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Jean Ziegler
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The Swiss, The Gold And The Dead: How Swiss Bankers Helped Finance the Nazi War Machine Hardcover – March 31, 1998

by Jean Ziegler (Author), John Brownjohn (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 25 ratings
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Recent startling revelations that Switzerland helped to bankroll Nazi Germany's war effort, and Swiss intransigence in the face of redress claims by Holocaust survivors, have shaken Switerland's international reputation. In this uncompromising account, leading Swiss sociologist Jean Ziegler closely examines the shady relationship between Swiss bankers and Nazi Germany. Based on the records of the German Armaments Ministry and other official documents, The Swiss, the Gold, and the Dead shows how Switzerland's leading financial institutions provided Hittler with the foreign exchange essential to his war effort-laundering gold looted from the banks of occupied Europe and from the bodies of concentration camp victims; granting sizable loans; and supplying Germany's war economy with weapons, ammunition, and precision instruments. In returen, Switzerland was spared the devastation that befell the rest of Europe. Ziegler argues forcefully and authoritatively that without Swiss complicity the war in Europe would have ended earlier, sparing hundreds of thousands of lives. Drawing on more than thirty years of experience in Switzerland's domestic politic and international diplomacy, Professor Ziegler has made an important contribution to this highly controversial and emotional subject.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harcourt
  4. Publication date
    March 31, 1998
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0151003343
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0151003341
  8. See all details
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Top reviews from the United States

  • CoCo mousse
    5.0 out of 5 stars Mint condition inside, otherwise nearly perfect
    Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2024
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    Extremely pleased with this purchase!!!
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  • Catamaran'78
    5.0 out of 5 stars Swiss Banking and Business Support of Hitler's "1000 Year Reich"
    Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2018
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    Swiss banks and the ruling Swiss plutocrats were an irreplaceable factor in Germany's ability to finance the war. Swiss bankers and businesses laundered the private and public gold, art, jewels and even Jewish businesses seized and looted by Germans across Europe. And don't forget the gold ripped out of the mouths of death camp victims, smelted into new Reich stamped bars and fenced for Swiss francs which the Nazis used to buy tungsten from Portugal, chromium from Turkey, ore from Sweden etc. The author cites documentary evidence that by 1943 the German war machine would bankrupt the nation and be unable to continue the war without Swiss financial collusion. See also Chasing Gold, The Incredible Story of How The Nazis Stole Europe's Bullion.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • mike
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting
    Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2023
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    Anyone who wants to delve deep into this side of World War Two history will find this thoroughly interesting.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • P. GUPTA
    3.0 out of 5 stars Short on expectations
    Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2007
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    The book is somewhat informative in documenting the differnce forms of war-time gold and cash "management" by the Swiss government and banks. But the narrative is quite dry and often repetitive. Read it if you don't know much about the subject or can't find a more highly recommended book.
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  • Marian L. Moran
    4.0 out of 5 stars Well written diatribe
    Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2013
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    A must for anyone interested in Swiss banking during World War II. The author has a definite point of view which cuts the Swiss no slack, which, if everything he says is true, is fully justified.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Bruce Fegley Jr.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting book
    Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2017
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    I saw this book in a library in the Hilton Garden Inn, Tulsa OK midtown and read some of it before having to leave the next day. Bought a copy for myself and it is well worthit.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • F. Mckenzie
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2016
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    Haven't finished reading yet. Very interesting.
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  • K. Kennedy
    4.0 out of 5 stars how Switzerland continued and continues to benefit from its "neutrality" in World War Two...
    Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2017
    "The Swiss, the Gold, and the Dead" by Jean Ziegler documents the story of Swiss bankers and government officials who lost their humanity by turning fleeing refugees (Jewish and others) back at the Swiss border, and who have worked very hard for decades to keep the money and valuables put into Swiss institutions by Jews and others for safekeeping from ever being returned to their heirs. The cynicism and depravity of requiring that a survivor and heir present death certificates of those murdered in concentration camps in order to even begin a process of recovering their assets is just deplorable. Unfortunately, Switzerland is not alone in trying to keep all its ill-gotten gains from its years of "neutrality" in World War Two, and in destroying or hiding evidence of its inhumane and illicit activities.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • DOUGLAS BRUCE
    5.0 out of 5 stars INTERESTING READ
    Reviewed in Germany on March 8, 2014
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  • Stakselbeen
    5.0 out of 5 stars Produkt so wie gewünscht, bin sehr zufrieden
    Reviewed in Germany on September 11, 2011
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    prompte Lieferung, kein Zeitverzug, gute und sichere Verpackung, Produkt in ausgezeichnetem Zustand, problemlose Bezahlung, bin sehr zufrieden und werde hier bei Bedarf wieder bestellen
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  • Rob Kitchin
    3.0 out of 5 stars interesting account, though not always for the right reasons
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2012
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    Switzerland, despite being neutral, played an important role in the Second World War. A very profitable role. Through both its national and private banks it helped finance the Nazi war machine by laundering German and looted gold and allowing them to purchase much needed raw materials from other countries. Manganese, tungsten, chromium, iron ore and diamonds, all essential for armament manufacture, and oil vital for logistics, all had to be bought on the world market and imported, in a market that shunned the Reichsmark but welcomed the Swiss Franc. The Swiss also allowed the Germans to re-arm and transfer troops in Italy using the Swiss rail network, and they actively refused entry to refugees fleeing from all over Europe for sanctuary, handing them back into the hands of the Gestapo. After the war, Swiss banks made it all but impossible for the relatives of those whose assets were stolen and lodged in the country to be retrieved, holding onto them for their own gain.

    Ziegler's book documents these issues and sets them in the context of Swiss history more broadly and the period of the war. It is somewhat odd book in terms of its structuring and tone. The book seems to jump around an awful lot and it could have done with some restructuring and consolidation. The first chapter labours the point about the Swiss facing up to the decisions and actions of the previous generation, forwarding a moral line. This is revisited throughout the text and really seems to be overdone. And yet, the reason for such caution and explanation is revealed in the afterword. On September 20th 1998, Ziegler - a Professor of Sociology and five time elected official of the National Council of the Swiss Confederation (and subsequently appointed to the UN Human Rights Council) - received a communication from the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office informing him that he was being charged with `treason' infringing the `independence of Switzerland, and promoting foreign undertakings directed against the security of Switzerland'. Writing and talking about the history of Switzerland can clearly be a fraught undertaking, especially when many - including very large and powerful banks who fear having to return gold reserves - want that history suppressed and forgotten. In that sense, Ziegler's book is an important one. Given the relatively limited sources he had access to, and the moral and ethical landscape he was trying to operate in, it would be good to read another, more up to date account. This is an interesting starting point, though not always for the right reasons.
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