Bank of England helped sell looted Nazi gold
The Bank of England played a vital role in one of the darkest episodes in central banking history, facilitating the sale of gold looted by the Nazis after their invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938.
According to a hitherto unpublished history of the BoE’s activities in and around the Second World War, the U.K.’s central bank sold gold on behalf of the Reichsbank – which Germany’s central bank had seized from its Czech counterpart – after the U.K. government had frozen all Czech assets held in Britain following the Nazi invasion.
In March 1939, gold valued at the time at £5.6-million ($8.8-million) was transferred from the National Bank of Czechoslovakia’s account at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the so-called central bankers’ bank, to an account managed on behalf of the Reichsbank.
The episode has long weighed on the reputation of the BIS. However, what has received less attention is the role of the BoE in the affair. What emerges from the history, which appeared on the BoE’s website on Tuesday, is that the U.K.’s central bank prioritized the appeasement of the BIS over the British government’s wishes to freeze the sale of Czech assets.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/european-business/bank-of-england-helped-sell-looted-nazi-gold/article13497849/
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