Chasing Gold

October 27, 2014
Former Time magazine staffer Taber (Judgment of Paris) reveals one of WWII’s darkest secrets in this compulsively readable, real-life thriller of how the Nazis funded their war machine. Taber’s meticulous research dates back to a 1966 Time assignment to locate where Belgium’s $204.9 million worth of bank gold ended up during WWII. After opening with a listing of key international players, Taber recounts the surprising 1945 discovery by General Patton’s men of “Room #8,” an underground vault in central Germany crammed with about $9 billion in looted gold and artwork. To achieve self-sufficiency—autarkie—and accomplish Hitler’s objectives of domination required more financing than the Reichsbank could bankroll: after seizing $136 million in bullion from Austria and Czechoslovakia, the Germans had the funds to invade Poland and beyond. Each chapter focuses on a different European country; what emerges is how supposedly “neutral” parties such as Switzerland and Sweden laundered stolen gold. Taber tracks down the pilfered Belgian bullion that originally piqued his interest, yet the trail eventually grows cold, and he acknowledges that some gold remains missing. Those with an interest in war crimes will relish Taber’s masterful reportage and the unearthing of these wartime treasures. Maps and photos.

November 15, 2014

If a crazed ideology motivated the Nazis in their drive for European hegemony, gold was the instrument that Hitler needed to make his dreams a reality. Independent scholar Taber (In Search of Bacchus) provides a detailed account of the German economists--some committed Nazis, and others merely technocrats--who helped Hitler obtain the reserves he needed in his ambition for "autarky" (economic self-sufficiency). Taber also analyzes what happened to the currency during the war. For example, in the summer of 1940, French warships transferred the nation's gold to Casablanca, and from there to Canada and then on to its final destination in a neutral United States. The author examines the policies of then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt as he moved U.S. procedure from New Deal to belligerency. Special attention is given to the discovery and restoration of gold and other currency hidden by the Nazis near the end of the war. VERDICT Taber's title, while not revolutionary in its interpretation, relates the account of World War II from the perspective of gold, something that will attract a variety of readers. However, the author's prose is periodically bogged down under the weight of the details, so that casual readers may lose interest.--Frederic Krome, Univ. of Cincinnati Clermont Coll.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2014
The story of the Nazis' international bank robberies.After World War I, Germany was subject to huge reparations to the Allied victors. High unemployment, inflation and fierce anger over the nation's defeat generated political and social strife that fueled Hitler's rise to power. As former Time editor and reporter Taber (In Search of Bacchus: Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism, 2009, etc.) shows in this crisp, well-documented history, lust for gold was integral to Hitler's military ambitions. In 1933, the Germans had six army divisions, a skeleton air force and only one heavy naval cruiser; by 1939, after raiding Austria and Czechoslovakia, the Nazis had built up their military might to 51 army divisions, including four tank units with 6,000 tanks; 21 air squadrons and 7,000 planes; four battleships, 22 destroyers and four submarines. The nation had also trained and equipped 1.25 million soldiers. Before the invasion of Austria in March 1938, Germany had about $149 million in gold, most in hidden assets. By the end of the war, the Nazis' stores totaled almost $600 million. Once Hitler's rampage began, European nations rushed to safeguard their gold stores by sending bullion abroad, much of it to the United States. By early 1940, the U.S. harbored more than 60 percent of the world's gold. Taber recounts the tense, often frenetic process of secreting these hordes on trains, trucks and boats, sometimes only yards away from the invading Nazis. Some countries, like Norway, succeeded in saving their gold; most did not. Taber emphasizes that "the German war machine would have ground to a halt long before May 1945" without cooperation from Romania, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Sweden for materiel, and especially from Swiss bankers, who eagerly sold the Nazis Swiss francs with which to pay for vital war products. A chilling tale vividly told.

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November 15, 2014
As a result of the hyperinflation that made German currency worthless in the 1920s, officials in the Weimar Republic sought to buttress the currency by building up gold reserves. When the Nazi Party took power in 1933, gold became an obsession, seen as a way to both stabilize the economy and to finance the massive buildup of their war machine. When hostilities commenced, the Nazis sought to systematically loot the bullion of nations they attacked, while governments of these nations, often in a mad rush, sought to move their gold to nations not immediately under threat. Taber is a former reporter and editor with Time magazine. His account is surprisingly exciting as he shows how obscure but, in some cases, heroic individuals were able to move gold to safe havens, especially in the U.S. Yet the Nazis were absolutely voracious in hunting down what remained. Taber asserts that the gold they did obtain was essential in funding the German war effort, aided by the manipulations of Swiss bankers. This is an absorbing examination of an important and rarely covered episode in WWII.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)