The U.S. allowed Nazi Germany to transfer stolen gold worth $20 million through New York City to Argentina during World War II before clamping down on the practice, a German weekly said Wednesday.
Die Woche said documents in the U.S. National Archive also showed Swiss banks transferred $128 million to their New York branches in the first eight months of the war. Some of this belonged to Jewish refugees and some was from Nazi sources.
The U.S. froze assets moved from Germany, Switzerland and Nazi-occupied Europe on June 14, 1941, but $229 million in Jewish assets had already entered the country.
Die Woche said U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau authorized the transfer of $20 million of French gold reserves in New York to Argentina in June 1940.
