It was the largest organized robbery in history: the systematic looting of Europe's Jews by the Nazis, in cooperation with most of the nations in Europe?Axis, Allied, and neutral. Award--winning journalist Richard Z. Chesnoff, one of the first reporters to break the story that Swiss banks had hoarded the assets of Holocaust victims, traveled to fourteen countries to research this heartbreaking, compelling story of human greed. Through exclusive interviews and information from hitherto classified files, Chesnoff tells a tragic tale, the vast scope of which is only beginning to be known. Revealing new details that many would prefer remained secret, Pack of Thieves describes the detective work used to trace Holocaust assets that continue to be hidden inside the financial systems of such Allied nations as France and the Netherlands. Daring, insightful, and necessary, Pack of Thieves is at once a fascinating piece of investigative journalism and an enraging account of one of history's greatest crimes.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
While Switzerland has borne the brunt of much of the public criticism for serving as "Hitler's banker," Chesnoff makes it abundantly clear that people and governments in many countries took advantage of the plight of the Jews before and during WWII to enrich their coffers. From Swiss bankers to Italian insurance companies and the Swedish industrialist family Wallenberg (the uncles of Raoul), various parties were more than willing to cash in on the financial opportunities provided by the war. Indeed, by laundering money, numerous governments helped Germany prolong the war. Equally disheartening is how eager ordinary people were to move into houses and confiscate property that had been abandoned by Jews. Chesnoff, a senior correspondent with U.S. News & World Report, takes a country-by-country look at the wealth stolen from the Jews. While the looting began has a tool to help "Aryanize" Germany and German-held territory, the theft of Jewish property became an important element in financing the Nazi regime. Even after the war, both latent European anti-Semitism and the spread of communism made it all the more difficult to provide restitution to those who were robbed of their possessions. Chesnoff visited 11 countries, interviewed hundreds of people and examined newly unclassified documents. His diligent research leads to a passionate conclusion in which he argues for restitution and criticizes as perverse those who argue that by demanding reparations Jews are only reviving the stereotype of the money-grubbing Jew. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
A disappointingly unfocused and underdocumented attempt to chronicle the seizure of Jewish possessions and assets by the Nazis and their collaborators. Correspondent and columnist Chesnoff did not intend to write an ``encyclopedic'' or ``definitive'' record, but rather a ``journalist's report'' for the general reader. His disclaimer notwithstanding, he has recycled a story that has already been told better elsewhere. Chesnoff adds little new to his coverage of Austria, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Poland, and Hungary. He has little to say about the most significant issue to emerge in recent days: new revelations regarding the degree to which Swiss banks were accomplices in the seizure and laundering of Jewish assets by the Nazis and of the banks' non-cooperation with survivors inquiring after the assets of their families and their unwillingness to admit their guilt and make restitution to those affected. Chesnoff has not undertaken the task of producing a detailed account of the identity of Jewish depositors, or the specific sums they left behind that were seized by the Nazis and their accomplices. This work, he acknowledges, will be completed by scholars. But a readable, reliable synthesis covering the complicit European countries is needed as well, and despite Chesnoff's claims, this is not it. Although there are frequent citations of scholarly books written about the Holocaust and claims to have consulted classified files, there are no footnotes to document either. Chesnoff has interviewed numerous survivors and other interested parties, but their testimony lends no authority, for example, to his claim (against the arguments of most scholars) that Kristallnacht was enthusiastically greeted by the mass of Germans, rather than embarrassing the decent folk of a so-called civilized country. Readers would be better served by studying the relevant parts of the books by Hilberg, Friedlander, Feliciano, Nicholas, and others that Chesnoff lists in his wannabe bibliography. A disappointing mishmash of emotional narrative and anecdote on a subject that deserves much better. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing, Disquieting, & Discouraging Look At Man's Greed,
By Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Pack of Thieves: How Hitler and Europe Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History (Hardcover)
I literally shuddered from a combination of amazement, disgust, and anger after reading this well-written and quite readable overview of the plundering of the European Jews by Hitler and others starting in the 1930s and continuing to the present day. This book by Richard Chesnoff carefully details the scope and depth of the continuing final financial insult to those who suffered the "Final Solution" at Hitler's hand in the Second World War. Even after fifty years, the lies, dissembling, vile deceptions and equivocations continue, for literally tens of billions of dollars of gold, valuables, and money plundered as a result of the so-called "Final Solution" are still unaccounted for. For anyone old enough to have fifty such years of conscious experience in the world, it's difficult to actually be moved to disgust, to be amazed by anything people do, but the bold, shameless ways in which Europe's thugs, slugs and other lowlife cowards came slithering out of their damp and furtive hiding places to take full and open advantage of the Jews' persecution before, during and even after WWII is enough to wrench the most strong-stomached among us. Although this line of investigation is by its very nature disturbing stuff, it is well handled by the author, and his even, professional journalistic tone is solid, seldom bitter or vengeful. Instead, his forte is his ability to systematically describe, detail, and document the multifarious ways in which the Jews were ritually stripped of anything of value by their friends, neighbors, and countrymen, and how so many of those of whom so much better should have been expected used their positions of relative advantage to exploit, extort, and even help to exterminate them. From outright expropriation of rugs, art, and valuables by the Nazis to a plethora of scams, false promises, and ultimate betrayals, the bottom line in case after case is personal enrichment at the extraordinary expense of the victims. Were I not also aware of countless stories of so many others who risked and often sacrificed themselves to save Jews, I would be ashamed to be a human being. It is difficult to understand how so many fellows human beings could continue be so cravenly covetous and so heartless as to perpetrate such a campaign of dispossession against those who were so helpless, impotent, and so needing of compassion. The number of ways in which the Jews were exploited and extorted is numbing; from life insurance scams to funds transfer to numbered Swiss accounts to offers to help individual Jews escape to offers to hide them and spirit them to safety, the various permutations seem endless, and often quite ingenious. Yet one cannot help but be appalled by neighbors calmly expropriating clothing, cars, furniture, apartments, homes, and farms from Jews who were being systematically displaced. There are accounts of individuals coming home from the camps to find neighbors firmly ensconced in the homes, using their home goods, and totally oblivious to the possibility they would have to give it all up to the returning survivors. Many Jews returning to their former homes were threatened, scared away, beaten, or even murdered upon their return. Of course, the most systematic exploitation was by social institutions; governments, banks, insurance companies, art museums. The degree to which these organized interests have systematically delayed, stonewalled, and denied any access to their records for all these decades is scandalous and disheartening to learn about. While the original impetus was to "Aryanize" the wealth of Germany's Jews to help finance the goals of the Third Reich, the explosion of avarice and greed soon spread throughout the Reich and beyond. What is truly disheartening is the widespread degree to which economic, social and political institutions we would otherwise consider respectable and honorable have participated in the plunder taking. This book is a most provocative reading experience, and one anyone interested in the curiosities and unintended ironies of history can play out their games should read. I highly recommend it, and hope it will be widely read and appreciated.
27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pack of Thieves,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Pack of Thieves: How Hitler and Europe Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History (Hardcover)
Chilling, captivating, terrifying express some of the emotional responses one will feel when one reads this book. The author has thoroughly researched his topic. In addition he has presented his findings in a very organized and readable fashion. The writing style makes for easy reading. The author has transformed what could have been a very mundane presentation of facts and figures into a captivating story that is impossible to put down once started. A must read for students of the Holocaust.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazingly inciteful and provocative account,
By A Customer
This review is from: Pack of Thieves: How Hitler and Europe Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History (Hardcover)
I highly recommend this book. Mr. Chesnoff presents a picture of pure and blatant robbery of the Jews by all Europeans during the Holocaust. Anybody interested in Jewish History, gross injustice and understanding an awful aspect of human nature will find this book a must read.
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