Nacistické zlato - Jak bylo uloupeno, ukryto a znovu nalezeno – Ridley Norman (2024)

War is an expensive affair, and in 1939 Germany was nearly bankrupt as its economy overheated and headed towards severe inflation. Hitler needed hard foreign currency to pay for his war machinery, and the only way to obtain it was through the sale of gold that he had looted from the national banks of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and all the countries that were occupied after September 1939. Another source was the theft of personal gold, particularly from Jews, which also came from concentration camps. No neutral country would accept Reichsmarks, so the gold had to be laundered through Swiss banks. The story of Swiss complicity in German war crimes remains a subject of disputes and legal proceedings. Questions also arise about the role of other countries, especially Portugal, in laundering stolen gold for the Nazis. The Vatican's dealings with Hitler were often perceived as ambiguous, and this book explores the role of the Holy See in helping to transport Nazi gold to South America and how it could have been used to recreate the German Empire. After the war, a commission was established to recover as much gold as possible and return it to those from whom it was stolen. This, of course, was accompanied by enormous problems, especially regarding the gold stolen from the victims...