Operation Safehaven (Q16919720)

1944 WWII Allied operation to block the flow of German capital and assets through neutral countries in order to make it impossible for Germany to start another war

Language	Label	Description	Also known as
English	Operation Safehaven	1944 WWII Allied operation to block the flow of German capital and assets through neutral countries in order to make it impossible for Germany to start another war

Statements

instance of

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May 1944

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stated in

The OSS and Project SAFEHAVEN

reference URL

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/summer00/art04.html

quotation

The origins of SAFEHAVEN are to be found in two memorandums sent from the FEA to the Departments of State and Treasury on 5 and 17 May 1944, proposing an interagency program to track down and block German assets in neutral and nonbelligerent countries throughout Europe and the Americas.1 The fear was that the German political and economic leadership, sensing defeat, would act to transfer secretly blocs of industrial and fiscal capital to neutral countries, thereby escaping confiscation and the reparations bill. If this happened, German economic and industrial power would be largely intact and would act as a power base from which an unrepentant German leadership could build a resurgent Fourth Reich in 20 years. The military defeat of Germany thus would again be meaningless. (English)

facet of

anti-money laundering

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point in time

December 1944

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participant

United States of America

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United Kingdom

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Office of Strategic Services

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depicted by

Appendix: U.S. and Allied Efforts To Recover and Restore Gold and Other Assets Stolen or Hidden by Germany During World War II

1 reference

reference URL

https://archive.org/details/U.S.AndAlliedEffortsToRecoverAndRestoreGoldAndOtherAssetsStolenOrHiddenByGermanyDuringWorldWarII/page/n211

The OSS and Project SAFEHAVEN

1 reference

reference URL

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/summer00/art04.html

A Nazi's Trail Leads to a Gold Cache in Brazil

1 reference

reference URL

http://web.archive.org/web/20100224022047/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/23/world/a-nazi-s-trail-leads-to-a-gold-cache-in-brazil.html

quotation

As Defeat Loomed, Nazis Hid LootIf the ''final solution'' was the industrialized murder of European Jewry, the looting of the dead was no less systematic.From August 1942 to late 1944, the Nazi SS organized scores of shipments -- of currency, jewelry and gold teeth -- from death camps to the Reichsbank in Berlin, the journalist Ladislas Farago wrote in his 1974 book, ''Aftermath: Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich'' (Simon & Schuster). At one point, he wrote, some 30 clerks were needed to sort and repackage the valuables.With defeat imminent, senior German officials began hiding looted property in foreign accounts as part of a vast operation that the Allies code-named Safe Haven. Some of that money helped finance Odessa, an underground railroad for Nazi officials who were fleeing Germany and expected arrest. (English)