This caused some muttering among the Council members.
“Furthermore, following the anti-Jewish laws of the mid to late 1930s, many Nazi official took advantage of the Jewish community for their own selfish purposes. Confiscated Jewish property — everything from antiques and artworks, to property and businesses — were on-sold at enormous personal profit to a large clique of Nazi officials or others. Again most of the proceeds were hidden in Swiss banks. In many cases, some of these officials chose to hide away plundered objects d’art in their safe depositories at the same Swiss banks.
I can only guess at the total amount involved. I think it exceeds thirty million dollars.”
The members looked at each other. It was a staggering sum. The criminals must be made to pay, was the initial reaction.
“I was eventually able to positively identify some of these traitors. I also have enough material to warrant questioning many others. In total I can provide about two hundred names to the Swiss. All people who I suspect have, or had, secret Swiss bank accounts or depositories where they stashed their ill-gotten gains. In many cases they knowingly traded on the misery of the Jews.”
Hjalmar Schacht confirmed what Erhard had disclosed. “There was blatant collaboration between the Swiss and the Nazis. I was effectively fired as Minister of Finance by Hitler in the late thirties when I expressed my concern about the gold sales. After that I kept my ears and eyes open, and my mouth shut. I think the swindling of the Jews was much greater that that uncovered by Ludwig, but we have to start somewhere.”
There was silence for a few minutes as everybody paged through Erhard’s document. Everybody present knew at least several of the names listed therein. When this became public knowledge it would open up old wounds and once again reflect badly on the German people, even if the crimes were committed by the discredited Nazis. It was a shameful period.
It was von Brauchitsch that asked the question, “Where do we go from here?”
It was Buch, the Justice Minister, who answered. “We have two priorities here. The return to us of whatever money and valuables these criminals have. And their trial for fraud, and possibly treason.” No compromise from this man.
Erhard, anxious to avoid anyone blundering in and ruining their chances of getting the money back, interrupted. “I have already met with the Swiss Economics Minister last week. He stonewalled me. He was adamant that the Swiss banks respected their strict banking laws, and they are unable to assist us. I could not help having the feeling that he knew something of this matter already.”
Schacht now added to the discussion. “May I suggest a course of action?” he asked quietly. All looked at him. Erhard had a slight smile. The two of them had planned this strategy together. “Let Herr Buch’s legal experts examine the evidence in this case. If it is deemed to be sufficient, on the face of it, we should quietly arrest all the alleged guilty parties. Under questioning, some of the two hundred will co-operate. These collaborators can then be prevailed upon to give our Economics Minister signed letters of authority, addressed to their Swiss Bank, ordering them to give full disclosure of their banking affairs to ourselves, as well as to accept our instructions as to the disposal of any of their Swiss assets.
Ludwig should then prepare himself for an unfriendly meeting with his Swiss counterpart, who no doubt will have a legal expert in attendance. The list of suspects is again presented by him to the Swiss, with a firm written request from the German Government for their assistance. At the same meeting one of the letters from the collaborators will be handed over as an example of the ‘ammunition’ we have. We see what reaction we get to that.
The Swiss will probably still stall. That is when Ludwig tells them that we have over two hundred Nazis detained most of whom have admitted culpability and are co-operating with us. If the Swiss do not co-operate as well, it will all go public and they will have a public relations disaster on their hands. And for what? We will still pursue our objectives through all legal channels and almost certainly win.
They could perhaps also be subtly reminded that a concerted bad press campaign in Germany, and any resulting breakdown in trust, could have a negative effect on trade between our two countries.
These Swiss bankers have profited greatly from their deals with the Nazis. Let them keep their profit, but they must be made to return the money of the criminals that illegally benefitted from them.”
Nobody could think of a better plan. Buch confirmed his part in it. Erhard would only ask for a meeting in Bern when he knew the results of the criminal interrogations.
Following a preliminary review at the evidence prepared by Erhard, the Justice Minister’s police operation went into action two days later. The status of the suspects ranged from minor civil servants to industrialists. They were treated politely but firmly when they were arrested, and taken to a disused, and hastily cleaned up, army camp. They were kept separated from each other. Within ten minutes of the start of questioning, the first suspect broke.
The teams of interrogators worked throughout the night and ended up with fifty collaborators. More would eventually give in.
This was enough for Erhard. His secretary phoned Bern the following morning asking for a meeting. She realised straight away that something was not right when she was told the Minister would be unavailable for at least two weeks. She was very experienced and knew when she was being given the run around!
Once again, Erhard and Schacht had been prepared for this. General Beck’s spies had already confirmed that the Swiss Economics Minister had a schedule that was in no way out of the ordinary. In anticipation of this, they had hatched a plot with Albert Speer.
As luck had it, the Swiss Transport Ministry were anxiously awaiting a trainload of urgently needed spare parts crucial for the continued safe running of their transport system . This delivery train was due at the German-Swiss border that evening. As Minister of Transport, Speer had one of his minions inform the Swiss transport authorities that the urgently awaited train could not be cleared through German customs.
It took half an hour for a harassed Swiss manager to phone Berlin to find out what the problem was. The spare parts were really urgently required! He was informed that there seemed to be some problem with customs duties that needed to be cleared up before the train was allowed through. In the meantime it had been shunted into a siding at the border.
Half an hour later a senior Swiss manager was on the phone. He was able to obtain no more information than the previous people.
The problem must have travelled higher very quickly, because one hour later the Swiss Transport Minister himself telephoned Albert Speer asking what the hell was the problem? They had known each other for several years and respected the work of each other.
Now it was Speer’s turn to play games. He professed not to know that a problem existed but he would find out and phone back within half an hour. He replaced the receiver and sat back smiling. He didn’t like politics or pettiness in any form, but the Swiss were always so smug. It would be good to take them down a peg or two.
After exactly half an hour they were speaking again. Speer explained that there were some issues about customs duties and other things that Germany’s Economics Minister was trying to speak to Switzerland’s Economics Minister about, but that gentleman was apparently unavailable for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately the law is the law, and the train could not move until the matter was resolved. One very irate Swiss Transport Minister promised to sort out the problem immediately or ‘he would have somebody’s guts for garters’. Later it was discovered that he had contacted the Swiss President who in turn simply instructed the Economics Minister to make himself immediately available to the German Minister.