Vatican
Bank Holocaust Litigation
+1
202-318-2406
For Immediate Release October 16, 2014
Pope Paul VI Beatification Overshadowed by Involvement in Nazi
Ratline
Rome: On October 19, 2014, Paul VI (Monsignor Montini) in a solemn
ceremony at the Vatican is to be beatified which is the first step to
sainthood A miracle, the curing of
an unborn baby’s illness, has been attributed to Paul VI. However, Holocaust Victims and their
families from Eastern Europe who are locked in a decade’s long legal dispute
with the Vatican over looted assets from the Second World War, question the
saintliness of the man who as Vatican Secretary of State supervised the infamous
Vatican ratline funded with Holocaust era loot.
The Vatican Ratline was a post war system of escape routes for Nazis
fleeing Europe at the end of the Second World War. The Vatican version was centered at the
Croatian Confraternity of Saint Jerome located in Rome at Via Tomacelli 132 just
a block away from the Tiber River bridge and next to the sprawling Tomb of
Augustus.
The so called “Golden Priest” Fr. Krunoslav Draganovic, the Apostolic
Vistator for Croatian matters, was the chief conductor of the Vatican ratline
whose beneficiaries included major war criminals like Croatian mass murderer
Ante Pavelic who escaped to Argentina in 1947 despite being responsible for the
deaths of 500,000 Serbs, Jews, and Roma. Other ratline escapees included the
Nazi war criminals Klaus Barbie, Josef Mengele and Adolf
Eichman.
The funds that ran the Vatican ratline were obtained from the
treasuries of defeated Axis allies like Croatia, Hungary, and Romania and often
contained victim loot transformed into Church property through a complex scheme
involving deposits at the Vatican Bank.
Since 1998, the Holocaust victims have been seeking an accounting from
the Vatican which has so far successfully resisted on grounds of sovereign
immunity a long running lawsuit in the United States, a more recent EU
Commission inquiry and direct claims lodged with the Vatican Secretariat for the
Economy.
Declassified documents obtained by Holocaust Victims’ attorneys link
Paul VI, then Vatican Secretary of State, to Draganovic and Pavelic. Former US
Special Agent, William Gowen, who investigated the Vatican ratline in Rome
1946-1947, testified that Draganovic was supervised by Montini and that
Draganovic boasted of a clandestine ten truck convoy of looted gold and
valuables that pulled into St. Peter’s Square in 1946 right under the nose of
the Allied authorities. The Holocaust Victim group is seeking an accounting and
restitution of the looted assets used to fund the ratline.
The Holocaust Victims’ lawyers have now released the transcripts of
the entire Gowen deposition in hopes of bringing attention to the case.
According to lead counsel, Dr. Jonathan Levy: “The real miracle is how the
Vatican made countless millions in victim loot and major Nazi war criminals
disappear with apparent impunity.
The Vatican must open its archives once for all.”
William Gowen who as a young Army CIC Special Agent fluent in Italian
infiltrated the ratline and almost captured Pavelic at San Girolamo in 1947,
endured four days of cross examination by Vatican attorneys in 2005 and 2006 and
never wavered from his position.
The deposition in its entirety is now available.
William E W Gowen, Deposition December 12, 2005 Volume I Alperin v. Vatican
Bank
William E W Gowen, Deposition December 13, 2005 Volume II Alperin v. Vatican
Bank
William E W Gowen, Deposition December 14, 2005 Volume III Alperin v. Vatican
Bank
William E W Gowen, Deposition March 9, 2006 Volume IV Alperin v. Vatican
Bank
William E W Gowen, Deposition Exhibits
Declassified Document on Montini’s Meetings with
Pavelic
Appeal to the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy for Restitution of
Roma Property
For
more information contact:
Dr.
Jonathan Levy, Legal Representative for Holocaust Victims
Group
+1
202-318-2406
Jonathan Levy PhD
Attorney & Solicitor
Brimstone & Co.
Attorneys & Solicitors
1629 K Street NW Suite 300
Washington DC 20006 USA
Office 1-202-318-2406
Fax 1-202-318-2406
Direct 1-843-338-8604
chambers@brimstoneandcompany.com
www.brimstoneandcompany.com
Attorney & Solicitor
Brimstone & Co.
Attorneys & Solicitors
1629 K Street NW Suite 300
Washington DC 20006 USA
Office 1-202-318-2406
Fax 1-202-318-2406
Direct 1-843-338-8604
chambers@brimstoneandcompany.com
www.brimstoneandcompany.com
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