Wartime Nazi Government Agencies:

German Legation Stockholm

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Title
German Legation Stockholm

Description
Lars Herman Rasch contacted in 1941 Dr Finke, an official of the German Legation, Stockholm concerning the sale of a Raphael painting, but the transaction did not take place.

During the war, the German Legation in Stockholm acted as a liaison in currency and securities between Germany and Sweden. A 1944 British intelligence report states that the Legation was offering diamonds for sale which, the British believed, to have been stolen from the Dutch State Bank in Holland. Count Von Schwerin, an official of the German Foreign Ministry, visited Stockholm twice a month to sell Dutch diamonds using the diplomatic pouch. The German Foreign Ministry was instrumental in the wartime transfer and sale of looted assets. Separate reports of the Swedish Security Police (Sapo) refer to the sale of stolen diamonds in the same period.

The German Foreign Ministry smuggled gold to German legations abroad. A consignment of gold which had been stored by the top ranking Nazi Ribbentrop was sent to the German Legation in Stockholm.

At least six deliveries of gold bars in crates were made to the Legation by diplomatic pouch between 1944 and 1945, according to Eichler, the Head of Chancery of the Legation.

Sources
Report of 11 August 1944, OSS London, NARA, US National Archives, RG 226, Records of OSS. 190/7/18/05.

Report by Kempner of 28 November 1948 to the American Military Administration in Germany (OMGUS), NARA, National Archives, RG 260, Box 444, 940.65.

Sweden and Jewish Assets. Final Report from the Commission on Jewish Assets in Sweden at the Time of the Second World War, Stockholm 1999 (Sverige och Judarnas tillgŒngar, sou 1999).

The Swedish Final Report is not online.

See also Sweden and Jewish Assets

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