London Conference (1997)
The London conference (1997) on Nazi gold from December 2nd to 4th, 1997 was intended to clarify how the gold trade was dealt with by the Nazi German Reich .
course
As the organizer, the British Foreign Office had invited around 40 countries to this conference, including practically all countries in Europe and the USA. Other transactions, such as those involving works of art or commercial goods, as well as compensation and restitution measures, were also discussed. In particular, Switzerland was previously suspected by Jewish organizations of having immorally conducted gold deals, which the empire is said to have been able to do by melting down Jewish jewelry.
At the conference, the value of the gold seized by National Socialist Germany from central banks in occupied countries and taken from Jewish or other concentration camp victims was estimated at around 900 million US dollars . After the end of the war, the German gold stocks were monitored by the Tripartite Gold Commission (TGC) set up by the three allies USA, Great Britain and France with regard to their return to the previous owners. A remainder of 5.5 tons of gold with a market value of 50 million US dollars (1997) was still available at the time of the conference. At the conference it was not possible to generally agree on a return to Holocaust victims or their organizations.
See also
literature
- Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War (Ed.), Jean-François Bergier u. a .: Gold transactions in World War II: annotated statistical overview. A contribution to the gold conference in London, 2-4. December 1997 (PDF file; 144 kB)
- Great Britain. Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Nazi Gold: The London Conference, 2-4 December 1997 , Volume 1997. The Stationery Office, 1998. ISBN 0-1159-1760-8 (English)
Web links
- University of Chicago: Overview of materials to Nazi gold and related topics (English)
- Statement of the US delegation leader Stuart Eizenstat on the final day of the conference (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ FOCUS-Online from December 15, 1997: Nazi Gold: Cheated victims , queried on November 21, 2010
- ↑ Der Spiegel , issue 50/1997, page 152: J for Jude or J'accuse , queried on November 21, 2010