The Gnomes of Zurich

On those rare occasions when some of us thought about Switzerland, we saw a democratic oasis in the middle of Europe that was, aside from being a beautiful mountainous country, moral, tolerant and respectful of the truth. We believed it was a country that most people saw as a haven in times of need and that refugees were welcome to enter and stay as long as needed. But these were beliefs that stemmed from political naivete and we have since discovered that those perceptions were a myth perpetuated by the crafty gnomes of Zurich. Today there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary and it all began with World War II in 1940. But before going into the events of that period let’s consider Switzerland as a nation.

As one observer has said: “Switzerland is not a country – it is a defensive alliance.” And the alliance is made up of autonomous people that have their own language and culture. Yet the Swiss confederation does not rely on its so called multiculturalism. That is another myth. There are French, German and Italian cultures within its borders but there is no real bond or tie between them. They are totally diverse. What holds them together is defense against foreigners. But because the Swiss tend to be xenophobic, they refer to foreigners as the “damn foreigners.” Nevertheless, the foreigners do hold the Swiss alliance together as a defense against the outsider. Furthermore, Switzerland is not a state. It is a confederation made up of self-governing cantons. Another point of view is that Switzerland “is not a real country.” “It is a business and it is run like a business.” It is always on the defensive and has been for 700 years. This would tend to explain the secrecy laws of the banking industry which made it a popular depository for stolen goods as well as a turntable for laundering stolen gold and looted art works during the war.


The Swiss also suffer from amnesia. For the Swiss there is no past. In fact they are very adept at suppressing the past. Particularly is this true when the Swiss are accused of involvement in Nazi war crimes. It is interesting that in the field of psychiatry patients are taught through the discipline of cognitive therapy to forget the past. The past is gone and to relive it will only create more anxiety. The Swiss developed this procedure into a tradition and they are experts.

Another myth that the Swiss very skillfully preserved was the myth of neutrality. Outsiders have always identified Switzerland with the perception of neutrality. And this was a very important aspect of the Swiss identity going as far back as 1648. But with the
advent of World War II the myth of Swiss neutrality was eventually destroyed.


The Swiss avoided the destruction of World War II by becoming an integral part of the German economic system, but at the same time maintained its bogus neutrality. In this way it avoided the saturation bombing of the Allies and was able to continue the manufacturing of munitions, optical instruments, precision equipment and other military equipment, all of which was delivered to the German military machine. Then the Swiss bankers acted as “fencing” agents in the exchange of looted gold for Swiss Francs and in this way the Swiss manufacturers received payment for their materiel. At the same time the secret bankers were receiving huge fees for their services. In short the cunning bankers were laundering gold stolen from all the occupied countries of Europe, as well as gold teeth and jewelry taken from Jews in the death camps and stolen art work from the Jewish galleries of Paris. The Germans needed exchange currency to pay for the raw material necessary for the production of arms. The countries that had the required raw materials would not accept looted gold in payment. The Swiss fenced the gold and exchanged it for Swiss Francs. Since the Swiss were “neutral” their currency was accepted everywhere in Europe. The Germans had run out of their own gold reserves by 1940. The looting of gold was the solution, and Swiss cooperation was their salvation. Bank officials of Switzerland saw a tremendous opportunity for huge profits as the intermediary for the Nazis. The gnomes filled with unrestrained greed became the willing puppets for the Wehrmacht. While Europe burned, the bankers were accumulating gold and foreign exchange reserves at an exponential and unbelievable rate. As a word of explanation: Gnomes are little people who live under the surface of the earth and guard its treasures. This is exactly where all the “filthy lucre” is buried in the underground vaults of the banks in Zurich, Basel and Bern. Much of it is still there. After the war the clients were no longer Hitler, Goring or Goebbels but rather Mobutu, Ceausescu, Saddam, Noriega, Suharto and Marcos. The banks are still making exorbitant profits from transfers of capital, looted gold, fencing or laundering. Because of these essentially illegal transactions Switzerland is now the “second richest country in the world.”

When Hitler took power and harassed the Jews, the Jewish people deposited gold, money, jewelry and art works in the secret numbered vaults of the Swiss banks. The assumption was that since the Swiss were neutrals and the accounts were secret, there would be no problem claiming the deposits in the future for either themselves or their survivors. After the war because many of these Jews had been murdered in the camps, there were no death certificates. In order to claim the deposits the Swiss insisted on a death certificate. Since the surviving family members had no proof of the death of their relatives it was not possible to retrieve their wealth. This of course increased the reserves of the bank and added to the monumental Swiss wealth.

Almost immediately after the occupation of France in June 1940 the looting of art by the Germans began in Paris. At that time the art world centered in Paris on the rue de la Boetie in the 8th arrondissement. New York and London were relatively unimportant. The most famous art dealer in Paris was Paul Rosenberg. He had the most impressive collection of modern and impressionistic paintings and was known throughout Europe and America. Picasso lived across the street with his wife.

Hitler made a grand tour of Paris and two days later swept all art owned by Jews into German hands supposedly for “safekeeping”, but in actuality that was one of the many lies employed by Hitler to cover illegal acts, in this case looting. In fact, Hitler set up an organization known as the ERR to find works of art. There were those who did the raiding and collecting aided by art historians and appraisers. They went, of course, immediately to the rue de la Boetie. They seized Paul Rosenberg’s gallery, the Rothschild collection, the David David-Weill collection, the Schloss collection of Dutch painters among many others owned by Jews.

Both Hitler and Goring had a passion for the “Old Masters” and considered modern and impressionistic paintings degenerate art. However, they recognized the value of these paintings and by confiscating them they were able to ship them to Switzerland to exchange for Swiss Francs. Or they used them to buy Old Masters from Swiss dealers. The most famous art of the Old Masters was in the Rothschild collection and that was plundered by the ERR. Some was sent to Hitler’s private museum and some went to Goring’s personal collection in his hunting lodge.

The ERR used the Musee Jeu de Paume in the Tuilleries Garden for storage of looted paintings. A staff catalogued and appraised the tremendous amount of art work that fell into their hands. Some went to Germany for Hitler’s collection and the modern works were kept for exchange or sale. Goring had access to the Jeu de Paume and visited there frequently taking paintings for exchange, e.g. Van Gogh, Degas, Cezanne, Renoir, Monet, Matisse, Modigliani, Leger, Braque, Picasso and many others. Most of these went to the Swiss for fencing and for some their whereabouts are still unknown. Some paintings were deposited in the secret vaults and others were sold immediately to galleries and private collectors. The laws of Switzerland protected the buyer of stolen art. If a collector buys art in good faith, after five years even if it was stolen to begin with, it belongs to the buyer. On the other hand, if a Swiss dealer finds that he has in his possession a stolen painting and the original owner discovers the painting he must pay the dealer the value of the painting before he can repossess it. Trying to reclaim the art work through the courts was not very successful either because by 1945 much of the art had been in possession of the buyer for at least five years.

Paris was liberated in Aug.1944 and by that time it had been the most plundered in all of Western Europe. One third of all the art in private collections had been stolen. Tens of thousands of art works were looted and many of these are still missing. One of the more interesting sagas is the pillaging of the Rothschild family collections which included over 5000 works of art. The Nazis looked upon the Rothschild collections as the most noted and important works in France. The Rothschilds were an “aristocratic dynasty” that came to Paris in 1800. James established the French branch. By 1940 there were three branches of the family headed by Baron Edouard, Baron Robert and Baron Edmund. Banking was the family’s main occupation but it also controlled French and European railroads, Russian oil, Bordeaux vineyards and a number of racing stables.

As for the art collection Baron Edouard’s contained the most works including Vermeer’s Astronomer, Boucher’s Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour, Raphael’s Man With A Red Hat, several Rubens, one Titian and two Watteaus among others. Baron Robert’s collection was not as large but most important including such pieces as Jan Van Eyck triptych, Virgin and Child with Saints and Donors ( it is presently in the Frick collection in New York), and Rembrandt’s The Standard Bearer among others.

The Rothschilds had no idea of the kind of plundering that eventually occurred but were more afraid of bombardment at the start of the war. Therefore they packed up the collections and sent them to chateaus that they owned in the rural areas of France. Other portions of the collection were stored in the Louvre with the cooperation of the Director of the French National Museums. Then the families left Paris. Edouard went to the U.S. Robert followed. A British cousin, Henri, had his very special collection of Chardins shipped to the City of Bath in England. All of those who resided in Paris lost their French citizenship and all their possessions were confiscated.

The ERR went immediately to work to locate the Rothschild incredible collections with true German efficiency and vigor and they managed to locate most of the hidden art still packed in crates. They were then put on Goering’s personal train in 1941 and 19 crates went to Hitler and the rest to Goering. These crates contained the most prized of the collection. There were some items that escaped the ERR in Paris. Baron Robert had built a secret room in his residence before WWI. The room was sealed and the walls whitewashed and then hidden behind huge armoires. The house was used by Luftwaffe officers during the occupation as a residence with no idea of the treasures stored there. The hidden art remained safe until the liberation. Most of the collections were either sitting in air raid shelters in Munich or in ERR warehouses. They were never opened. The American Army eventually found them. One positive thing about all this was the fact that the collections were pretty much kept together and not sold and scattered. They were intended for Hitler and Goering and they wanted the collections intact. So it was relatively easy to track down the works after the war and were eventually returned to France with very little loss or damage.

After the war Paul Rosenberg discovered that many of his paintings were in the hands of Emil G. Buhrle, the largest armaments manufacturer in Switzerland. He had made a fortune providing the Nazis with military equipment. He was also one of the biggest buyers of looted art in Switzerland the source being the Fischer Gallery. This Swiss gallery had a direct connection to the Nazi looters. After a personal interview with Buhrle and much negotiation with the Swiss government, Rosenberg was forced to sue Buhrle and Fischer to recover his paintings. He had the good fortune to win the case in the Swiss courts and for the most part got his paintings back. Many others have not been so fortunate. However, Rosenberg, at Buhrle’s request, did allow Buhrle to buy back the paintings that he had in his possession. They are today exhibited at Buhrle’s foundation. The catalogues of these Swiss collections in most cases do not give an accurate history of the paintings, concealing the fact that they were confiscated by the Nazis during the war. Another example of Swiss amnesia.

References:
Feliciano, Hector. The Lost Museum. BasicBooks, 1997.
Silva, Daniel. The English Assassin, Signet. 2003.
Ziegler, Jean. The Swiss, the Gold, and the Dead. Penguin. 1998.