'German Treasury aided Nazis more than we thought'

Historians find that money from plundering Jews was channeled through Finance Ministry, raised over 30% of army funds, report says.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
lithuania holocaust 311 (photo credit: German Federal Archive)
lithuania holocaust 311
(photo credit: German Federal Archive)
A commission of historians has discovered that the Finance Ministry in Germany was more involved in Jewish persecution carried out by the Nazis than was previously known, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The Finance Ministry allowed funds from plundering Jews and other enemies to be channeled through its offices and this raised over 30 percent of the funds for the German army during the war, Hans-Peter Ullmann says, a member of the historians' commission investigating the ministry.
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The report released by the commission, which was previewed by Reuters, comes after a book revealed that German diplomats also played a more active role in the persecution of Jews than was previously thought.
Research into the Finance Ministry's past leads right to the core of Adolf Hitler's National Socialist dictatorship, he said in a preliminary report on the commission's work.
Ullmann suggested that the role of the Finance Ministry had not been scrutinized by Germany as much as other factors concerning the Nazi era.
"What was obscured behind that image was the indispensable contribution made by the Reich Finance Ministry towards the functioning, the stability and the criminal policies of the Nazi regime," he said, according Reuters.
The report released by the commission also suggested bondholders of German debt were aware their money was being used to further Nazi goals.