Safehaven: The Allied Pursuit of Nazi Assets Abroad

399 Pages·2007·2.27 MB·English

by  Martin Lorenz-meyer

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U M P
Columbia and London
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The Allied Pursuit
of Nazi Assets Abroad
Martin Lorenz-Meyer
Copyright © 2007 by
The Curators of the University of Missouri
University of Missouri Press,Columbia,Missouri 65201
Printed and bound in the United States of America
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1 11 10 09 08 07
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lorenz-Meyer,Martin.
Safehaven :the Allied pursuit of Nazi assets abroad /
Martin Lorenz-Meyer.
p. cm.
Summary:“A detailed study of the development and collapse
of the Safehaven Program initiated by the Federal Economic
Administration,advocated by Treasury Secretary Henry
Morgenthau,and reluctantly supported by Britain and France
that focused on averting post-World War II German aggression
by investigating and confiscating German assets in neutral
countries”—Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8262-1719-6 (hard cover:alk.paper)
1. Safehaven (Program) 2. World War,1939–1945—
Reparations. 3. German property—Foreign countries.
I. Title.
D819.G3L67 2007
940.53(cid:2)1dc22 2006103398
ø™ This paper meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials,Z39.48,1984.
Designer:Kristie Lee
Typesetter:The Composing Room of Michigan,Inc.
Printer and binder:The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group
Typefaces:Adobe Caslon,Helvetica Neue,Edwardian Script
 
I M
Georg-Christian Lorenz-Meyer

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1. Hidden Battles:Economic Warfare during World War II 8
2. The Beginnings of the Safehaven Program,1944 29
3. Safehaven and Reparations:Officials Disagree 67
4. Safehaven and Reparations:The Big Three Decide 95
5. Safehaven and Sweden in 1944 and 1945 125
6. Quo Vadis,Safehaven? 163
7. An Allied Quarrel:How to Approach the Neutral Countries 190
8. Negotiations with Sweden,1946 231
9. Swedish Payments,Liquidation of German Assets,and the
Final Swedish-German Settlement,1946–1956 286
Conclusion 335
Bibliography 345
Index 367

Acknowledgments
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   
but true adage that a study such as this could not
have been completed without the help of others.First,I would like to thank
Theodore A.Wilson at the University of Kansas. It was under his tutelage
that this project first began more than nine years ago,and it would not have
been possible without him.
Various organizations provided necessary funding.Initial research was sup-
ported by an Eddi Jacobson Scholarship for International Studies from the
Harry S.Truman Good Neighbor Award Foundation.Research at the Tru-
man and Franklin D.Roosevelt presidential libraries was supported by grants
from the Harry S.Truman Library Institute and the Franklin and Eleanor
Roosevelt Institute.The Society for Historians of American Foreign Rela-
tions provided support for research in the U.S.National Archives.Archival re-
search in Germany was supported by a German Academic Exchange Service
Research Grant for Ph.D. Candidates, and writing was made possible by a
generous Max Kade Dissertation Fellowship.
During my archival visits,many librarians provided valuable support in lo-
cating and retrieving documents. Dennis Bilger and Elizabeth Safly at the
Truman Library were always ready to help,as was Raymond Teichman at the
Roosevelt Library. Frau Werth-Mühl at the German Federal Archives in
Koblenz helped locate a plethora of documents (enough for another book),
and Herr Dr.Peter Grupp at the Political Archives of the German Foreign
Office in Berlin let me go through uncataloged wartime files of the German
Embassy in Stockholm.
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