Soldiering for Freedom: A GI's Account of World War II

Chapter 9. Attending Classes as a Diplomatic Pawn

Chapter 9 258 chapter 9 Attending Classes as a Diplomatic Pawn LARGE WARS have large economic consequences. A war-related, international economic dispute sent me to the University of Geneva in January, 1946. At issue was the disposition of German financial assets that were transferred to banks in neutral Switzerland. Gold bullion looted by the Nazis from central banks in conquered nations—including Belgium and Norway—was transferred by railroad to Swiss banks, where it was used to collateralize purchases of war materiel in other neutral countries. During the conflict’s waning years, rich individuals, as well as industrial behemoths like Krupp, Thyssen, Farben, and Schering, used long-established banking relationships in Switzerland to move large sums out of the Third Reich. The Allies claimed that virtually all German assets in Swiss banks belonged to the victors. They insisted that stolen funds should at the very least be returned to their rightful owners, both government and private. The Swiss disputed these assertions. They claimed that the bullion in the vaults of a nation’s central bank was the legitimate booty of a military victor. Transfers to Swiss banks by long-time customers and old friends were legitimate business transactions in a nonbelligerent nation. While a treaty covering these matters was being negotiated, all U.S. financial assets in Switzerland were blocked and vice versa. The blocked assets caused a coal crisis in Switzerland. For centuries, Germany’s Ruhr Valley had been Switzerland’s chief source of heating fuel. With the Ruhr Valley occupied by Brit- Attending Classes as a Diplomatic Pawn 259 ish and American armies, the Swiss could not purchase the coal required to heat public buildings and private homes. Notwithstanding the importance of the Swiss-British-U.S. banking disagreement, the Allies feared the public-relations repercussions of allowing an obscure financial-diplomatic dispute to make the winter of 1945–1946 harder on the Swiss people than the war years. A quirk in international law saved the day. The accepted rules of war allow military field commanders to make arrangements with local governments for the benefit and safety of their troops that supersede diplomatic treaties and protocols. This legalism was interpreted to mean that American generals could arrange to send GIs to Switzerland on leave and also to send 750 soldiers to study at Swiss universities. The much-needed coal was the “currency” by which the U.S. Army paid for my tuition, room, and board at the University of Geneva. My assignment in Switzerland came about because of the hauteur of Swiss bankers. It anticipated an issue that continues to block Europe’s final reconciliation to the Holocaust’s moral imperative. Jewish organizations are still working to secure full reparations for the descendants of certain Jews who were killed in Nazi death camps and who transferred money to secret Swiss bank accounts before their deportation. Since the identity codes required to claim these secret deposits are lost—and many families were wiped out in their entirety— Swiss banks have been profiting from these funds for sixty years. The banks will continue to profit indefinitely unless further restitution is secured for the descendants of Holocaust victims. Although large sums have been paid during the past decade to Jewish organizations representing Holocaust survivors , Stuart E. Eisenstat, former U.S. ambassador to the European Union, published a book in the summer of 2003 detailing the magnitude of still-unresolved issues. In Switzerland the U.S. Army had no official status. Soldiers were issued visitors’ visas just like ordinary tourists. Rank was not recognized. Privates, sergeants, captains, and majors were all simply American students attending the University of Chapter 9 260 Geneva. Displaying badges of rank on uniforms was discouraged . While in Switzerland, all U.S. soldiers were paid the same, regardless of rank. Only when we returned to France were adjustments made for pay-grade differentials deferred while we were in Geneva. The Swiss assignment was almost like being a civilian. The non-GI environment also extended to living arrangements . We were housed and fed in more than a dozen individual boardinghouses in widely separated neighborhoods of Geneva. The soldier contingent met only at rare formal assemblies in university buildings. I was assigned to the Pension Sergy in suburban Flourissant. Its location forced me to take a streetcar to class each day. Two months in a small Geneva hotel with five other American soldiers and more than a...