Cashing Out
The Flight of Nazi Treasure, 1945–1948
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
When Nazis looked to flee Europe with stolen art, gems, and gold in tow, certain “neutral” countries were all too willing to assist them.
By the end of January 1945, it was clear to Germany that the war was lost. The Third Reich was in freefall, and its leaders, apart from those clustered around Hitler in his Berlin bunker, sought to abscond before they were besieged. But they wanted to take their wealth with them.
Their escape routes were diverse: Sweden and Switzerland boasted proximity, banking, and industrial closeness, while Spain and Portugal offered an inviting Atlantic coastline and shipping routes to South America. And in various ways, each of these so-called neutral nations welcomed the Nazi escapees, along with the clandestine wealth they carried.
Cashing Out tells the riveting history of the race to intercept the stolen assets before they disappeared, and before the will to punish Germany was replaced by the political considerations of the fast-approaching Cold War. Bestselling author Neill Lochery here brilliantly recounts the flight of the Nazi-looted riches—the last great escape of World War II—and the Allied quest for justice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British historian Lochery (Out of the Shadows) presents a searing indictment of the rampant misconduct by neutral governments during and after WWII that facilitated the brazen looting of European treasure by the Nazis. According to Lochery, "none of the so-called neutral countries emerged from the war with any shred of moral credibility." While Allied governments undertook dogged efforts to thwart the traffic in looted art, gold, jewelry, and other valuables—and the flight of many Nazi leaders themselves, fleeing postwar justice—their neutral counterparts (Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland) were criminally complicit in the trade of looted treasure. Lochery tracks Nazi intelligence chief Walter Schellenberg, who, having fled to England in July 1945, gave British intelligence officers an inside view of Germany's wartime trade with neutral countries, revealing how "gold bars looted from the central banks of Holland and Belgium" had been used to pay for shipments of iron ore, ball bearings, and synthetic oil from Sweden. (The wealth garnered by Sweden in wartime trade with Germany would fund the growth of the nation's bountiful welfare state after the war.) Even after the war ended, Allied investigators in Operation Safehaven continued working to prevent Nazi schemes to transfer loot along "ratlines" to South America, mainly Argentina and Brazil. The author serves up an indignant blend of globe-spanning true crime, financial skullduggery, geopolitical and diplomatic history, and cloak-and-dagger intrigue. Espionage buffs will be thrilled.
