The Swiss, the gold, and the dead

Startling revelations that Switzerland helped to bankroll Nazi Germany's war effort, as well as Swiss intransigence in the face of redress claims by Holocaust survivors, have shaken Switzerland's international reputation. In this uncompromising account, leading Swiss sociologist Jean Ziegler closely examines the shady relationship between Swiss bankers and Nazi Germany. What emerges is a scathing indictment that shatters the myth of Swiss neutrality during World War II. Based on records of the German Armaments Ministry and other official documents, The Swiss, the Gold, and the Dead shows how Swiss financial institutions provided Hitler 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 return, Switzerland was spared the depredations 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.