ROME — Wealth plundered by the Nazis from their victims has been traced to banks in Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal and other neutral countries that were secretly helping the Nazis stash stolen gold or launder it to buy war material. One state after another has reluctantly opened its archives and banking records to aid the search, with one glaring exception: the Vatican. So far the Vatican has flatly refused to allow investigators access to its archives, despite repeated pleas from several nations and from Jewish groups. A task force headed by the US Under-secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat is expected to issue a report that questions the Vatican’s wartime financial dealings. And mounting evidence suggests that plunder from the Ustasha, Croatia’s pro-Nazi fascist government during the war, with the aid of Croatian Catholic priests, made its way to Rome. Some of it was used to help Croatian war criminals flee to South America.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 07:03:47 +0000
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