Interagency Working Group (IWG)

List of Terms, Code, etc.

This list is supplied by the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group (IWG). It is to be used by agencies in the course of activities undertaken to meet he requirements of the Act and E. O. 13110. It is intended to assist agencies in identifying records that may be relevant to the Act. Periodically, the IWG will revise and update the list. Included are names of organizations, places, things, programs, operations and other terms relating to war criminals, criminality, and assets looted, taken, and found. Agencies are encouraged to submit other terms (classified and unclassified) for consideration as additions to the list to the IWG Staff via David Van Tassel, IWG Staff, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 8601 Adelphi Road, Room 6350, College Park, MD 20740; (301) 837-3078; Fax: (301) 837-1919; e-mail: david.vantassel@nara.gov

SUBJECT/TERM/
DESIGNATOR
DESCRIPTION
Ahnenerbe Organization Created by Heinrich Himmler as an SS "research foundation." During the war the organization looted scientific collections and libraries, archival material, archaeological artifacts, and miscellaneous works of art.
ALSOS Code name for Allied mission made up of special intelligence forces who sought information on German developments in nuclear fission.
Alt-Aussee Salt Mine Large salt mine in Austria where the Allies uncovered a significant collection of looted art and other cultural treasures.
Argentine Blue Book Printed memorandum entitled "Consultation Among the American Republics With Respect to the Argentine Situation" (commonly known as the "Argentine Blue Book" because of the color of its cover), resulting from an October 1945-February 1946 Department of State effort to examine the collaboration of Argentina with the Axis.
Art Looting Investigation Unit Established within the Office of Strategic Services in November 1944, this unit was responsible for collecting and disseminating information bearing on the looting, confiscation, and transfer by the enemy of art properties. Final Report issued in 1946.
ASHCAN Code name for holding and interrogation center, Spa Belgium, for leading Nazis and German military officials.
Assets Bank accounts, insurance policies, diamonds, gems and jewels, art work, cultural property, patents, trademarks, copyrights, securities, gold, archives.
BACKPORCH Code name for the holding and interrogation center near Bad Kissengen for scientists and industrialists.
Camp King Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) interrogation center established at a former German POW camp located near Oberursel (Frankfort).
Central Collecting Points Operated by the U.S. Army and later by the State Department to control and restitute property. Most well- known were the CCPs located in Wiesbaden, Offenbach, Munich, and Marburg in Germany, and Salzburg in Austria.
CROWCASS Acronym for "Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects."
DUSTBIN Code name for the holding and interrogation center near Frankfurt for German scientists and industrialists
Econic Office of Strategic Services term for economic and financial intelligence, some of which is of Safehaven Program interest.
Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) Organization financed by the Nazi Party to confiscate libraries, archives, and art works.
Foreign Exchange Depository Operated after the war in Frankfurt, Germany, by the U.S. Army; responsible for the disposition of recovered gold, currencies, and other assets
Gehlen Organization

A German-based intelligence-gathering operation, partly funded by the United States, that from 1946 to 1955 provided its findings to U.S. intelligence officials. It was headed by a former German General, Reinhard Gehlen.

German External Property Commission (GEPC) Established in October 1945 to assume control of all German property outside of Germany.
Inter-Allied Commission for the Protection and Restitution of Cultural Materia Also known as the Vaucher Commission, this organization was engaged in identification and restitution of art works and other cultural property.
Inter-Allied Reparation Agency (IARA) Established in 1946 to handle German external assets, German reparations, and the restitution of monetary gold.
JRSO Jewish Restitution Successor Organization; coordinated the restitution of Jewish properties.
Kunstschutz The German Commission for the Protection of Works of Art in the Occupied Countries (under direction of the German Army High Command).
Melmer (Melmer Gold or Loot) Gold or loot taken from Jewish victims and taken to the Reichsbank in Berlin by SS officer Bruno Melmer.
Merkers Mine Salt mine in Germany where the Allies recovered the German gold reserves, art works, and SS loot taken from victims in the concentration camps.
Operation APPLEPIE Code name for project to locate and interrogate key German personnel of RSHA AMT VI (Chief of Security Hqtrs.) and members of the German Army Staff who were knowledgeable about Soviet industrial and economic matters.
Operation BLOODSTONE Project to recruit and utilize personnel in Eastern Europe to foster anti-Communism.
Operation DWINDLE Code name for the project to recruit German cryptology personnel.
Operation ECLIPSE Post-hostility plans for Germany (superseded Operation RANKIN and Operation TALISMAN).
Operation GOLDCUP Allied code name for SHAEF efforts for locating and collecting Third Reich records and government ministerial personnel.
Operation GRAB BAG a Counter Intelligence Corps operation in 1946, to break up an underground escape route being used by former SS troops escaping from Germany.
Operation HARBORAGE Code name for a project that was a part of the ALSOS Mission.
Operation LIFEBUOY 7TH Army CIC operation in support of de-Nazification operations in U.S. Zone to remove Nazis from public employment.
Operation NURSEY a Counter Intelligence Corps operation, ca. 1946, that was a covert, long-range penetration of those subversive organizations that aimed to keep alive the National Socialist idea.
Operation PAJAMAS Code name for the project to recruit German bio-chemical experts.
Operation PANHANDLE Code name for the project to recruit German ex-military intelligence personnel.
Operation SPARKLER Joint United States British effort in 1946 to locate any gold, silver, or jewels that had been missed after the initial occupation of Germany.
Operation TALLY HO a Counter Intelligence Corps operation in July 1945, to speed up the apprehension of Nazi war criminals.
Orion Project Office of Strategic Services-led effort in 1945-1946 to investigate Axis looting, confiscation, and disposal of art properties.
Paris Conference on Reparations Allied Conference in 1945-1946 to decide the disposition of monetary (i.e., central bank) gold looted by the Germans.
Pauley Reparation Mission U.S. Mission in 1945 led by Presidential Special Assistant Edwin W. Pauley to participate in Allied Reparation Commission activities.
PROCLAIMED List List of companies suspected of dealing with Germany or associated countries that potentially connect them to war crimes. Canada and Great Britain also had such lists; e.g., British "blacklist."
Project ALEXANDER Project established to analyze captured German records from WW II.
Project BIRCHWOOD Program to recruit "economic experts" from within Germany and Eastern Europe.
Project CREDULITY Project involving recruitment of German scientists--see PAPERCLIP.
Project OVERCAST See Project PAPERCLIP.
Project PAPERCLIP Project to identify, collect, recruit, and bring German scientists and technologists to the United States.
Project SPARKLER See Operation SPARKLER
Ratline(s) Escape-and-evasion routes in a denied area, or during time of war, in enemy or enemy-held, territory; frequently associated with specific routes and activities in eastern and southern Europe during the late 1940's and with Spanish activities and routes during and subsequent to WW II
Roberts Commission Formally known as the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historical Monuments in War Areas, the Roberts Commission, 1942-1945, was engaged in, among other things, the identification of looted works of art and cultural property.
SAFEHAVEN Program Program aimed at eradicating Nazi influence and recovering Nazi Germany's plunder and assets
SAUERKRAUT OSS project to recruit German POW's to provide intelligence information
Special Interrogation Mission to Germany Department of State mission, led by DeWitt C. Poole, to Germany, August 1945-January 1946, to interrogate former German government officials.
Tripartite Gold Commission (TGC) Established in September 1946 to control monetary gold recovered by the Allies and/or received from neutral nations and to provide for the return of the gold to claimant nations. The TGC, composed of representatives of the United States, Great Britain, and France, was disbanded in September 1998.
Utasha Regime A Croatian nationalist terrorist organization established in Zagreb under Ante Pavelic. Accumulated vast amounts of valuables stolen from dispossessed and deported Jews.
Washington Accord 1946 agreement between the Allies and the Swiss and Swedes regarding the disposition of Nazi looted gold and German external assets.

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