Newly examined documents show that Sweden received far more gold from Nazi Germany than was previously known and appeared unconcerned that the gold might have been looted, Swedish media reported Tuesday.
After World War II, Sweden examined gold it had received from the Nazis in payment for exports and returned about 14 tons that presumably had been looted to Belgium and the Netherlands.But a new investigation shows that Sweden received about 38 tons of gold from the Nazis, according to a report on Swedish radio and in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
The report was written by radio reporter Goeran Elgemyr and former ambassador Sven Fredrik Hedin, who cited documents in Swedish, Swiss and American archives.
Their investigation was separate from a probe launched in late December by the Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, to see if any looted Nazi gold remained in the bank's reserves.
Riksbank spokesman Michael Wallin said the bank could not comment on the report's conclusion, pending the completion of its own investigation, but "we are going to do everything we can to clear this up."
Most of the gold believed to have been looted by the Nazis - from occupied countries, from private holdings, even from fillings on the teeth of concentration camp victims - is believed to have ended up in Switzerland, but some went to other neutral countries.
According to Tuesday's report, then-Riksbank director Ivar Rooth wrote a memorandum in 1943 saying he had discussed with Trade Minister Hermann Eriksson the possibility that the gold Sweden received or might receive from Germany had been looted.
The trade minister answered that "the government unanimously had the view that sufficient grounds did not exist to take up the matter for discussion."
Rooth's memo was written after Britain and other Allied countries warned Sweden that the gold it was getting from Germany could be tainted, the report said.
The report comes as pressure has increased on Sweden and Switzerland to make a complete accounting of gold they received from the Nazis. The Riksbank said last year that it had no evidence that any looted gold was still in its reserves, but it reopened the question after once-secret British documents were released with new information about Nazi plundering.
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Citizenship offer?
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has called for an investigation into claims that former President Juan Peron offered Argentine citizenship to about 8,000 fugitive Nazis.
In a letter to Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella, the center asked the government to look into the allegations made by Pedro Bianchi, the lawyer for former SS Capt. Erich Priebke.
In an interview on Monday, Bianchi, a legal adviser to the foreign ministry in the late 1940s, said 2,000 Nazis took up Peron's offer and settled in Argentina.