Insight

Richard Chesnoff details looting of Jewish assets during the Holocaust.

restitution issues and about the Swiss
bank accounts of Holocaust victims.
He became one of the first
reporters to break the story of Swiss
banks hiding assets of Holocaust vic-
tims — but that's only part of the
tale.
"I knew that the Swiss had
behaved so badly during and after the
war, but I did-
n't know that
the Swedes,
Portuguese and
Spanish people
fenced a lot of
the stolen gold
themselves," he
said. "They
sold vital raw

HARRY KIRS BAUM

StaffWriter

IV

hile Raoul Wallenberg
was in Hungary saving
Jewish lives during
World War II, his two
uncles, Jacob and Marcus Wallenberg,
were in Stockholm dealing in stolen
Jewish property. They were among the
biggest buyers of stolen Jewish stocks
that had gone onto the world market.
In his book, Pack of Thieves: How

Hitler and Europe Plundered the Jews
and Committed the Greatest Theft in
History (Doubleday, $27.50; pub-

lished Nov. 2, 1999), Richard
Chesnoff writes that the Wallenbergs'
holding company now
is said to control more
than 40 percent of the
value of the entire
Swedish stock
exchange. .
Starting in
Germany, and moving
HOW HITLER .A.No
tit N:
PLUNDERED TEE JEWS
from one country to
•?,:ND COMMITTED THE
another, including so-
EA'rEs -1"rHErT
called neutrals like
,HISTORY
Sweden, Norway,
Portugal and Spain,
Chesnoff describes the
seizing of $8-S13.8
billion in assets from
1934-1945. The fig-
ure was compiled by
the World Jewish
Restitution
materials to the Germans
Organization.
until the last years of the
The well-researched
war, and helped prolong
book uses facts and anecdotes to
the war by two years."
reveal the scope of the Nazi looting of
Chesnoff was most surprised by
Jewish assets, as well as the complicity
the degree to which France, Holland
of the occupied countries and their
and the Netherlands participated in
citizens.
feeding off the Holocaust. "During
"In every nation of Europe where
the wartime period, collaborationist
the genocidal Nazi machine dragged
governments of those countries were
Jews away to their deaths, there were
the most deeply involved with the
upstanding local citizens waiting to
theft of Jewish property," he said.
loot what was left behind," Chesnoff
"When the war was over, the coun-
writes. All barely able to contain
tries simply forgot about the assets
themselves at the prospect of picking
that were left over from the Nazis
at the bones of their Jewish neigh-
and incorporated them into their
bors."
national treasuries."
Chesnoff, a senior correspondent
Chesnoff said the French govern-
for U.S. News and World Report and a
ment is the most guilty of dragging its
columnist for the New York Daily
feet in coming clean about looted
News, said the idea for the book came
Jewish assets.
after a lunch five years ago with Edgar
A commission was established in
Bronfman, Elon Steinberg and other
France "to investigate banks and what
Jewish leaders. They filled him in on
happened to the money confiscated

•

.

'

.

from Jews, but the banks were investi-
gating themselves, and that's not the
best way to investigate," he said.
"When it was over, the banks went
back to the old post-war deGaulle
line, which was It wasn't our fault,
the Germans did it.' But the Vichy
(the French government under Nazi
rule) did cloak things after the war."
The total
looted in France
was between
$400 million
and $800 mil-
lion.
For his book,
Chesnoff used a
team of
researchers to
gather the once-
classified infor-
mation. Even
though they
have become
open to the
public, some of
the documents
still are impossi-
ble to get
Richard
"The Czechs
Chesnoff
have mountains
of documents
stored in a for-
mer monastery
near the presi-
dential castle in
Prague," he said.
"The government won't let people
near those documents that pinpoint
what was stolen and from whom they
were stolen. You have to fight to get
this stuff."
Chesnoff, who has authored books
on the Philippines and Israel, said the
new book was written to expose the
neutral countries' deeds and tell the
world "the greatest theft in history"
went far beyond Switzerland.

.

Richard Chesnoff speaks at Jewish
Book Fair 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov.
8, at the D. Dan & Betty Kahn
Building of the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield, co-
sponsored by the Holocaust
Education Coalition/Hidden
Children, Jewish War Veterans,
and the Jewish War
Veterans/Ladies Auxiliary

Remember
When • •

From the pages of the Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

1989

The Cypriot Jewish community —
with only 50 members — received
a donation from the World Jewish
Congress to renovate its ancient
cemetery.
Edie Slotkin and Sharon Hart
were named chairwomen of the
Allied Jewish Campaign's 1990
Super Sunday phonathon.

Israel freed the first group of Arab
prisoners in the northern Sinai,
honoring the agreement between
Begin and Sadat at a summit
meeting in Haifa.
A forest of 10,000 trees was
planted in Lahav, Israel, in honor
of the 80th birthday of Rose
Herman by her husband, John R.
Herman.

1969

Young Arabs and left-wing student
supporters of El Fatah attacked the
Rothschild Bank in Paris.
Four West German peasant
families received medals and cita-
tions in Bonn from the Israeli
ambassador for having saved the
lives of a Jewish family during
World War II.

North End Clinic served its last
patient at Holbrook and Oakland
in Detroit; the facilities moved to
the Shiffman Clinic Wing of Sinai
Hospital.
Mrs. Sidney Allen and Mrs.
Jack Wagner were named co-chair-
women of the Friends of the
Center Symphony.

Morris Kampner was installed as
president of Congregation B'nai
Israel in Pontiac.
The Romanian government has
agreed to allow 60 of the 240 Jews
awaiting transportation to Israel to
embark, following the intervention
of the Israel legation in Bucharest.

— Compiled by Sy Monello,
editorial assistant

10/29
1999

