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(Excerpts)
Business Week
January 24, 2000
SECTION: NEWS; Analysis & Commentary: LAWSUITS; Number 3665; Pg. 52
HEADLINE: DID NAZI LOOT END UP AT THE VATICAN BANK?
BYLINE: By Michelle Conlin in New York with bureau reports
HIGHLIGHT:
Balkan victims level new allegations
With the recent publication of the scathing indictment of Pope Pius XII, the
bestselling Hitler's Pope, the Eternal City has been bombed with bad publicity
of late. More is on the way. A recently filed lawsuit alleges that during
Hitler's reign, the Vatican Bank received at least 200 million Swiss francs from
Hitler's wartime puppet Ustasha regime -- money the Nazi collaborators allegedly
looted from Jews, Ukranians, Serbs, and others. This opens up the possibility
that after the Swiss banks, the Vatican Bank could be the next big target.
The suit relies on once-classified documents from various countries that
have been made public in recent years, as well as a 1998 U.S. government report
issued by Commerce Under Secretary Stuart Eizenstat. Some of the report's most
damning evidence appears in a 1946 intelligence memo from a U.S. Treasury agent
named Emerson Bigelow who states that Swiss francs were ''held in the Vatican
for safekeeping.'' Two U.S. Presidential commissions are set to release new
information, which could shed light on Vatican activities.
Father Remi Huckmann, the Vatican's executive secretary for the Holy See's
Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, told BUSINESS WEEK he had no
knowledge of the case. The Vatican has consistently denied allegations of
receiving Nazi gold and said its internal review showed no trace of such funds.
One of the reasons the Vatican has been criticized is that it refuses to
open its archives as others have done. But the Vatican is eager to resolve the
controversy over the beatification of Pope Pius XII, who some scholars say could
have done more to avert the Holocaust. In November, it finally appointed a new
panel of Jewish and Christian scholars to review already published materials.
But, says Jewish panelist Michael Marrus of the University of Toronto, ''until
there is full disclosure you are likely to see lawsuits.''
Much hinges on whether the Vatican will release its archives. Until then,
survivors won't let it rest.