Erhard accepted the call from Muller. The Swiss was coldly polite and asked if they could meet the following afternoon. Erhard confirmed this was in order. Muller, who was nobody’s fool, now asked if it was possible, even before they met, to allow the damned train through the border? The German was smiling as he replied that it was always a pleasure to assist his opposite number. Asshole!
He laughingly informed Speer of the success of their little ploy.
It had been Schacht’s idea that he accompany Erhard to Bern. He would not take much part in the discussions, but he thought that his presence would remind the Swiss about their past Nazi dealings. And that Schact knew all about them.
A normally cool Muller displayed no animosity to the Germans. He had been outfoxed and accepted it with good grace. He had never met Schacht but knew of him. He welcomed him to Bern.
Erhard wasted no time telling Muller about the arrests of over two hundred former Nazis throughout Germany. Almost half of them had already admitted to the allegations. These people were detailed in the dossier which was in Muller’s possession. More names were now being uncovered. He placed copies of some of the criminal’s letters to their Swiss banks in front of the Swiss Minister.
Muller knew he could try to stall the matter again, but he also knew it would not go away. Furthermore it was not a good idea to offend the Germans. They always played things straight since the demise of the Nazi regime, whereas he knew that the Swiss banks did indeed have bank accounts of supposed Nazis, almost certainly a good portion of which, contained illegally earned monies. The Germans would not allow them to continue to turn a blind eye to these.
He decided to give his co-operation. “What you have before me, Herr Erhard, would appear to be firm proof to support your contentions. In the light of this, I consider it my duty to take the matter further. Tomorrow I will discuss this with the President of the Swiss Reserve Bank and the Minister of Justice. After I receive their advice, I will inform you of the next step. Is that in order?”
‘I wonder what happened to your busy two weeks schedule’ thought Erhard before answering, “Very good. Thank you for your co-operation Herr Muller. We look forward to hearing from you.” He and Schacht were shown out of the Minister’s office.
‘Operation plunder’ as this came to be known took another six months before the file was finally closed. All Swiss banks had been instructed by their authorities to search their records for active or dormant accounts, and safe depositories, which may belong to suspected Nazis.
The end result was the Swiss banks between them admitted to thirty two million dollars of cash on deposit, together with valuables totalling another ten million. The Swiss Government offered to pay the money and deliver the valuables to Germany in return for the Germans signing an agreement confirming that all outstanding issues had been settled and the matter was now permanently closed.
It was both Erhard’s and Schacht’s contention that this meant the Swiss had much more hidden away. But proof would be hard to find. The deal was accepted.
The valuables, jewellery and works of art, once they had been received, were duly advertised to see if any claimants came forth with the necessary proof of ownership. In the event, half of the stuff ended up being returned to their grateful and delighted rightful, mostly Jewish, owners. The unclaimed remainder was sold at public auction. A cheque, equivalent to five million dollars, was placed into the government welfare department that assisted previously wrongly imprisoned citizens, and displaced people, who had suffered financial loss as a result of Nazi persecution.
The other thirty two million was a nice addition to the German monetary reserves.
The more than two hundred criminals exposed by Erhard were brought to trial. Those that pleaded guilty and had co-operated, received relatively light one to three year jail sentences, together with fines, depending on their culpability. The remainder were found guilty anyway, and had their personal possessions including their homes, confiscated, and all received between three and six year jail sentences.
Erhard and Schacht were content. Their three year secret project had not been a waste of time.
Charles de Gaulle reviewed the results of his de-colonising programme with satisfaction. Almost all of the French citizens who had lived in Indochina, Syria, Africa, Morocco and Tunisia, had left the regions and re-settled in France.
Nearly half a million metropolitan French had already been accommodated, and another four hundred thousand were expected over the next twelve months.
Enormous sums of money had been spent to ensure all arrivals had a roof over their head, a job, and a small settling in allowance in cases of need. Without certain loans provided by Germany, this would not have been possible. As it was, tough deadlines for housing and schools construction, together with expansion of industry and commerce, had been met. In the main, the new arrivals had blended into French life with little to grumble about.
De Gaulle had prevailed upon the French Government to allocate scarce financial resources for this programme to allay to some degree, the resentment harboured by the large number of pied noirs returning from the previously privileged life in Algeria.
Following the notice of intent to quit Algeria two years earlier, there had been an orchestrated campaign of civil disobedience by the pied noirs, including bombings and terrorist activities. De Gaulle’s reaction was a massive reinforcement of French forces in Algeria, and a rapid expansion of the new, mainly French officered, Algerian army. A curfew had been imposed and many suspected resistance leaders detained indefinitely. Gradually order was restored and the prospect of open rebellion by the white French settlers receded.
Many pied noirs began to accept the fait accompli and started to trickle back to mainland France. In Paris, de Gaulle and the French Government started to breathe easier. A crisis had been averted!
Now, two years later, the French had discovered something positive from their de-colonising experiment. The returning settlers had proved to be very hard working and industrious. They were making a significant contribution to the French economy. And despite their recent upheaval, they were even more patriotic than the rest of the French population. A good result of the law of unintended consequences!
James had finished work for the day and was about to exit the bank building. It was five thirty and he usually worked later than this, but tonight he was going home to face Fiona.
Since their magical holiday in Venice six months earlier, he had acquiesced with Magda’s suggestion to wait and see how they felt about things the following year. He had certainly not changed his mind about what he wanted. But as far as Magda was concerned, he felt that his approach would have to be different. He would only talk to her of marriage and their future together, after Fiona had agreed to a divorce. This is what he wanted to get agreement from his wife tonight.
He and Magda had not been in touch for the past two days or three days. If all went well, he would telephone Magda at her home tonight and make arrangements to spend the weekend with her. He could then tell her he was a free man.
James stepped outside and hesitated for a moment. Perhaps a quick scotch to calm his nerves would be a good idea. Before he moved again, a well-dressed, middle aged, man came up to him. “Mister Blackstone?” He peered at James while waiting for a response.