1/28/99 - German bank made two million euros with stolen Nazi gold
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BONN, Jan 28 (AFP) - Germany"s third largest private bank, the Dresdner Bank, made more than two million euros (2.3 million dollars) profit on gold stolen from Holocaust victims, the daily Die Welt, due out Friday, said.
The daily cited a report by the Hanna-Arendt Institute in the eastern city of Dresden, which was commissioned in 1997 by the bank to look into its activities dring the 1933-45 Nazi period.
The report, handed over to the Dresdner Bank, said the bank had carried out transactions involving some 30 gold ingots belonging to Holocaust victims.
Stefan Lutz, a spokesman for the bank, said only that the bank was "rather disppointed that this affair has leaked out."
Die Welt said that the Deutsche Bank, the largest private bank in the country, admitted last year that it had 323 kilos (710 pounds) of gold from victims of the Nazi regime in its reserves.
It added that Dresdner Bank was expected to decide what to do with the profits from the stolen gold on Friday.
Deutsche Bank may create a fund of several million euros (dollars) to compensate Jewish victims of the Holocaust, the weekly Wirtschaftswoche said Thursday. |
