Vatican Faces Lawsuit for Alleged Nazi-Era War Crimes
By Patrick Goodenough
CNS London Bureau Chief
23 November, 1999

London (CNSNews.com) - Ukrainian victims of Nazi-era war crimes are filing a class-action lawsuit against the Vatican and a monastic Catholic order, whom they accuse of hoarding gold stolen by wartime fascists in the Balkans.

An American lawyer representing one of the plaintiff organizations told CNSNews.com the plaintiffs hoped the case would force the Vatican to reveal the participation of Catholic clergy and officials in war crimes, including help given to Nazis wanting to flee Europe. Jonathan Levy said from Ohio it was hoped the lawsuit would trigger suits by other victims of the pro-Nazi Ustashe ('Resurrection") regime that ruled Croatia during the Second World War.

In recent years the Vatican has refused appeals by Jewish groups to open its archives, after newly-unclassified wartime documents claimed the Vatican had taken possession of gold worth more than one hundred million dollars, confiscated from victims of the Ustashe.

The new suit was filed in a California court last week by two Ukrainian organizations, the Ukrainian Union of Nazi Victims and Prisoners and the Organization of Antifascist Resistance Fighters, representing more than 300,000 Ukrainian victims of the Nazis and Ustashe.

Apart from the Vatican Bank, the suit also names as defendant the Franciscan religious orders, which the applicants claim "conducted illicit financial transactions with the cooperation of defendant banks [after the war] in order to conceal the Ustashe Treasury for the benefit of Ustashe and Nazi war criminals for the purpose of evading capture and trial by war crimes tribunals and to attempt to preserve the Ustashe regime as a government in exile."

Levy conceded that the Ukrainians had the smallest claim on the Ustashe hoard allegedly held by the Vatican, and said negotiations were underway with organizations representing other victims.

"The Ukrainian claim is a small claim - the tip of the iceberg. We hope the lawsuit will be amended soon to include Yugoslav [veterans'] groups and Jewish groups [in the Balkans]," he said.

"The Vatican Bank claims may turn out to be as large as claims against Swiss banks. In fact, the figures may be much higher." Levy said apart from the "fiscal aspect," victims felt the need to get to the truth - "the chapter needs to be closed."

He said the main legal issue now related to whether the San Francisco court would take jurisdiction. He said it was noteworthy that a senior Ustashe war criminal had resisted extradition from California for 30 years, until finally sent for trial in 1986. During those 30 years he had spent "huge sums in legal fees" fighting extradition. "We have suspicions as to where the money may have come from."

In one of the less well-known atrocities of the war, between 700,000 and 900,000 people - mostly Serbs, but also Jews, gypsies and moderate Croats - died at the hands of the Ustashe regime, which allegedly sought to cleanse Croatia of non-Catholics. The Nazis allowed their Ustashe allies to keep the loot stolen from their victims, and the fascists in Croatia built up a huge treasury.

The Ukrainian claim relates to the fact the Ustashe also participated in the systematic Nazi looting of occupied Ukraine. U.S. Treasury documents declassified in 1997 claimed that after the war, the Vatican safeguarded millions of dollars of assets, mostly gold coins, looted by the Ustashe.

The amount kept by the Vatican was reportedly estimated at 200 million Swiss francs, worth some $170 million today. Accumulated interest would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars more. The Vatican rejected the allegations at the time, saying they were based on an anonymous source and could therefore not be relied upon.

The Treasury documents included a Oct. 1946 memo from Treasury agent Emerson Bigelow, who quoted "a reliable source in Italy" - apparently an American intelligence operative - as saying the Ustashe had taken 350 million Swiss francs looted in Yugoslavia out of the country after the fall of Nazi Germany. It said 150 million Swiss francs had been impounded by British authorities at the Austria-Swiss border and the balance was held in the Vatican.

Vatican officials in Croatia allegedly collaborated closely with the Ustashe. Pope John Paul, who has made reconciliation between the church and the Jews a key pillar of his papacy, caused a storm last year when he beatified Zagreb Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac.

Jews and Serbs said Stepinac collaborated with the Ustashes; Catholic supporters said he had initially backed the regime, but later withdrew his support because of the mass executions and forced conversions of Orthodox Christians to Catholicism. Stepinac eventually died under house arrest after being sentenced to life imprisonment for collaboration by the postwar communists.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center says the Vatican set up 22 committees after the war to help Nazis escape from Europe, and claims the gold looted by the Croats may have been used to finance the operation, known as the "rat-line." Among those who escaped was Ustashe leader Ante Pavelic, who made his way to Latin America using papers allegedly provided by the Vatican, and disguised as a Catholic priest.

In 1997, the center broached the matter during a brief audience with the Pope, and also asked senior Vatican officials to open its archives to allow research into allegations of complicity with the Nazis.

The Vatican refused, the SWC said. SWC Jerusalem office head Ephraim Zuroff told CNSNews.com Monday the center "hasn't changed its stance. But what can be done? The Vatican isn't exactly the most transparent agency around."