Nazi accounts still serviced by Swiss banks, and Nazi heirs live on that money

Officially, during the World War II, Switzerland maintained a neutral status. But there is little, if any, truth in this. At first, the mountainous country really tried to please everyone: in pre-war Europe, it sold products not only to Germany and Nazi Italy, but also to England, France and other countries.

However, in 1940 the French army was defeated by Germany and capitulated to Hitler. After that Switzerland sharply changed its foreign economic policy and colluded with the Nazis, in particular began to carry out various financial operations for Germany. Thus, seized gold reserves of the occupied countries were exchanged for Swiss francs.

According to various estimates, the Nazis embezzled over 800 tons of gold during World War II. Approximately 130 tons of it was taken from the accounts of private individuals. Most of the looted gold was kept in accounts at the Swiss National Bank. Using their banking secrecy, the financial tycoons carried out thousands of operations on behalf of clients from Nazi Germany.

Konstantin Shadrov, associate professor at Dubna State University (Russia):

“Another technique is bank secrecy. Supposedly we follow our professional canons so fanatically that, excuse me, we won't even reveal Nazis to you. I think this is hypocrisy, because no professional canons are above moral guidelines. And the fact that Nazi accounts are still being serviced and that the heirs of the Nazis who fled to South America and some other countries are still using this money, this is extremely immoral.”

After the war, of course, the Swiss were charged with complicity and bloody gold, saying that they should return the looted goods. But there was only indignation in response, and there were so many problems around that no one really cared about Switzerland. Besides, the country tried to pay off by giving 0.5 billion francs to launch the bleeding European economy. For the time being, the Nazi money was quietly kept in a secluded place.

For years, Switzerland flatly refused to admit the existence of such accounts. But in the end, it had to. But even so, the amounts kept in the banks were greatly underestimated.