Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State (60 page)

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56.
Intendant of German Army Mission, Romania, Nov. 1941, BA-MA RH 31/I/v.156, pp. 15ff.; chief intendant, Romania, April 1941, ibid., 233, pp. 148-59.
57.
Visit of director general of Romanian Finance Ministry, Nicolae Rasmer-itza, to Reichsbank director Wilhelm, July 2, 1941, BA R 2/14585, p. 52; RKK administrative council, Dec. 16, 1941, BA R 29/3, pp. 18-23.
58.
Karl Graupner, a leading Reichsbank employee, estimates that the Reichsbank delivered gold with a value of 200 million reichsmarks (i.e., seventy tons) to Romania (Vermerk über Goldabgaben der Reichsbank v. 20.8.1945 [Notation on Gold Deliveries by the Reichsbank from Aug. 20, 1945], appendix 2, HAdDB B 331-BAY/678, p. 48). In contrast, an independent Swiss commission of experts on World War II (Unabhängige Expertenkommis-sion Schweiz Zweiter Weltkrieg, p. 64) put the figure at 134.4 million reichsmarks (p. 55). I have used the Swiss figure. For further details on the gold transactions, see Stellungnahme der RB [Statement by the Reichsbank] (Wilhelm) via Puhl to Funk, Dec. 8, 1941, BA R 2/30703.
59.
Economic decree no. 1, 1943 v. 1.1 (Hauffe), BA-MA RH 31/I/v.l34.
60.
Goebbels’s diary, Jan. 10, 1943; transcript, M. Antonescu and Ribbentrop, Jan. 11, 1943 (Reich secret), BA-MA RW 7/171 la, pp. 176-77.
 
61.
Hauffe on trip of Romanian delegation to F.H.Q., Jan. 8-14, 1943, BA-MA RH 31/I/v.134.
62.
German Army Mission, Bucharest (Hansen), to OKW/AWA (Reinecke), Feb. 3, 1943, BA-MA RH 31/I/v.l34; Hansen to OKW (WFStb), March 5, 1943, ibid. The gold transactions were recorded in the registry of expenditures at the Goldkammer der Deutschen Reichsbank, HAdDB, BSG 10/62.
63.
RKK administrative council, Dec. 5, 1942, and Feb. 27, 1943, BA R 2/13502; Goebbels’s diary, Feb. 5, 1943.
64.
Türkische Post, May 11, 1943, BA R 2/60198.
65.
Transcript, M. Antonescu and Ribbentrop (Reich secret), Jan. 11, 1943, BA-MA RW 7/171 la, pp. 176-77. Germany soon drastically increased its demands. See Ergänzungsprotokoll [Supplemental Protocol] (Clodius and M. Antonescu), July 17, 1943, pp. 178-79. In their talks on January 10, 1943, Hitler and Antonescu touched only briefly on the topic of financial problems. See Hillgruber, Staatsmänner, p. 201. German finance experts regarded the governor of the Romanian National Bank, Al Ottolescu, as a “notable financial politician” who would accept a drastic increase in the amount of money in circulation as long as he had sufficient gold reserves. RKK, Bucharest (Seiffert), to RKK main administration, Dec. 7, 1941, BA R 29/3, pp. 14-17. The Economics Ministry, on the other hand, had objected to Ottolescu’s “orthodox policies on gold and currency” and had wanted him to be replaced with a more compliant partner. That happened only in February 1944. Monthly report, Romania, April 1940, NA T 71/59, microfilm 962-67.
66.
RFM (Breyhan), Wehrmachtfinanzierung in Rumänien 1944, BA R 2/30916; RWM, Monthly report, Romania, July 1944, NA T 71/59, microfilm 287-90.
67.
Transcript, Privy Council, March 19, 1944, LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 039-01/281, p. 42.
Chapter 10: The Trail of Gold
 
1.
Documents, introduction; Jüdisches Lexikon, s.v. “Salonica” and “Griechen-land.”
2.
Reich Statistics Office, Greece, Öffentliche Verwaltung und Finanzen [Public Administration and Finances(Status, April 6, 1941), PA AA R 110262.
3.
In general, see Hilberg, Vernichtung, pp. 737-55.
 
4.
Reich envoy (Schiedlausky) to RWM (Landfried), March 21, 1942, PA AA R 110306. In 1942, tobacco accounted—in terms of value—for two-thirds of all (compulsory) Greek exports to Germany. Reich envoy (Altenburg) to Foreign Office, Berlin, May 4, 1942, PA AA R 110264.
5.
Max Merten’s sworn testimony, May 2, 1970, LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 039-01/342, pp. 267ff.
6.
Reich envoy (Schulte) on price problems in Greece, Nov. 27, 1942, to Foreign Office, Berlin, via Neubacher, PA AA R 110321.
7.
RFM, July 15, 1942, BA R 2/30936.
8.
Mackensen (Rome) to Foreign Office, Berlin, Sept. 26, 1942, NA T 120/1174, microfilm 801-02.
9.
RFM to Foreign Office trade division, OKW, RWM, Reich Ministry for Food and Agriculture, and Four-Year Plan (copy, Sept. 23, 1942), BA R 2/014552, pp. 30-31; Statement by Reichsbank economics division, Sept. 12, 1942, ibid., pp. 33-34.
10.
OKW to RKK main administration, Sept. 14, 1942, BA R 29/4, p. 149.
11.
Economic Defense Staff, Greece, Finanzierung der Wehrmachtbeschaffun-gen [Financing of Wehrmacht Procurements], June 10, 1944, BA-MA RW 29/116, p. 3.
12.
Fleischer, Kreuzschatten, p. 116.
13.
“Das Kinderelend in Griechenland (Bildbericht),” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, May 30, 1943. On rates of mortality in Greece between 1940 and 1942, see Apostolou, “Exception,” p. 169.
14.
Währungspläne für Kreta [Currency plans for Crete], March 8, 1942, PA AAR 110283.
15.
Commander in chief in the Southeast and commander in chief of the Twelfth Army, military mail survey, Jan. 2, 1942, BA-MA RW 40/198.
16.
Hahn, Währung, p. 27.
17.
Reich envoy (Altenburg) to Foreign Office, Berlin, Oct. 29, 1942, PA AA R 110263; war log of economics officer, Athens, Oct. 24 and 27, 1942, BA-MA RW 29/98.
18.
Nov. 27, 1942, p. 14, PA AAR 110321.
19.
Ordinance of commander in chief in the Southeast, Jan. 30, 1943, BA-MA RW 29/100; Reichsbank, newspaper clippings on GreeceR 2501/4795. In early 1943, Germany also considered forcing investors to raise additional capital. See E. W. Schmidt (Deutsche Bank) to Walter Tron (Creditanstalt-Bankverein, Vienna), Feb. 24, 1943, BA R 8119/10880, pp. 266-69.
20.
See PA AA R 27320, BA R 2/30680; Neubacher, Sonderauftrag, p. 85; economics officer, Athens, war log, 1942, appendix 10, BA-MA RW 29/98.
21.
OKW chief intendant (Kersten) to Foreign Office, Berlin, March 10 and 23, 1943, BA-MA RW 7/1710b, pp. 165ff.; final report of military commander, Southeast, B: Greece (draft, early 1945), NA T 501/258, microfilm 97; Palairet, Ends, pp. 33-34; Höffinghoff, “Wirtschaft”; RFM, July 17, 1943, BA R 2/14580, pp. 182ff. On Swedish aid shipments, see BA-MA RM 7/1909; Reichsbank economics division, Inflation in Griechenland, Sept. 12, 1942, BA R 2/14552, pp. 33-34; Roediger, “Hilfsaktion.”
22.
Wappler, “Grundzüge,” p. 56.
23.
RFM, Besatzungskosten Griechenland [Occupation Costs Greece], Nov. 26, 1942; Reichsbank directors to RFM (Bussmann), March 3, 1943, BA R 2/14569, pp. 174, 184, 190.
 
24.
Clodius and Mackensen (Rome) to Foreign Office, Berlin, Oct. 5, 1942, NA T 120/1174, microfilm 785ff.
25.
According to Paul Hahn, German commissioner at the Bank of Greece, he was “required” to destroy all the files in his office (Währung, p. 50). His ac count is supported by a memo written by the head of the military administration in southeastern Europe: “In the final months of occupation, orders were issued to sort out and destroy great numbers of files.” To OKH quartermaster general (Malitzky), April 1945 (fragment), BA-MA RW 40/115, p. 5. On the destruction of files in general, see Hartlaub, Umriss, vol. 1, p. 199.
26.
Reichsbank (Wilhelm), Oct. 21, 1942, BA R 2/14552, p. 32.
27.
Travel expense account, Aug. 4, 1943, according to directive of Oct. 17, 1942. PA AA (personal file, von Thadden), monetary file, pp. 129-30; Ver-merk, Nov. 18, 1942, ibid., p. 121. On March 15, 1943, Thadden was appointed to Neubacher’s staff (p. 126). Thadden later claimed his activities had been purely “economic” in nature. See, for example, Vernehmung in Düsseldorf, May 7, 1961,
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb
(Sept. 1, 2002).
28.
Ritter, “Neubacher,” pp. 125-26; Mazower, Greece, pp. 71-72.
29.
Kriegstagebuch, vol. 3, p. 109.
30.
Altenburg to Foreign Office, Berlin, Jan. 26, 1944, PA AA Inl. Ig 190, p. 60. On Logothetopoulos’s “resistance,” see Apostolu, “Exception,” pp. 180-81.
31.
Facsimile in Molho, Memoriam. Six days later Wisliceny specified that “the Jewish identification is to consist of a six-pointed star, 10 centimeters in diameter.”
32.
Commander of the Security Police and the Security Service, Greece, to special envoy for the Southeast, Aug. 2, 1944, PA AA R 27318, p. 3. The Greek law was issued on May 29, 1943. In June 1944, the newspaper Deutsch-Griechische Wirtschaftsnachrichten (vol. 2, p. 67) reported with reference to the belongings of Athens’s Jews: “The Greek Finance Ministry has announced that the Office for the Management of Jewish Assets is located at 10 Thiseos Street. All interested parties should get in touch with that address.”
33.
Testimony of Nikolaos Tzavaras, Sept. 11, 1945, LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 039-01/342, pp. 237ff.
34.
German consul general (Schönberg) to Foreign Office, Berlin, March 15, 1943. in Seckendorf, Okkupatiospolittk, pp. 226-27
35.
Hilberg, Vernichtung, p. 745.
36.
From a telegram, decoded by the British military, from Wisliceny to Eich-mann, in Apostolou, “Exception,” p. 182.
37.
Travel expenses, Aug. 4, 1943, PA AA (personal file, von Thadden), monetary file, p. 130.
 
38.
Elias Douros, Bericht über die Verwaltung der israelitischen Vermögen von Nord-Griechenland (Gerichtsübersetzung) [Report on the Administration of Israelite Wealth from Northern Greece (notarized translation)], July 1, 1945, LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 039-01/344.
39.
Mazower, Greece, p. 248.
40.
Österreichischer Rundfunk, Aug. 9, 2000,
http://magazine.orf.at/report/int/sendungen/000823/0
008233.htm
(Aug. 31, 2002). The historian Poly-chronis Enepekidis, too, considers Merten the central figure in the persecution of Greek Jews: “All major documents left behind by the civilian division of the military administration bear the signature Dr. Merten.” See “Die ‘Endlösung’ in Griechenland zum ersten Male ins Licht gerückt. Die Ausrottung von 70000 Juden” (translation, MS), p. 23, LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 039-01/345.
41.
“Rush Is On for Nazi Gold in Greek Sea,” New York Times, Jul y 31, 2000.
42.
Fleischer, Kreuzschatten, p. 365.
43.
Mackensen (Rome) to Foreign Office, Berlin, Oct. 21, 1941, Foreign Office (Hudeczek), Oct. 16, 1942, NA T 120/1174, microfilm 752ff.
44.
Kriegstagebuch, vol. 4, p. 665; vol. 3, p. 109.
45.
Economics officer, Salonika (Müller), Beschäftigung von Juden [Employment of Jews], Oct. 30 and Nov. 14, 1942, BA-MA RW 29/109, pp. 25, 75.
 
46.
Yahil, Shoa, p. 560; Safrian, Eichmann-Männer, pp. 238ff.; Molho, Memo-riam (1981), vol. 1, p. 48; Athens court, trial of Max Merten, March 24, 1958, pp. 28ff., LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 058/839, vols. 15-18.
47.
BA-MA RW 29/110, appendix 12; Drissner, “Deportation,” p. 69.
48.
Testimony of Merten, Feb. 27, 1959, LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 039-01/347.
49.
RWM (Pasel) to RFM, Aug. 9, 1943, BA R 2/310, p. 117.
50.
Molho, Memoriam (1981), vol. 1, p. 79.
51.
LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 039-01/346, pp. 124ff.
52.
Declaration of the Central Board of the Jewish Communities of Greece, May 12, 1948, NA RG 59 (1945-49), box 4255 (thanks to Martin Dean). This estimate corresponds to the figures provided by Hahn.
53.
Special envoy (Graevenitz) to Foreign Office, Berlin, March 26, 1944, BA R 2/30674.
54.
Commander, Salonika-Aegean (Merten), June 15, 1943, LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 039-01/342, p. 92.
55.
Merten, testimony before Reparations Office, Berlin, Feb. 3, 1964, LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 039-01/346, pp. 94ff.; unreliable contrary testimony, vol. 347.
56.
Sworn statement by Wisliceny, June 27, 1947, LArch, Berlin, B Rep. 039-01/247, pp. 243-48; testimony of Wisliceny (Nuremberg), Jan. 3, 1946, ET T 37; Mazower, Greece, p. 243.
57.
Transportation Ministry (Rau) to OKH, March 1, 1944, PA AA R 110285. All information provided in the final report of the southeastern military commander (early 1945) on the subject of “Jewish assets” is false, NA T 501/358, microfilm 546ff.

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