Controversy Over Financial Relationships With Nazi Germany
Switzerland's trade was blockaded by both the Allies and by the Axis. Each side openly exerted pressure on Switzerland not to trade with the other. Economic cooperation and extension of credit to the Third Reich varied according to the perceived likelihood of invasion, and the availability of other trading partners. Concessions reached their zenith after a crucial rail link through Vichy France was severed in 1942, leaving Switzerland completely surrounded by the Axis. Switzerland relied on trade for half of its food and essentially all of its fuel, but controlled vital trans-alpine rail tunnels between Germany and Italy. Switzerland's most important exports during the war were precision machine tools, watches, jewel bearings (used in bombsights), electricity, and dairy products. Until 1936, the Swiss franc was the only remaining major freely convertible currency in the world, and both the Allies and the Germans sold large amounts of gold to the Swiss National Bank. Between 1940 and 1945, the German Reichsbank sold 1.3 billion francs worth of gold to Swiss Banks in exchange for Swiss francs and other foreign currency, which were used to buy strategically important raw materials like tungsten and oil from neutral countries. Hundreds of millions of francs worth of this gold was monetary gold plundered from the central banks of occupied countries. A total of 581,000 francs' worth of "Melmer" gold taken from Holocaust victims in eastern Europe was sold to Swiss banks. In total, trade between Germany and Switzerland contributed about 0.5% to the German war effort and did not significantly lengthen the war.
| Purchases | Sales | Net | |
| USA | 2242.9 | 714.3 | 1528.7 |
| Great Britain | 668.6 | 0 | 668.6 |
| Canada | 65.3 | 0 | 65.3 |
| Germany | 1231.1 | 19.5 | 1211.6 |
| Italy | 150.1 | 0 | 150.1 |
| Japan | 0 | 5 | –5.0 |
| Portugal | 85.1 | 536.6 | –451.5 |
| Spain | 0 | 185.1 | –185.1 |
| Romania | 9.8 | 112.1 | –102.3 |
| Hungary | 0 | 16.3 | –16.3 |
| Slovakia | 0 | 11.3 | –11.3 |
| Turkey | 0 | 14.8 | –14.8 |
| Argentina | 32.7 | 0 | 32.7 |
| France | 193.2 | 0 | 193.2 |
| Greece | 0.5 | 0 | 0.5 |
| Sweden | 77.5 | 3 | 74.5 |
| BIS | 61.5 | 18.3 | 43.2 |
| Market | 71.6 | 667.8 | –596.2 |
| Confederation | 269.3 | 1087.9 | –818.6 |
| Federal Mint | 42.5 | 45.8 | –3.3 |
In the 1990s, controversy over a class-action lawsuit brought in Brooklyn, New York, over Jewish assets in Holocaust-era bank accounts prompted the Swiss government to commission the most recent and authoritative study of Switzerland's interaction with the Nazi regime. The final report by this independent panel of international scholars, known as the Bergier Commission, was issued in 2002.
Read more about this topic: Switzerland During The World Wars
Famous quotes containing the words nazi germany, controversy, financial, nazi and/or germany:
“Humor is not a mood but a way of looking at the world. So if it is correct to say that humor was stamped out in Nazi Germany, that does not mean that people were not in good spirits, or anything of that sort, but something much deeper and more important.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“A theory of the middle class: that it is not to be determined by its financial situation but rather by its relation to government. That is, one could shade down from an actual ruling or governing class to a class hopelessly out of relation to government, thinking of gov’t as beyond its control, of itself as wholly controlled by gov’t. Somewhere in between and in gradations is the group that has the sense that gov’t exists for it, and shapes its consciousness accordingly.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)