, just an old wartime Walther P38 9mm pistol wrapped in a white cloth. It was well oiled and looked brand new, unfired and in perfect condition. There were also some ancient faded old photographs of an army officer and his children.
Over the next three days, they continued their task and opened the rest of the forty seven oldest boxes.
There were stacks of currency, some of little use since the Euro took over. The Swiss Francs, British Pounds and U.S. Dollars were of course still legal tender. It seemed every box contained at least some jewelry. There were antique watches, pendants, chains, pearls, emeralds and diamonds both cut and uncut. There were even some blueprints, but they were faded and unreadable.
The most valuable items were quite unexpected. A number of the boxes contained artwork. In some of the larger boxes there were some small vases that looked of Egyptian origin and some Inca looking icons. As well there were some old paintings rolled up inside cardboard cylinders. The cylinders labeled the paintings as Da Vinci, Reubens and Rembrandt.
They took a look at the paintings. They did look old and quite beautiful, but neither Kamal nor Juergen were art experts. They had absolutely no idea of their value, or how to convert their ill gotten gain into cash.
Later that day Juergen made some calls. Through a mutual friend in Rome, Juergen was able to find a tight lipped art dealer called Mario Villani who specialized in working with the Italian Mafia.