(Smith 11). It had obviously been waiting to be shipped out of the country and into the bank’s branches in Africa (Smith 11). When asked why they took Luxembourg’s property, the Reichsbank officials replied that, “‘…officials of the Sparkasse Luxembourg [Luxembourg’s Central Bank] did accept payment in Reichsmarks offered them [for the gold].’” (Smith 11) In other words, the Reichsbank considered its actions to be completely legal (Smith 11). Belgium, on the other hand, seemed much luckier. After France received the little country’s gold reserves, she immediately shipped them over to her West African colonies (Smith 11). Unfortunately, this did not stop Germany from bringing it all back to France. Yet, it took the Reichsbank many months to trace all of the gold hidden in numerous other countries by France (Smith 12). It seems that Italy lost its gold to the Reichsbank through Germany’s treachery and deceit (Smith 25). In September of 1943, German forces formed a transport to carry Italy’s gold and assets to Milan, where Mussolini’s Fascist republic had been created and established (Smith 25). The gold was later moved to La Fortezza, a fortified citadel in Italy, in December of 1943 (Smith 25). At this point, Azzolini, the governor of the Banca d’Italia, or the Bank of Italy, was sure that the gold had been given to the Germans for the sole reason of safekeeping. Germany remembers otherwise; the Nazis claimed to have negotiated with the Italian bank as to the purpose of the gold (Smith 25). In their own words, “‘…the German government was to take the gold of the Banca d’Italia as Italy’s ‘contribution’ to the war on the eastern front.’” (Smith 25) The gold was later moved to a final destination where Hitler could put it to “good use”: Berlin (Smith 25). Many nations in the course of...
