In talking about terrorism, conflict diamonds, et al., how is it that no one mentions, let alone even bothers to talk about, Holocaust diamonds and other precious stones that are in the marketplace these days?

Where did all those diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and better pieces of finished jewelry go—and who owns them today?

What about those Swiss banks, as well as South American banks, whose private vaults are owned by number-bearing Odessa members as well as German nationals who are former or new-age Nazis? [The vaults] contain loose stones and finished jewelry or ingots made from confiscated gold taken from Jews and other people deemed unfit by the Nazi empire. [They] are rarely if ever opened and were paid for up front for 100-year terms. These should be opened and their contents returned to Israel or destroyed.

I’ve spoken with people from the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and the Simon Wiesenthal Group who “off the cuff” have stated that a lot of larger diamonds of 2 cts. and up were sent by the Nazis to a very well-known African diamond merchant who controls 85% of the diamond market today for recutting. [The stones were] to be sold by them with the funds being sent either to Switzerland or Rio de Janeiro bank vault boxes for storage. This makes one wonder how many diamonds, etc., are in circulation today in finished estate, vintage, and newer pieces of jewelry as well as loose stones. But Jewish-owned jewelry purveyors don’t even know this because there’s no way to ID them anymore as to who the previous true owners were.

Rabbi Feivel Shimon-Gedalia (Ret.)
Chicago