Chapter 16
Ernst Brunner returned to his desk after seeing the pair from the British Legation to the door where his man awaited to escort them out.
No visitors roamed at will in the building, and the bank took the matter of security seriously.
The vault in the basement that stored their wealthy clients’ safe deposit boxes containing gold, valuables, and documents was protected by thick steel doors and was unbreachable.
It housed years of what they referred to as the bank’s sensitive files, stuffed with gold transfer documents and Reichsbank correspondence.
If the Allies won the war and got even a glimpse of those damning documents, it would all be over for the prestigious bank his grandfather had founded.
Ernst and his father had worked so hard to preserve the great man’s legacy, and the thought of it crashing down in a cloud of shame under his custody horrified him.
The image cast a shadow over the rest of the day, and he tried to push it back into the dark recesses of his mind, but it kept rearing its ugly head.
Ernst had done business with Pemberton many times, but he’d only met the young woman once before at the Stalder reception.
There was something about her that had caught his attention, and he wondered whether she might be someone he could trust. Taking his pipe out of the desk drawer, he lit it and poured himself another schnapps to ease his unrest. The signed contracts signified a tidy chunk of profitable business for the bank, and he sat back in his large comfortable chair and drew on his pipe.
The aroma of tobacco filled the room, and his thoughts circled back to the impressive British woman who handled herself impeccably and made the signing of the contracts seem effortless.
Pemberton’s previous translator had been efficient, but this woman was outstanding.
She was the type he would hire for his administrative staff without a second thought, but one couldn’t go poaching diplomatic staff, and besides, she had permission to work in Switzerland purely because of her role at the Legation.
Draining his glass in one gulp, Ernst considered how he might engineer another meeting with Miss Gale.
Ever since the Germans surrendered at Stalingrad, he’d had a nasty feeling in his stomach that he had backed the wrong horse.
Not that working closely with the Germans had been a conscious decision.
Swiss banking culture was famous for its confidentiality and fuelled by gold transactions regardless of their source.
Their origin typically went unquestioned.
Early in the war, Swiss bankers, driven by greed and profit, had made an unspoken agreement to continue trading with Germany just as they always had.
He had told himself it was purely the mechanics of Swiss finance, and it wasn’t his business to question those who made large gold deposits.
The truth was Brunner the Germans had stolen the gold reserves from the national banks of occupied countries—the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Austria.
Norway and Poland evacuated their reserves in time, and in Poland the looting came from Jewish private assets and the theft from concentration camp victims themselves.
The Germans melted gold jewellery and fillings into Reichsbank ingots and mixed them with central bank gold to disguise the source. Swiss bankers rode the wave and simply chose to ignore the warnings.
Ernst’s son was a good boy who would inherit his share of the bank.
He was mentoring him to take over when it came his day to retire, but for now the boy was serving in the Swiss army.
If it weren’t for the war, he would have completed his mandatory military service by now and be working in the bank alongside his father, but every man of fighting age had to do his duty to defend Switzerland’s neutrality.
The boy had asked some awkward questions about the German gold during a conversation when he was on leave.
Evading telling him what was really happening had forced Ernst to confront the truth, and he was ashamed to admit to his son what the bank was doing, so he didn’t.
The Swiss had been relieved when the fear of a German invasion decreased after Hitler’s initial threats to occupy them.
Nazi Germany needed Switzerland to launder its guilty gold, and this need kept them at bay.
It had been a win-win situation for the Swiss and the Germans.
Until recently. Ernst was brooding more and more on the very real consequences of what he had facilitated if the Nazis were to lose the war.
He had broached the subject with his partner, Franz Hauser, several times, but he changed the subject.
Ernst explained to him that they had time to consider taking certain actions that would protect the future of the bank, should the Allies indeed win the war which seemed increasingly likely, but his appeal fell on deaf ears.
Greed was a powerful emotion, and with a sinking feeling, Ernst had accepted the fact that he must act alone.
He couldn’t confide in his partner as he no longer trusted him not to betray him with such a dangerous secret.
German counterintelligence had ears and eyes everywhere, and if Ernst was to find a way to protect the future of Brunner & Cie, he must operate with great stealth and choose his next steps wisely.
Swiss counterintelligence agents were as dangerous as the Germans, for different reasons.
Ernst knew their focus was to protect the illusion of Swiss neutrality at all costs, and they wouldn’t look kindly upon a banker taking things into his own hands to reveal the scale of the country's collaboration with Germany. The Swiss government was on a knife-edge and would be desperately scrambling to create a fictional post-war narrative that would cast them in a favourable light should the Allies win. If Switzerland’s banking empire were to survive and prosper after the war, they must avoid a great reckoning of their despicable laundering of the Nazi looting operation.
Ernst’s pipe had fizzled out whilst he was lost in thought, and now he tapped it and laid it down on the desk.
The morning meeting had helped calm his confused mind, and he resolved to find a way to connect with Miss Gale again soon.
A junior Legation employee, unlikely to attract attention, could be the perfect solution to his dilemma.
It was a risk he was prepared to take to save his bank and secure his family’s future.
As he left the building and crossed town for his lunch meeting, his step was lighter than it had been in some time.